Suriya says Jyotika is a better actor than him, praises her emotional range; says, “She can bring real tears to the scene in one take”
Twenty years into their marriage, Suriya has said he considers his wife Jyotika a stronger actor than himself, pointing to her ability to summon genuine emotion at will. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India in a joint interview for the publication’s August cover, the actor described the two of them as approaching performance very differently, and explained why he holds her method in higher regard.
Different approaches to performance
Suriya said he tends to build a performance gradually across takes. “I might do a lot of layering, first take, second take, and then I add something, implant something,” he said. “A lot of things happen. I go back to my memory, past experiences, and try to use that to be in that mode.”
Jyotika, he explained, works differently. “She can be immediately in that necessary mode,” he said. Although the couple have not appeared in a project together since their marriage, Suriya recalled a moment from the COVID-19 lockdown that illustrated this. “During the pandemic, her brother gave us a page of dialogue for a screen test at home, no crew, just a mobile camera,” he said, adding, “She brought real tears to the scene in one take. I remember thinking, ‘I’m not ready for this.’”
Emoting across languages
Suriya also spoke about the difficulty of accessing genuine emotion while acting in a language that is not one’s mother tongue, admitting it is something he has struggled with during his Hindi film outings. Jyotika, he said, has managed this with ease. “She’s multitasking, talking in another language which is not her mother tongue, and still able to bring true emotions in front of the camera,” he said.
He added that Jyotika’s intensity and real-life sensitivity come through clearly on screen. “You sense it when the actor is in focus and not in focus during a take. For her, I see that intensity. It is very strong. She’s always been a very sensitive person also in real life, so she can be in that mood, and she can totally surrender to that moment,” he said.
Jyotika was most recently seen in System (2026), a streaming series in which she plays a court stenographer on a path of revenge. Suriya’s last release was Karuppu.
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