Sir Ben Kingsley meets an alien in the new movie Jules, in theaters this weekend. He plays a man leading an unremarkable life in a small town, when an alien ship crashes in his backyard, forcing him out of his daily repetitive routine.
So is there life out there? Kingsley told ABC Audio prior to the actors strike, “Well, look at the odds. I think we’ve hardly begun to nudge the edge of our own galaxy, which is part of a universe that I’m told is ever expanding.”
“What’s on the other side of it? Nothing,” he adds. “But there’s no such thing as nothing.”
At the same time, Kingsley remains skeptical, offering, “If there is other life, why hasn’t it visited us?”
“Or maybe it has and thought nah,” he says with a laugh.
“But of course, I’m very intrigued by it. And on a clear night, you look up at the stars and you see the rim of the Milky Way, the rim of one galaxy of many, many galaxies,” he continues. “Maybe we will survive long enough to know more. I hope so.”
The alien in the film is played by actress Jade Quon, and though she doesn’t speak, Kingsley says he was very impressed with her performance.
“She wore, for hours…very large contact lenses so that one could never actually see her eyes,” he explains. “So she expressed with her eyes through contact lenses as well.”
Jules is one of 10 new and upcoming projects for Kingsley, who turns 80 later this year, and he has no plans to slow down.
“My function on this earth is probably a tribal storyteller. So as long as there’s a tribe, I’ll be a storyteller,” he shares. “…So I do have stories to tell. So I’ll carry on.”
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