She said, "I think it's going to be
really great out there for you because of 9/11." [ Gasps ]
Yeah. ♪♪ Welcome to
"Famous Cast Words." I'm Lynne Marie Rosenberg. I am here today at the home
of actor and activist Tala Ashe. You might know Tala from the DC Comics television
show "Legends of Tomorrow," or from the recent Atlantic Theater Company
production of "English." You might not know Tala
from the 2007 safe sex PSA for MTV. Real high point. Real high point
in a career. Thank you
for joining m
e today. So happy to have you here. We're so happy to be in your
gorgeous, gorgeous home. There's much to get into,
but I do want to hear about this PSA for MTV
that you shot many years ago. I'm sorry to say the audition process
was multiple people making out with each other
in a room with the "casting director"
and the client. Yeah, yeah. It was, uh,
needless to say, nonunion. But it was a job.
Oh, yeah. And in those early days,
I needed a job. You just recently finished
doing many years of one
show, one very special show,
"Legends of Tomorrow." I wonder, for anyone
who maybe hasn't seen it, if you could just tell us
the sort of basic premise of who you played
and what the show was? Yeah, we were these,
like, D-list superheroes that were like, you know,
trying to do good in the world. And my character was originally
from the future and joined this group
and was, you know, very sardonic
and unhappy about it and then integrated
into the team and then --
follow me here -- we changed to t
he future,
which was where I was from. So my, like,
whole being changed and I came back as
a different version of myself, as though I had lived
a different future. Like you do.
That's so confusing. No.
There's no good way
to explain it. Well, that's
why I was like, I'm gonna put this on you
and see what happens. And it was time-traveling. I forgot
the most important part. We time-traveled.
We time-traveled. So we got to go
into different costumes. It was really a pretty
wonderful, wonderful time
. Marc Guggenheim, who was one
of the creators of the show, part of the reason
he created the character that you played, Zari, is that he had
a Muslim-American family member. Yeah, I believe
it was a sister-in-law. Who had mentioned, like, "There's just no representation
in my life." Yeah, and this was, um --
this was 2017. So this was during
the Trump presidency and during the Muslim ban. So it was, um, a really,
uh, timely moment to introduce a character
like this. So it was really special
in
terms of that. I'd never experienced anything
like that. There's a word
I've heard you use, uh, many times when talking
about representation. And I think, uh, Zari, your character,
really gets at it, which is "nuance." I wonder
if you could talk a bit about how important nuance is
in representation. Speaking to my community, which is the Middle Eastern,
North African, South Asian sometimes -- we call it
MENA or MENASA community -- We're sort of, um -- I wouldn't
say we're at our infancy, but we'
re at
an earlier stage in terms of, like,
American representation. I would say, you know,
40, 50 years ago, you just didn't
even see anything from the Middle Eastern
community. After 9/11,
as we all know, there were
a lot of depictions of, um, you know, terrorists and terrorist-adjacent people
on television. I remember, um,
I was graduating college and a teacher said to me --
and I want to say I think it was, like,
very well-meaning, but there was this class
right before we graduated where she w
as
sort of like, "I think you might,
in the real world, you would be cast as like this,
this, and this." And when it got to me --
and I should say I was the -- I believe I was the only
person of color in my class, which is, you know,
not that long ago. Not that long ago,
yeah. She said, "I think it's going
to be really great out there for you because of 9/11." [ Gasps ]
Yeah. Which I've actually thought
about a lot, you know,
in the subsequent years because -- again,
I think she was coming -- It
was totally coming
from a... You're being
very kind. ...good but, like,
uninformed place, you know? But the reality when I went
into the world was like, sure, there was
some representation of Middle Eastern characters,
but really problematic. And even like early
in my career, I did a soap opera
where I played an Iraqi refugee. And I still -- I mean, I try
to be kind to myself about it because I was very young
and, you know, took a job thinking,
with my best intentions, that I would be able
to i
nfluence what the journey of that
character was. Very quickly found that
they were not interested in, you know, my thoughts
or feelings about it. And there were
so many stereotypes, so many
problematic things, um, that what was excellent
about it was that I sort of vowed
from then on. I was like, "Never again.
