Hollywood star Jonathan Legg is the host of a new travel show, Road Less Travelled, which recently brought him to India. He speaks to Priya Singh about his Indian adventure.
Actor Jonathan Legg, of Godzilla: Final Wars fame, recently visited India for his travel show, Road Less Travelled. In the show, Legg explores cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, as well as more exotic locales in the Himalayas among
other places.
Q. Tell us about your show, Road Less Travelled.What led to your interest in the project?
A. I have been travelling my whole life. At an early age, my father moved us to Hong Kong for three years, and Manila in Philippines for four years after that. I really came to consciousness overseas in a foreign land. My father was gone during this time on trips and he would come back with toys from all the destinations he went to. So it gave me real curiosity for other cultures and lands, and then as an adult I travelled a lot on my own. Basically, I wanted a job that would allow me to travel a lot. I started by teaching English in Columbia and then in Italy, and then I discovered an easier way to travel, which was to become a flight attendant. But after 9/11 happened I went to Japan and there I did modelling in commercials and also acted in some projects. My idea then was to travel around Asia, use Japan as my hub, and use my profession to just pay the bills. But I found a real love for acting, which just led to me doing bigger roles. Then a Japanese director suggested that I should move to Los Angeles and jump into the deep end of the pool. So I moved to LA and got in contact with Sashi De, the producer of The Road Less Travelled, and then, when he offered me the show, I thought it would be a great show because I have got a lot of camera exposure and the kind of travel I like to do is to find the nitty-gritty of the destination—that’s where you find the soul of a place. So it was a dream job.
Q. Now that you’ve explored India, what makes it an interesting destination for you?
A. When people ask me, “Which is your favourite country?”or ask my advice on “Which country should I go to?”, I tell them that it depends on what you are looking for. But if your goal is to change your perspective or open up your mind, there is no place like India. There is such a diverse array of beliefs, attitudes and lifestyles here. And there is something about the spirit of the country… There are so many people who are approaching life in a different way and as you meet these people in the country, it makes your perspective less solid. As a kid in Midwest America, I thought that was the only way, the best way to live life. But then you see so many different people, and it makes you realise that your perspective is only one of the many. So you begin to modify your view of life, and India will give you more insight if you are really looking to figure out life and the best approach to it.
Q. What do you love the most about travelling? And do you have any favourite places in India?
A. As I said, what I love most about travelling is the way it changes you. What I also love about travelling is the fact that you meet many people who are different from each other on the surface. But when you approach these people with genuine curiosity and when you approach them with a desire to understand them, and with kindness, what you realise is that they respond to you with kindness. So it is very encouraging and reassuring that no matter where you go in the world, deep down we all want to love and feel loved, and we don’t have to be afraid of each other.
My favourite destinations in India? I love Leh-Ladakh, I had quite an adventure there. I was recently in Goa, I had a good time there too. I also like Rishikesh, I had an enlightening time there. And Sashi De, the executive producer of the show, is from Kolkata. I enjoyed going to his home there; the food there is insane, and the Chinese food in Kolkata is the best Chinese food in the world.
Q. Tell us about your best and worst moments from the time you spent working on the show.
A. My favourite moments have to do with how the stories just come together. Sometimes we arrive in a destination and everything we had thought we will film falls apart but it comes together at the last minute. It feels as if the story comes to us. It is a great feeling when it all just comes together and the story takes the life of its own. The worst moments are the times when it becomes frustrating, like when you want to shoot something, for example a temple, but you can’t get into it. But you just roll with those things, that’s travel. And one thing that distinguishes our show from other shows is that we don’t really fix a lot of things. What you see is the genuine experience.
Q. Were there any challenges that you came across while exploring India?
A. We have had a few challenges. For example, when we were in Leh-Ladakh, I was riding a Royal Enfield Machismo and I lost my front brakes at some point when we were high up there, but luckily, in the village we found a guy who fixed it. Thereafter, our whole crew got terribly sick with altitude and I know there are two kinds of altitude sickness—I might be wrong—but there is one where you get flu and there is another one that will just kill you. So I thought that I need to take these guys to a lower altitude fast. I was on a bike and the entire crew was in an SUV. I talked to the driver of the SUV and told him that let us just continue driving to a lower altitude, where these people don’t experience any symptoms. I rode for 17 hours that day on the Royal Enfield, until we got down to the valley of Leh-Ladakh and the crew got better.
We had another scary episode during that trip. We were going to film in a temple in Srinagar and there was a group of guys who were very upset with the idea of us filming. Honestly, at one point we thought that they were going to lynch us and our taxi driver jumped in between us and he tried to calm them down. He then looked at me and said, “Get in the taxi”, and we jumped in the taxi real quick and he drove off but it was a scary experience. And otherwise, India is not like Germany where what you see is what you get. India is full of mystery and surprises, twists and turns. But all that is the part of the country’s charm and that’s what I love about India.
Q. How difficult is it to be a travel show host?
A. It is a great job but it is not like I am on a constant vacation. There is a lot of pressure to create a good story in a small amount of time. If I am going to any place, I want to do justice to that place and give an honest portrayal of whatever I am showing. I don’t want to gloss it over or candy-coat it and I don’t want to miss the charm either. So I feel a little pressure to put forward the best story possible. I want to convey a message, some food for thought for the audience.
Q. Godzilla: Final Warswas a huge success and it got you a lot of recognition worldwide. Do you miss doing films?
A. Yes, I miss doing films. There is something nice about acting where you get into the head of another person and you become that person. There is something very transformative about it. I miss that. However, I did get to do a little bit of acting in our Mumbai episode.
‘Road Less Travelled’ airs on EPIC Channel every Monday at 10:30 p.m.