Actress Reese Witherspoon is playing the lead role in Vanity Fair.
“She’s a sparkler, she’s so engaged in the movie,” Nair says of Witherspoon.
She laughs when asked about a Harvard graduate directing the actress who played Elle Woods in Legally Blonde.
“It’s hilarious, actually, because Elle Woods is really what we’re doing with Vanity Fair. It could be fluff, but Reese sparkles.”
For Nair, yoga sessions and gardening counteract long days in the studio.
Nair’s two-acre home in Kampala, Uganda is dotted with trees she’s planted. She speaks excitedly about her green thumb, discussing her newly-sowed mango grove and the 61 trees she put in last summer.
“Gardening engages me in the rhythm of life directly,” she says. “It teaches patience, rhythm, humility. We can’t control everything. Nature is so many things.”
She says she hopes one day she’ll have grandchildren to appreciate her planting efforts. Nair’s mother always wanted a baby girl, while her father fretted about the expense of raising a daughter in India. Nair’s son is now a pre-schooler in New York City, where Nair teaches film at Columbia University. Her family divides its time between Kampala, New York City and New Delhi.
When she’s not en route to a film shoot or tending her garden, Nair runs Salaam Bank Trust, a organization she founded to help street children. The trust began with the proceeds from Salaam Bombay!, and has expanded from three centers to 17, aiding more than 5,000 children.
A master of both filmmaking and the sirshana headstand, Nair says she finds peace in both the chaos of a movie set and the deep relaxation of yoga.
“I’ve settled my rhythms,” she says. “I’ve finally after some years managed to find complete repose.”
—Mira Nair’s work will screen at the Harvard Film Archive in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on Friday and Sunday. Nair will also discuss her work in a talk moderated by actor John Lithgow ’67 at Sanders Theatre on Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and available through the Harvard Box Office.
—Staff writer Kristi L. Jobson can be reached at jobson@fas.harvard.edu.