Yeah. Like,
it's not worth it. Even though I got
the experience, it just was
so soul crushing, uh, that, um,
in some ways it shaped, like, all my decision making
going forward, which I thi
nk, when you're, uh,
a minority artist, sometimes your greatest
power is in saying no. And I've said no a lot, and I've had to say no.
Yeah. Because there have been
so many problematic things. It's changing. Yeah.
We have a long way to go. But, you know, we're seeing
less terrorist things. And now I think, to answer --
long-winded way to get to your,
uh, question about nuance -- I feel like sort of
in that spectrum, in that journey
of representation, like, first it's something
really, really pro
blematic and then it's like,
"Well, let's just make them all, like, good."
Yeah. "They're all just --
let's just like..." You know? Hardworking. Hardworking, like,
sort of meek. I feel like we're still
actually in that moment where it's improved, but I'm still seeing a lot
of sort of, um, victim porn, you know, about these parts
of the world where we're like, "We feel really bad for them
and they have, like, really bad things
happening to them." And what does that lack?
Nuance. These are human b
eings.
They are living their lives. They are much more like
you and I and, you know, us. And in nuance
you get universality, you get humanity. I don't know
why we're doing art if we're not trying
to get to that. Come here, little man. Don't take it
and go away. [ Laughs ] I like
the back and forth. She's like, "I don't
understand," like... You got salmon
on your face, dude. Best segment
we've ever shot. I want to talk a bit about
how representation functions in "Legends of Tomorrow"
in a really
sort of fun way, in that you cross genres,
you go through time, you are seen
in many different time periods. I wonder
if you thought at all about the way
representation functions, just by getting to be
a nuanced human who appears
in many different places, many different costumes,
many different sets. Yeah, I have, um, a friend
who is a dramaturg who always talks about
the actor body and, like,
what that story tells. And I think she's sometimes
talking about it in terms
of, like, double casting.
Like, you know, in "King Lear,"
if you have, like, Cordelia and the fool
in the same actor body, you're telling a story.
Right. And I think
in the same way, in "Legends,"
like, to see my body in, let's say, Elizabethan clothes
isn't -- is interesting. It's like these are
the things that, you know, if you're in,
just to generalize, in the middle
of the country, like, maybe you've never seen
a Middle Eastern person, but you certainly
haven't seen one wearing something that is familiar to you.
That
's right. And there's something
a little revolutionary in that. I think so too.
Yeah. And then sometimes you can
actually make interesting commentary
because we're going through time and you have, you know,
the hindsight of history. Like, for instance,
at some point my character went back
to the Salem witch trials. That's right. And so
there were parallels between that persecution,
so you see -- again, I think what was
really special about "Legends" is that it gave you a different
perspective th
rough casting, through the characters,
and through the lens of history. Now we're going to look
at some breakdowns. As a reminder, breakdowns are
little bits of text used to help agents
and actors figure out if they are right
for a character. Tala, where you are
Iranian American, I thought we would look
at breakdowns that come up when you search specifically
the word "Iranian." Now, to preface this,
I have to say, the results that came up
from a search just of the last five years are not necessa
rily offensive per se.
Okay. But I think
you will agree they are problematically
one-noted. Let's say non-nuanced. That's the theme.
That's the theme. Perhaps not surprisingly, a huge percentage
of breakdowns are concerned with your accent
and language abilities, with a varying degree
of excellence. Here we go.
[ Clears throat ] All right. Seeking an actor
fluent in Farsi. Seeking a native
Farsi speaker. Speaks perfect Farsi. "Perfect." Let me tell you
what's wrong with this. [ Laughter ] Straig
ht out of the gate.
Let me just start here. It's the Persian language. Mm-hmm.
Okay? So it would be like --
this would be akin to saying, like, "Seeking
an actor fluent in Espanol." [ Laughs ] That's what you're saying.
Right. Like, Farsi is what you say
when you're speaking Persian. Right.
But this is wrong. Like, if we're
gonna be technical...
That's right. ...this is wrong,
and to me says you probably don't know
what you're asking for. Good.
We're off to a great start.
