He isn’t as known as the Indians who made a name for themselves in Hollywood – Sabu Dastagir, the Amritraj brothers, Irrfan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas. But Noel De Souza was around before most of them, both as a journalist and a small-time actor in shows, films and commercials.

De Souza was India’s point man in Hollywood for years for Times of India, Mid-Day, Cine Blitz, iDiva and Open. Before journalism, De Souza pursued acting at a time when Hollywood heavily exoticised India and cast white actors in Indian roles.

The centenarian, who recently wrote a novel, stopped reporting around 2019. Speaking of his early days in Hollywood, the Los Angeles resident said, “There weren’t any other Indian journalists around, at least none that I was aware of.”

He’s interviewed Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Hugh Grant, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Christopher Nolan and Julia Roberts. He spoke to Leonardo DiCaprio in 1996, when DiCaprio was 22 years old and on the cusp of global stardom with Titanic.

“I always tried to get in a bit of their [the stars’] personal lives,” De Souza recalled. “The studio would want you to plug the film, which I thought was very dull. I myself would not read that kind of interview. So I would go into their...

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