Ken Watanabe & Dileep Rao on red carpet for the premiere of Inception

The most anticipated film of the summer had its big Hollywood premiere at Mann's Chinese Theatre on Tuesday, and fans carrying both English and Japanese-language signs stood patiently behind barricades, waiting (some since 6am) to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors. Photographers crowded each other for shots of Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. Security guards positioned themselves on either side of Leonardo DiCaprio as he walked along the street to greet his fans and sign autographs. One of the earlier stars to arrive, Ken Watanabe gamely waved at the fans, inciting cheers as he walked down with his wife Kaho Minami. But the most diligent man on the black-and-red carpet was indeed Dileep Rao, who took his time getting to the entrance of the theater, graciously speaking to each and every member of the press that requested an interview.

Dileep Rao and Ken Watanabe are part of the star-studded cast that includes DiCaprio, Cotillard, Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, and Lukas Haas. Directed by Christopher Nolan, Inception follows Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who specializes in extraction, or "subconscious security," stealing people's secrets and ideas from within their dreams while they sleep. This is called "inception," and the film is described as a sci-fi action thriller that leads viewers into the layers of dreams within dreams within dreams. Watanabe plays Saito, a rich and powerful Japanese businessman who makes Cobb an offer that he can't refuse.

Rao plays Yusuf, a pharmacologist who helped create the cutting-edge drugs that allows multiple people to share multiple dream states. This pharmacologist, however, doesn't stay in the lab. In the course of the film, Yusuf gets involved in some action-packed stunts.

"I got to do some really cool stuff with weapons and vehicles and pyrotechnics and underwater driving, the whole gamut," Rao says. "And I have to carry Ken Watanabe around when he's injured. It's great."

As a film actor, Rao is on a roll. Though scarce, his filmography already includes roles in the box-office hits Drag Me to Hell and Avatar

"This movie [Inception] has a lot of Asians and Asian Americans in it," says Rao. "[It's] made by a young director whose ideas about race are more modern...so you're not playing stereotypes, you're not playing characters who are stock. We all have a lot of fun things to do."

Inception has remained shrouded in mystery, even as the July 16 release date draws close. For the past year, Inception's publicity team has been slowly unveiling trailers, TV spots, and new clips. Tech-savvy viewers started reporting seeing posters with QR (quick response) codes next to the words "Protect Your Thoughts" and "Thought Theft Is Real" on the streets. Additional posters that supposedly revealed the characters' roles were later leaked, only to give audiences more ambiguous labels that kept them in the dark: "The Architect," "The Extractor," "The Forger," "The Shade," "The Point Man" and "The Tourist."

After Ken Watanabe did some television press in Japan in May, new press stills and a Japanese-language trailer that featured more information about Saito's character were released. Due to the power of the internet, these new disclosures, in addition to hyping up Japanese audiences, left American fans hypothesizing about Saito's relationship with other characters, mourning their inability to understand Japanese, and calling out for help from fellow online commentators who might be able to help decipher Ken Watanabe's added lines.

But one thing we know for sure is that audiences are in for some elaborate, gravity-defying stunts in many beautiful locales around the globe. The dream world of Inception "demanded a very large-scale approach," according to Nolan, who preferred his crew to shoot on location (in Morocco, Canada, Japan, France, and England) and build their own sets (whether it was a 17th century Japanese-style castle with golden-patterned walls for Watanabe's character or a corridor that spun like a hamster-wheel for Joseph Gordon-Levitt to run through), instead of relying on computer effects.

So Nolan sent Watanabe, DiCaprio, and Hardy on an intense ski chase scene down a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm in Calgary; his team created an explosion around a cafe in Paris; and they staged a foot-chase along the narrow alleyways of Tangier's historic Grand Souk. But it all began in Japan, with the Ark Mori skyscraper and a helicopter overlooking the Tokyo skyline.

"Tokyo was awesome, and we also filmed in Kyoto, which I also loved," said Lukas Haas, who plays an architect named Nash who travels alongside Cobb to meet with Saito. "We filmed on top of this huge skyscraper, and it was beautiful. It was a great way to start the movie."

On the red carpet of the Los Angeles premiere, Watanabe explained that this is their third promotional stop, having already visited London and Paris.

"We got a great reaction, a strong reaction," says Watanabe. "Chris [Nolan] was saying that, so far, he hasn't made a movie that's had this much of an air of excitement about it."

"[The film audience in] Japan is anticipating the fire," Watanabe adds. "[They are] waiting for it, so I'm going to fire them up."

Inception opens in the US, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore on Friday, July 16. It opens in Hong Kong on July 29. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnR7IU7x3K8