Yeah. Though some proje
cts don't feel quite so beholden
to authenticity. Looking for actors
who can portray Iranian-born and
Iranian-American characters. Actors can come from
anywhere in the world. [ Laughter ]
J.K.! Anywhere! There is one word that comes up
more often than any other. Oh, yeah,
do you want to guess? It's not bad necessarily.
It's just one-note. "Exotic." That I would say is bad. [ Laughter ]
Oh. She's a traditional
Iranian mother. Wears traditional clothes,
a traditional elderly woman. A deeply tradit
ional
Persian father. The ideal child in her traditional
Iranian father's eyes. [ Sighs ] The number of times
that word... [ Laughs ] I mean...
Are you feeling feelings? That, to me,
is a dog whistle. Yeah. Like, that, to me,
is saying, like, really religious,
really Muslim. If I had to put
a religion on it. Right. Conservative, like,
closed-minded. Like, this, to me,
is about, like, reinforcing tropes
of, like, immigrant -- immigrant people. Uh, immigrant parents. I'm seeing
a lot of parents he
re. Trying to show the, like,
culture gap between... Yeah.
Problematic. Yeah, I mean,
I think the word "traditional" is the negative-space
dog whistle of "nonassimilated." Right?
Yes. Yes. And doesn't get
these zany American ways. [ Laughs ]
That's right. No, thank you.
"Traditional." Anyone looking for work
as an Iranian man should prepare themselves for
a certain emotional skill set. A cold-hearted
Iranian businessman. A cruel and
philandering husband. Cruel, stoic, and stern with an expressio
n
that demands authority. Firm and authoritative,
his demeanor is stoic and,
at times, dictatorial. Yeah, toss that "dictatorial"
in there. You want to talk about
a dog whistle? They're like,
"So you're Saddam Hussein." [ Laughter ] "Picture it." Like, "Picture a father." [ Laughs ]
That's right. "Um, just sprinkle
some stoic in there." But ultimately there is
a great dearth of Iranian roles. Even expanding to the words
"Middle Eastern," in the last five years
in the New York market, the search
returns
approximately 470 results, compared with 1,075
for the word "Caucasian." When you enter
"Iranian" specifically, you come back with about 30...
Oh, boy. ...three of which
were from the play you were just in
in 2022. 10%. So to make up
for your lack of nuanced and varied representation
as Iranian, I thought we'd close out with
just a few of the things any woman,
Iranian or otherwise, gets to enjoy reading
in the business. Oh, boy. Deep breath.
[ Clears throat ] Bonnie. Early 30s.
Really, r
eally beautiful. Bonnie spit two kids out
and didn't break a sweat. I'm so offended
for Bonnie. But I think Bonnie
would disagree. She's spitting kids out. I don't know
what you have to worry about. That's just
a male fantasy. All right, number two. "[LADY]" --
She doesn't got a name. But she's a main character. Lady. Main character.
Female mid 20s to early 30s. "Very funny,
but not funny looking," Lynne. Mnh-mnh.
No, we don't... We're not in the business
of funny-looking. And, oh, boy,
finally,
Jeff's girlfriend. What's her name?
We'll never know. She gets an apostrophe.
She doesn't need a name. She's -- She's, "Female,
any ethnicity." Any. And she's in her 20s. This has no lines. Of course -- Of course Jeff's
girlfriend doesn't have lines. Jeff's girlfriend
doesn't have a name. Yeah.
Poor gal. What we really like to do
with this show is ruin people's days. [ Laughter ] Are you a star?
Do you want to be on television? [ Laughing ] Yeah!
♪♪ Are you an athlete? [ Laughs ]
Is that the bo
om? Oh, no, no, no.
