'Overwhelmed' Poorna Jagannathan on standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep in the second season of Big Little Lies
Letty Mariam Abraham (MID-DAY; July 23, 2019)

Standing tall at 5 feet 7 inches, Poorna Jagannathan greets me with a sunny smile when I catch up with the actor, who has suddenly become the talk of the town. Reason ­— Jagannathan can be seen rubbing shoulders with Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman in the second season of the highly acclaimed Big Little Lies. In an exclusive chat with mid-day, she talks about playing a lawyer on the Star World show and how lack of interesting offers in Bollywood left her West-bound.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

How did you land the role?
In the West, when it is a high-profile show, they change the material for the audition. At the audition, I didn't know what the show was or who I was working with. All I was told was that she [her character] practises family law and will be fighting a custody case. To prep for the role, I went down to the family court in LA and saw how lawyers interact with their clients and tried to assess their personality. I used to think lawyers are 'out for blood'. But family lawyers are sweet and nurturing.

What was your reaction on learning that you will work alongside Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon?
It was overwhelming. I learned much later that I would be acting with Meryl Streep. When you win a lottery, you are not only happy; the feeling is that of shitting in your pants. It was too much of good news [laughs].

How was it to share screen space with Kidman?
Day One was so scary, I couldn't sleep all night. I usually don't sleep the night before, but in this case, I couldn't sleep well for three weeks. Nicole is a private person and we got to know each other better over the course of the filming. My first scene with her was where I [nudge her] to accept the settlement. Nicole maintained [the commitment to her character] throughout the shoot. While I can hold on to emotions and the circumstances of the script for a long time, I can't be in that space for months. But Nicole did that with such ease. It's not because she is a commendable actor but because she had become the character. I have not seen such investment in a character, from a performer, before.

You had written a play, Nirbhaya, that dealt with sexual abuse. What new did you learn about the subject from Big Little Lies?
I was torn by the sexual violence mixed with love. In season two, you learn that Celeste [Kidman's character] doesn't have a family, and he [Perry, husband] picks up on that. That's how he is a predator and she is the prey. She doesn't have a reason to stay with him, but still, she does. It is complicated. People question why she stayed with him for so long. But the inner working of marital rape is scary. I am well-versed in sexual violence, but marital rape is much more nuanced. It is not even considered rape [in India].

Why don't we see more of you in Hindi films?
I stepped away from Bollywood. I am attracted to different kinds of stories and I was not getting those at the time. Now with [the advent of] Netflix and Amazon Prime, we have series like Delhi Crime that resonates with me.

Poorna Jagannathan’s latest work HBO’s The Night Of is bringing her both acclaim and more work, but she knows she can rest on the past
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; September 4, 2016)

You will remember her best as Imran Khan’s girlfriend in 2011’s Delhi Belly. She had also produced the play Nirbhaya (based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case) by Yael Farber, which won the 2013 Amnesty International Award. Poorna Jagannathan has just gone to higher places since then. After making appearances in American TV shows such as House of Cards and Law & Order, she has just wrapped up the first season of HBO’s The Night Of, touted to be the show to watch after Game of Thrones. It tells us the story of Nasir Khan, a Pakistani-American college student accused of murdering a girl on the Upper West Side of New York City. Jagannathan plays his mother, Safar Khan. The show also stars acting greats like John Turturro, who plays the lawyer who defends Nasir. For all of you who want to see what the fuss is about, the show will air in India next month on Star World Premiere HD. Excerpts from an interview.

How did you bag this role?
I had auditioned for this role years ago, but had been too young for it. Years later, I was shooting for Ayan Mukherjee’s Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani when I was asked to audition again. There was this intense connect to the material and to this character. I still remember one of the audition scenes: it was when I first go visit my son in prison. I remember the words wouldn’t even come out of my mouth — it was such an emotionally difficult scene to do. I heard a few weeks later that I had gotten the role, after they saw about two hundred actresses from all over the world. I felt I was a part of something extraordinary that would change the landscape of American television. There has never has been a story of a South Asian, Muslim family told through this lens with this degree of nuance. The journey with the show has been a challenging one. The director, Steven Zaillian, wanted a very stripped down performance and it took a while for us to share the same visual language. But the show was always thrilling. Almost all the locations are authentic — we shot in real, working prisons, in real, working courtrooms. And of course, now that it’s out, and so many people, like SRK and Amy Schumer have loved it and are obsessed with it, just makes every moment worth it.

What was the best part about being on set?
Getting to know Riz Ahmed (who plays Nasir) and Peyman Moaadi (who plays Nasir’s father), two of the brightest stars I know in the world of acting. On set, I felt like I had to really match everyone’s acting in a way I never had to before. I was surrounded by talent — even the person who had one word or one line was an astounding actor. It was the hardest set to be on.

How do you approach a role?
For me it’s more about the script than the role. I’ll spend a lot of time doing script analysis — what is this story ultimately about? The bulk of my work is pouring over the script and when I’m done, I have something resembling a map for my character. And then I start researching: dress, speech and physicality. For The Night Of, I spent a lot of time in Jackson Heights, talking to women in stores, being with them in their homes.

What are the other projects you are excited about?
My next project is a new Netflix series, which is a thriller, and we start shooting that in a few weeks. Netflix, for me, is the most relevant content creator right now. I can’t imagine a better fit.

