How Dev Patel Became Sir Gawain for ‘The Green Knight’ | Rotten Tomatoes

For ‘The Green Knight,’ acclaimed filmmaker David Lowery’s unique take on Arthurian legend, Dev Patel inhabits one of the most fascinating and complex of Camelot’s heroes, Sir Gawain, title star of an epic poem whose author remains unknown to this day. In the film, as in the poem, the young and brash nephew to the king is in search of a heroic tale all his own, and so it is that when a mysterious and supernatural Green Knight disrupts the royal Christmas festivities with a terrifying challenge, Gawain steps up, sword in hand, ready to create his own legend. In this exclusive extended interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Patel reveals how the steps he took to prepare for the role of Gawain in Lowery’s morally thorny and visually groundbreaking film, from collaborating with the director to refine the character on the page to learning to ride a horse for the first time (with the help of some apples from the hotel). Plus, he ponders how the quest for greatness can sometimes clash with the desire to remain good.