Recently, we had the chance to talk with Shohreh Aghdashloo about her career, including her wonderful performance as Chrisjen Avasarala on Amazon’s hit TV show The Expanse.
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Horror Geek Life: Can you tell us a bit about your career path leading up to landing the role on The Expanse?
Shohreh Aghdashloo: I was offered the role by the creators of the show, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and we had met a couple of years prior to this at the Palm Springs Film Festival, they said they’d love to work for me. A couple of years later, they called me and told me they had this role for me. They told me about the plot, where it’s going, that it’s taking place a few hundred years from now, and it was going to be a versatile, inclusive show, with a lot of female roles in key positions, I just loved the idea. They told me how this TV series was based on nine novels, written by Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, and I just loved the idea, it really spoke to me. It was the first time in my career that I accepted playing a role without even having read the script. They wanted to know if I would join them; they were very close to signing a contract with NBC, and they wanted to know if they could have my consent. I gave it to them on the phone because of the fact I loved their penmanship, their writing. I’d seen Iron Man, Children of Men, and I was in awe of them. I immediately accepted and I’m ever so grateful and happy that I took this risk.
Even with 24, when they told me that they cannot tell me what’s going to happen to my character, I said I’m so sorry, I’m going to have to pass on this and finally, they called me in and they told me what’s going to happen with my character, and then I accepted the role. However, with this one, knowing the writers and loving the subject matter, I just gave them my consent and to this day I cannot state how happy I am they gave me the opportunity to play this amazing role. Me, this little girl from the Middle East, dreams come true after all, playing a female leader who calls herself a public servant.
HGL: So you got to skip the audition process altogether?
SA: Yes I did, that was part of the package. (Laughs) It was a brief conversation, about ten minutes. They told me what the role was and I fell in love with the idea and gave them my consent right there, and I feel so lucky, really, really lucky. That is just part of many things that made this character, this show, this experience so unique and different from anything I had experienced leading up to this.
HGL: Did you do any research for the role of Chrisjen Avasarala, in terms of government, women in power, things of that nature?
SA: Well, my major is political science and international relations. I studied political science in the UK, forty-two years ago I started, and got my BA in 1984. As of then, like any other political student, I used to call myself a student, the fact that I was coming from a revolution in Iran, made me believe that leaving Iran, there was no place for a young outspoken actress like myself. I have always been involved in politics, trying to learn as much as I can, and the more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know enough. (Laughs) Having that background made me start to explore ideas about this character, way before I even received the script for the first episode.
I started thinking as soon as I hung up with them and the first person that came to my mind was Margaret Thatcher. I am a Margaret Thatcher fan, I was there in the UK, in University, when she was Prime Minister. While I was on campus, I went with all the students to watch her inauguration and I’ll never forget her words, what she began with. She said, “There are rumors that they call me the Iron Lady. I am an Iron Lady. Tighten your belts, we’re going to change Britain for good.” After that, I just kept watching all her interviews, her speeches, I’m really loving Gillian Anderson’s portrayal of her in season four of The Crown. She’s done an amazing job, and I can say that because I’m a Thatcher fan. (Laughs) The second person that came to my mind, when I got to really know myself at fourteen or fifteen, was Indira Gandhi, a woman who had a huge impact in her country, a true influencer, I knew a lot about her life, her work, and then Hillary Clinton as well. I thought of these women as I sat down and started, I call it decoding, which means I thought about Chrisjen and started thinking about what the character was saying, metaphors, innuendoes, and after a few times with it, and reading the first episode, I knew I was on the right track.
HGL: How have things changed for Chrisjen, from where we first met her in season one to where we are now?
SA: First of all, she’s a human being, politicians are not made from a different clay. She keeps aging, she keeps learning, she keeps gaining a better understanding of what she can do. She calls herself a public servant, and when she is asked why she is not holding an office she simply says, “I like getting shit done and keeping my head attached to my neck.” She’s not interested in holding office, becoming famous, or more powerful than she is…she wants to take care of mother Earth, of humanity, to repel the predators who are coming to Earth for either the resources or to take over the power of the planet. This journey has been very interesting to me; I’ve never had a chance to portray a character for so long. Obviously, the continuity of the show helps me to keep the continuity of her character.
HGL: Season five of The Expanse has seen the majority of the characters separated and off dealing with their own personal battles. As an actor, how has it been playing Chrisjen in season five, watching her open up in a much more personal way?
SA: You are absolutely right, in season five, more than ever before, we get to know these characters. They really start to reveal themselves. But if you recall Avasarala’s character in season four, the writers, they are brilliant. They decided to take the camera into her bedroom the night before she wanted to make a decision about whether to get involved with this war, which looked almost inevitable, or if she wanted to pass on it. They brought the camera into her bedroom and we saw her next to her husband, who is having a nice sleep, and she’s awake staring at the ceiling, trying to make a decision. They take her to this closet, where she has to pick the right outfit for this grave meeting. This is, for me, when they really started revealing her character and in the continuity of it, we come to season five and we see everything she has done. All the mistakes she has made, she has learned something.
We understand this when her best friend Delgado (played by Michael Irby) says to her, “You’re not listening, you need to listen,” and she responds with, “Trust me, I’ve learned to listen.” Delgado does not trust her because he’s not quite sure she’s telling the truth but in my opinion, she was telling the truth. She was born into a family of politicians, she comes from a tribe of politicians, and she knows everyone in politics by their names and ranks but still, she personally had not experienced what a war can do to you. Then she loses her son and beloved husband, her family. Now, she has not only gained more education and knowledge, but has gained a lot personally in her life, which is why she is not only aging better but becoming more and more aware that if she calls herself a public servant, she really needs to be a people’s politician.
HGL: Amazon has announced that season six will be the last season for The Expanse. What are your thoughts in terms of the show ending and this journey you’ve been on?
SA: Well, I usually wait for the scripts to read them and see because, to be honest with you, I refuse to read the books, I bought them and started reading them, and then I thought oh no, I don’t want to know what happens. In real life, if they told me I was going to die in six months, obviously all of my behaviors and my daily life would change. Destiny is arriving in six months, so I decided I don’t want to know what happens to her next. Not knowing what is going to happen to her next, where the writers will take her, that’s exciting. As usual, I will do my best to portray her as completely and organically, and sincerely as possible; I truly love this character. Obviously, actors play characters that are closer to their hearts, and this is one of those characters for me. I, personally, am in awe of her, what she is capable of doing and the fact that when she admits she has made a mistake. I wish that all the politicians could do that, admit they made a mistake, but most of the time they don’t. This woman is different and I’m happy I had the opportunity to play her and work with such an amazing cast. We keep saying we are a family, and we truly are a family. It’s been wonderful and a badge of honor for me.
I want to thank Shohreh Aghdashloo for taking the time to talk with us.
Check out all of our coverage for ‘The Expanse’ here!