You have talked about how The Night Of is also about diversity...
I read this wonderful article which said that the show had actually humanised Muslims in America. And it was the best compliment the show could ever have gotten. We live in a very charged political climate in America — where all Muslims are being painted with the same brush. There is such immense fear and lack of empathy.

How has life changed for you post The Night Of…
In the past, I would do work and although it would get critical acclaim and audiences would respond really well, the needle wouldn't move that much work-wise. I always felt like I was in a vacuum. But I definitely sense a shift this time: suddenly, there are a lot more opportunities, a lot more offers. But as experience has shown me, square one is waiting for me just around the corner.

Poorna Jagannathan's turn as Safar Khan in an HBO miniseries has been described by the actress-comedian as "amazing, brilliant and noteworthy"
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 4, 2016)

Tunisia-born American actress, Poorna Jagannathan, is a global citizen in its true spirit. In her teens, as a diplomat's daughter, she's lived in Pakistan, Ireland, India, Brazil and Argentina. She started college in Brazil, graduated in journalism from the University of Maryland, on scholarship started her Master's at New York's drama school, The Actor's Studio, but quit after the first year. She went on to appear on several hit TV shows like House of Cards, Royal Pains, Law & Order, Rescue Me, and The Game. She also made an impression in Bollywood as Delhi Belly's spunky journo and the anchor of Ranbir Kapoor's travel show in Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (YJHD).

Today, American writer-actress comedian Amy Schumer is publicly applauding her turn in HBO's crime drama, The Night Of. She's Safar Khan, mother of leading man, Riz Ahmed, who plays Nasir 'Naz' Khan, a Pakistani-American collegian accused of murdering a girl on the Upper West Side of NYC. Her idol describes Poorna as "amazing, brilliant and noteworthy". And after staring at Amy's tweets for hours, Poorna responded with a simple "thank you".

"But in those hours, I was picturing us as best friends, walking hand-in-hand into the sunset, giggling, mostly at my jokes," laughs the 43-year-old actress, speaking to Mirror from her Los Angeles home.

Poorna was in Paris, filming YJHD in 2012, when she got a call and only had a couple of hours to film herself and send the audition tape back to New York. "The material I'd been given was written like nothing I'd seen before. There's something about really great writing and your work as an actor is to get out of its way," she avers, adding that HBO which has brought to life Game of Thrones, Girls, True Detective and Veep, has the kind of material "that makes you want to be an actor in the first place." She adds, "It tells those stories that others don't dare to say."

She bagged the role that stretches across seven episodes of the eight-part miniseries. Her heart almost stopped when she learnt through a newspaper that her all-time favourite, Iranian actor Peyman Moaadi, would be playing her husband.

She gave her first shot for the pilot in 2012 with James Gandolfini playing attorney Jack Stone. In early 2013, she learnt that HBO was not keen on producing the show and director Steve Zaillian started looking elsewhere till the channel returned to the fray. "We were looking at shooting dates when Gandolfini passed away from a massive heart attack. I didn't think The Night Of would survive but where there's a will, there's a way and here we are!" exclaims Poorna, excited about how The Night Of, which airs in India on Star World Premiere HD on Wednesdays at 10 pm, will be received by the audience.

Rated 96 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, the show deals with multiple viewpoints. The central plot follows Naz Khan through the criminal justice system, with parallel stories about the attorney's (now played by John Turturro) personal struggles and Naz's parents.

"There's also Islamophobia and the backlash we face," she sighs, pointing out that the heavy colour saturation is designed to enhance the viewer's sense of dread. "It feels like a murder mystery, a horror film and meditation all at once. I still hyperventilate every time I watch the show even though I know exactly what's going to happen." Her favourite scene is in episode 3 when all the prisoners are being taken to Rikers Island prison. "It was raining that day and you see the reflection of these prisoners in the puddles as they walk by. The cinematography is epic!" she exults.

Bollywood's leading ladies, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, are both making their Hollywood debuts with Baywatch and xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, respectively, in 2017. Though they are challenging stereotypes, Indian actors working abroad invariably get typecast in Asia-centric roles. "You get typecast everywhere," Poorna argues. "In India, I get to play a supermodern, western woman with a quirky, wild side because my hair is curly. In the US it's a supersmart Indian woman with a lot of gravitas — a doctor or a lawyer. The real me is somewhere in the middle," she admits.

Poorna moved to LA in 2015 and says that her definition of home, today, is where her husband, Azad Oommen, and son, Anav, are. "And there's a sliver of me that is the most comfortable in Brooklyn," she quips.

DNA (April 8, 2015)


“My childhood was bit of a roller-coaster, it was a very privileged childhood, very fairy tale childhood, many aspects especially on paper. My father suffered from alcoholism. We were told to keep it under wraps as much as possible. My first encounter with sexual violence was probably when I was nine. There was a neighbour and family friend who got his hands on me. He obviously told me not to tell anyone. I have encountered so many incidents as a child and as a young adult. They were violent but I wouldn’t speak about it. There was a code that you wouldn’t talk about it,” Poorna said in her video.

Coincidentally, Poorna was recently in the news for producing the play Nirbhaya, by Yael Farber that cracked open the cone of silence on the staggering depth and breadth of violence perpetrated against women in India.