[ Laughs ] You did a play recently at the Atlantic Theater Company
called "English." I wonder if you could tell us
a little bit about that play. "English" is about,
uh, a TOEFL class. TOEFL is the test
you have to take in order to --
It's an English test. So if you are outside
of America and you want
to come to any university in an English-speaking -- I should say
English-speaking country, you have to pass
the TOEFL in order to prove
you can speak English. So that was
the pre
mise for the play. They're just students
in this class. There's a teacher, um,
and these four students. And the way the play functions,
which I think is -- I've never seen prior to this --
when we're speaking English, we have --
we're speaking accented English, so as though an Iranian
is speaking English. [ Persian accent ] So they are
trying to speak, uh, English. Right? [ Normal voice ]
So it's hard, right? But then when I'm speaking
Persian in the play, I'm speaking like this. So what it what
it did really,
uh, ingeniously, I thought, is that it took away
that distance, I think, that can sometimes
happen with subtitles or with accents,
actually, on stage, where, you know, the audience
kind of feels like, "Oh," again, like,
"look at those people, those poor people." Like, you don't
feel a part of it. But when I'm talking
like this, again, it kind of like
glitches your brain where you're like,
"Oh, wait, they're -- oh, she's actually
speaking her mother tongue. I'm hearing it as Engli
sh,
but it's actually Persian." Right. And what was so cool
about it is that I -- in sort of the "Sliding Doors"
version of my life -- I thought so much about,
"Oh, wow. If I hadn't left Iran
as a nine-month-old and I'd stayed in Iran, like,
this could be me." Right.
"This could actually be me." So I was, like,
sort of inhabiting... It was a trippy,
like, very emotional, profound experience
to step into that version of myself,
kind of not unlike Zari. I was just gonna say, there's a real time-tr
avel
aspect to that as well. If you're given circumstances
that are different, like, who are you? And of course
I thought about my parents and, like, asked them
a lot of questions about, like, their journey
of learning English and how difficult of a language
actually English is. Yeah. And that feeling of, like, not being able
to express yourself fully. Like, I actually feel this
when I try to speak Persian now. Like, I don't --
I don't have the vocabulary, I don't have the --
I understand, I can
get by, but I don't have, like,
a true fluency of, like, articulating my deepest thoughts
and my, like, soul, and language and soul
I think are so interconnected. And my character in English
was saying, like, "I don't like English.
I can't -- I'm not me in English." And I think
the play just had such an interesting meditation
on our relationship, our body's relationship
to language. I thought it was
just a brilliant play. I... It was so meaningful
to be part of it. We're gonna take
a little bre
ak now. We're going to explore
your special skills. Oh, brace yourself. Yeah.
[ Laughs ] ♪♪ So at the bottom
of every actor's résumé, there is a section
called "special skills." And that is all of an actor's
sort of talents and different abilities. So today
for our special skills, what are you going
to show me, Tala? Well, I just want to say sometimes in
the "special skills" section, one does tend
to exaggerate. [ Laughs ] Are you are you saying
that what's about to happen is not going to be...
I just want to -- it feels
important to preface by saying that I'm not
an expert in plants, which is what
we're gonna do. We're gonna, um, take some
propagated plants. Just keep talking. I just
want to slip my hand into this. We're going to plant
those propagated, uh, cuttings, which I got from my father,
who's quite a green thumb. We are going to get
our propagated plants right over here. Follow me, Lynne. You can see like, um,
this one has -- has some nice roots. Very nice roots. This probably
should have gone in soil weeks ago,
but it's going today. So if you can just put that
on a little towel there. And I'm gonna add these. I'm gonna plant these little
guys with some nice roots. This is
very Nature Channel. They're a little creepy, right?
It's not just me. Well, you know...
[ Laughs ] You get this little...
Beautiful. Thank you. If you want to just put
a little bit of soil. Okay.
I'm just gonna help you first. It's my little guy.
A bit more. Oka-- okay.
[ Laughs ] Give me a minute
.
Give me a second. Micromanaging my soil implantation.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Let you -- okay, stop! [ Laughs ] All right,
now, if you want, either with your finger
or with the spoon, we need a little... I got to go... A little indentation. Should I look at you
deep in the eyes while I do this? Too far, Lynne.
Too far. And then... Just sort of --
sort of smush it in there. Smush it in.
Technical term. This is very technical. Oh, I planted a thing. Oh, my gosh.
Okay. So now we want to just
give it
a little bit of support. And so we'll add now... You're pretty and your emotions matter.
Do you want help? And, uh... That's good.
That helps. I want to check in
on you occasionally. That's the kind of support
I need, so this is, uh... Hey, dude.
Hi, guy. Going with the big guns here.
Oh, yeah. You're a professional.
You get to use the trowel. I think you need
a little bit more. You do? You know what?
