Published: July 05, 2019| 08:00 AM

Learning to Drive, screening at KVIFF, is a story of a successful New York literary critic, played by Patricia Clarkson, whose family is falling apart - and the unexpected bond she forms with a Sikh cabbie and driving instructor played by Ben Kingsley.

Learning to Drive is close to your heart, I understand. Why is that?

It’s a powerful story about a woman who had everything and lost it. A woman who was at the top of the game as a writer, had a husband and a beautiful daughter but she forgot to look up from the screen, the pages and take in her life. This woman finds an inner peace through driving through a very crowded city. This exquisite man helps her find her soul again and helps her realise the power that she lost and the power she always had.

And working with Ben Kingsley, with whom you acted in Elegy, must be a trip.

I played his lover in that. The first time I acted with him I was nude [laughing]. But who better to play this beautiful character? The whole Sikh community turned out often on the set when we were shooting. There was a lot of love surrounding this film.

You can read the whole interview in today's Festival Daily.