Priya Kansara (centre) with Ryan Gosling (top left) and the rest of the crew from ‘Project Hail Mary’

British actor of Indian descent Priya Kansara broke out with Nida Manzoor’s much-loved Polite Society (2023) before appearing in Bridgerton 2 (2022). Recently, she stepped into the big-ticket Hollywood film with Project Hail Mary, voicing Mary, the vessel’s onboard AI in the Ryan Gosling-starrer. For Kansara, the decision wasn’t driven by scale alone.

“I didn’t know about it when I got the call,” she admits. “My agent asked, ‘How do you feel about Ryan Gosling?’ I felt this is an interesting call.” The setup was unusual — she performed her voice live on set. “Directors Phil [Lord] and Christopher [Miller] wanted me to come to set and lend my voice live for Ryan so that he had somebody to play against. For me, it was a masterclass, an opportunity to learn from people I’ve long admired.”

Gosling didn’t know she was on set. They recorded scenes in multiple languages before introducing herself. “We did the scene in several languages for fun. After the shot, I said Hi and he was like, ‘You speak so many languages.’ And I told him that I just wrote them down. He said, ‘It’s so nice to have a cast member, it’s nice to not be alone.’ That was sweet.”

Moving from period drama, action-comedy to voice her work reflects a clear refusal to be boxed in. But Kansara believes “learning and growing” will only take her forward. “I want to expand the world in which I live in and what other people see. I want to do something interesting. I started with a period drama, then I became a witch hunter, then Polite Society happened, then I voiced a spaceship. These are things I never would have anticipated.”

Gosling didn’t know she was on set. They recorded scenes in multiple languages before introducing herself. “We did the scene in several languages for fun. After the shot, I said Hi and he was like, ‘You speak so many languages.’ And I told him that I just wrote them down. He said, ‘It’s so nice to have a cast member, it’s nice to not be alone.’ That was sweet.”

Moving from period drama, action-comedy to voice her work reflects a clear refusal to be boxed in. But Kansara believes “learning and growing” will only take her forward.

“I want to expand the world in which I live in and what other people see. I want to do something interesting. I started with a period drama, then I became a witch hunter, then Polite Society happened, then I voiced a spaceship. These are things I never would have anticipated.”

he boasts of her diverse upbringing, as reflected in her choices. Says she grew up “doing street dance and Bharatanatyam, attending a Gujarati school, watching Bollywood films and TV with my mum, and watching James Bond and action films with my dad. I feel lucky to have had a diverse upbringing.”

Having come up in an era shaped by inclusive casting, Kansara acknowledges the shift, but remains cautious. “There definitely are challenges. Sometimes representation, diversity, and inclusion still feels surface level, like a checkbox item. But the South Asian diaspora is growing within the industry. The breadth of work has increased and my career is an example of that.”

Priya Kansara says, “It would be cool. I am open to whatever comes my way.”