[ Laughs ] You're right. Which one are you
leaning towards? I think I'm gonna do this
v
ery intense one. You want the one
that you said should have
been planted already. Yeah, this one's -- look, it's like
that shouldn't be there. This means
it's just growing in the water. And that's a bad thing? Oh, you're doing great. Like,
just a gentle patting. I felt like you
just instinctually did the patting in. I do have plants in my house.
They are made of Legos. Mm.
[ Laughs ] They are. They're succulents
made of Legos. Well, here's the thing
about having plants, too. It's a real reminder
that sometimes things fail and you just have to
pick yourself up and move on. I'm gonna be honest...
It's lovely. It looks great. So now we're gonna
give them a little bit of H2O. Yes!
Just a little pour. This is a lot.
I know, I know. But you got to spray
your plants. So am I going in
on a spray or a pour right now? You're going in
on a gentle pour. Gentle pour. This is where... Oh, God. This is where
it could all go wrong. That's great.
Is it? It's kind of like
my French press. Only no coffee
will come out.
Exactly. It's less delicious.
[ Laughs ] And then we're gonna do
a little bit of plant food because thoughts and prayers
are not enough. There is something about,
like, the watering a thing, the caring for a thing outside
of yourself that does feel... It's simple, but I find it
to be a calming activity. Yeah.
So you can't rush nature. Right.
It's going to do what it's going to do. So I find that
quite a good metaphor. Yeah, I like that. For when things seem hard,
inevitably. Like
the many years of living
on this planet. Yeah.
And we'll just... Look at
our cute plants. You know, introduce them
to their little friends here. We're decorating now. Wow, Lynne.
Nailed it. Did I? Okay.
Yeah. Lovely. I was worried
maybe it wasn't right. Oh, look at that. That's it.
That's "Special Skills." ♪♪ In "Legends," the Legends have
sort of screwed up time, right? And they're going back and
they're fixing their mistakes. And then Zari, your character,
comes in and says, "What if we could
actually
make the future better?" And I was thinking about that
in terms of the advocacy and activism I've been
watching you do on social media in terms of using
your celebrity, using your reach
to bring awareness to what is happening
in Iran right now. And I wonder if you've thought
at all about connections between playing
this activist and now sort of stepping
into this activist role. That's was a really
good question. That's actually
really perceptive. I hadn't, I mean,
in a conscious way. U
m, but, you know, I think we sort of, every time
we play a character, we, like, take a little bit
of that with us, whether we want to or not. Absolutely.
For better or worse. But for better in this case.
Um, I care chronically. Yeah. What a lovely
way of putting that. Yeah, I sometimes wish I didn't care so much.
Understood. But I do care
very, very much about everything and anything
that I'm sort of involved in and that I think
I might be able to have, like, a little bit of impact towards,
like
, improving. You know,
I was born in Iran, but my parents
really are Iranian. You know, like, they lived
20 some years, almost 30 years of their lives
in Iran. The reality is that,
as their child, I hold that for them
in a different way, obviously,
than they are. But I think I perceived it
as a burden for a long time, and now I see it
as a responsibility and something that I need
to step up to and meet. And I think,
in my, like, fantasy mind, I of course want to sort of
write the future, you kno
w, and what's been happening
in Iran for the last 43 years, but even prior to that,
you know, has been a really, um, complex
and difficult history where people have suffered
at the hands of governments, first under the Shah and now under
the Islamic Republic of Iran. And my ancestors, like, have --
have experienced that, and I experience it -- you know, it's in my body
somehow, it's in my blood. So the least I can do
is advocate for them and try to
spread their message and to keep their stories
in the public eye as best I can. But, yeah, it's a really
emotional and tricky, tricky thing that I'm always
trying to think about how I can be more helpful with,
you know? Yeah.
♪♪ Thank you so much
for joining me today. Gosh, what a delight.
This has been so fun in this absolutely beautiful
snowy wonderland we find ourselves in. I called this in for you. Really appreciate it. Thank you for watching. Take care of each other,
and be professional. ♪♪
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
Comments
Always good seeing interviews with Tala. Looking forward to watching The Girls on the Bus 👌🏾