The world got to know Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire, and now Young Hollywood is catching up with her one-on-one, right here in New York City. Freida, how's the city treating you?

The city's treating me really well. Uh the weather is not as warm as I thought it was going to be and it's cold in this movie theater. It's a little chilly, a little rainy outside. Mhm. But I love New York and whatever the weather is, I'm always going to visit.

Let's start with the hard-hitting questions. When you moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, you didn't have a driver's license. Have you learned how to drive?

No.

And how are you getting around LA?

Uber. It's Uber. No, I think Uber has definitely changed the face of LA and how you travel in LA, but I just love the comfort of being a princess sitting in an Uber.

I'll tell you a little secret. I don't have a license either.

There you go. It's just so much more comfortable to just sit and not do it and safer for other people as well.

LA is thanking you right now.

Yes, exactly.

Take me back to the moment that Slumdog Millionaire was released. What was it like being catapulted onto the international stage?

It's a great feeling and this is this immense feeling of gratitude that the forces that made it actually happen. You feel so very grateful for those people who came together and actually made it happen for you. And a lot of it goes back to parents and teachers and family members and friends who supported you through all of it. Um, it was a great moment.

How have you been choosing roles since then?

Very, very carefully. It's uh very easy to get stereotyped and boxed in a category that you'll find very hard to break out of. And especially if you are the kind of person who seeks longevity in your career, then you've got to be very careful with the choices. And being careful sometimes is also allowing yourself to feel the rejection, deal with it and go, well, this is how the industry is. It is um competitive. I'm not always going to get to play the parts that I want to play, but whatever I deserve will come my way.

What kind of dance training did you have to go through to prepare for Desert Dancer?

Hardcore dance training. I remember the first day I was in the studio with the first day ever and the choreographer goes, okay, so we're going to do this and we're going to do this movement. I'm like, I just want to dance. I didn't realize how to do exercises in order to be able to dance. And she goes, yeah, we're going to have to break you down. We're going to have to uh build your stamina and endurance in order for you to get to a place where you can actually dance. You can't just walk in there saying I want to dance without um knowing your limits and uh pushing them. You can spend your whole life trying to perfect your technique, but you only make a difference when you find your own secret language. That's when you start communicating, connecting. Dance can be anything. Just waving goodbye or kneeling down to pray. Or raising your fist in the air because you believe in something. You taught me that.

How much training are we talking about?

Started with four hours a day, then we graduated to six and the last six months uh when you reached London was eight hours a day. Eight hours a day of dancing. Mhm.

I understand you got a few battle wounds along the way.

A lot of them. In fact, I have my makeup artist has have to make him cover scars on my legs because they just they just like very um well, loads of blisters and I don't heal very easily. So they've stayed.

That is dedication to your craft.

I'm very proud of them. This is film that I just did on Ipros when I was doing the ADRs, I looked at my knee and I saw all the bruises from Desert Dancer. And this is like two years later, yeah. And I'm seeing all these, you know, well, lightened bruises from Desert Dancer and I go, wow, I am so proud of it and I'm so glad that the director of this other film that I did did not want it to be covered or Photoshopped in any which way.

Were you a good dancer before the film?

I don't know. There's a very interesting story. After training for about six months, Akram Khan, who is the choreographer of this film, asked us to show us what we had learned and do this audition piece. And we do it, we get done with it. And then he is this one person who's so hard to impress and it's so daunting. So he sits there, he looks at what I've just done and he is trying to find the right words to say and I go in my head, I'm going, he is not impressed. He is so not impressed. And then he goes, You are what I call now a bad dancer. And that's a compliment. And it was a compliment because before that we were not dancers and now we're bad dancers and now we had to graduate to becoming dancers and then good dancers.

So what is he categorizing you as now?

I think he's happy. I think he thinks we did a good job. And that's the other thing, you know, it's like unlike that constant praise. Go, great job. You don't get that from Akram Khan and I actually don't like it either. You're happy, you're satisfied and you don't want to push yourself further. But with someone like that, you go, I will give it my all and I will keep pushing myself further and as long as it's not like the character from Whiplash. As long as it's not like that because that would really scare me.

You always look so great on the red carpet. How do you choose what you're going to wear?

I don't know. I just it depends on the weather, it depends on the country I'm going to, the city and I just try to pick things that I'm going to be comfortable in. Especially when it's a red carpet, you're going to have high heels on and this dress that you don't want it to be so uncomfortable that you just look awkward in it. So I try to go for comfort. I try my best.

Well, you look great and congratulations, Freida.