We loved her as the scorcher in Delhi Belly and even in that two-bit role as Ranbir Kapoor’s colleague inYeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. But Poorna Jagannathan is much more than her two Bollywood films. The American actress of Indian origin — she spent a lot of summers in Calcutta as a kid — has an enviable list of TV shows to her credit... The Blacklist to Gypsy, House of Cards to The Night Of.
Last year, Poorna, 45, played a pivotal role in The Circle, a techno thriller co-starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. With The Circle playing on Sony PIX and Sony Le Plex HD this Friday at 9pm, t2 caught up with Poorna on email.
You’ve been a part of some landmark content on screens big and small.Where would you place The Circle in your body of work?
The Circle is based on a novel by Dave Eggers and I’m a huge fan of his work and his dystopian view of the future. The future he writes about feels like it’s going to unfold tomorrow versus at some distant point in the future. So I was really excited to be a small part of this ambitious project. Especially now at a time when privacy issues are on everyone’s mind, The Circle is a great reminder of the perils of oversharing and lack of privacy.
The director, James Ponsoldt, is a great talent. He directed a lot of episodes of (TV show) Masters Of None and I recently worked with him again on a new series for Facebook.
In The Circle, I’m playing a character that Mae (played by Emma Watson) meets when she first enters “the circle”. Mae is starry-eyed and what I offer to her and the promise I make to her, is the allure of the Circle — a better, more connected and transparent future. Then of course, things go terribly wrong.
What was it like working with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson?
I only had scenes with Emma Watson and she was so relatable and funny. We talked a lot about feminism, her journey with it, and her “He For She” campaign, which I think is a critical aspect of the feminist movement — making sure that men are fully aware, present and vocal about equal rights for women. Unfortunately, I had no scenes with Tom Hanks, but I heard all about him on set. The wonderful thing is really how absolutely down to earth so many actors are and how deeply they are willing to engage with those around them.
How do you pick and choose your projects for the small screen?
I’m lucky to have been part of ground-breaking projects like The Night Of, which is one of my favourites. It feels so good as an actor when you are part of projects that actively comment on, mirror and shape what our world looks like. Sometimes when I do a project that doesn’t have a “documentary” element to it — that doesn’t somehow comment on the world we live in, then acting in it seems like a waste of time. Like I’m fiddling while Rome is burning!
When The Night Of came out, as a society, we were right in the middle of so many conversations, like Islamophobia, the criminal justice system, diversity in Hollywood.... The Night Of felt like it was born out of those conversations even though we had shot it years ago.
With many actors of colour now frontlining shows and films, do you think stereotyping while casting is on the decline in the West?
Oh, stereotyping is still alive and well in Hollywood! But things have shifted drastically. And what’s really changing the perception are South Asians creating their own material — like Mindy Kaling, Riz Ahmed, Aziz Ansari, Kumail Nanjiani....
How much do you think Priyanka Chopra frontlining a show like Quantico has opened up American TV to actors of colour?
Priyanka Chopra is wildly popular and loved, but as long we play characters written by other people, our voice will never truly be ours. There will always be an “otherness”. I have a friend called Ramy Youssef who wrote and is starring in his show that is coming soon to Hulu. It’s a look at what it means to be a practising Muslim in America, in all its complexities. Shows like that are what get me excited and what move us forward.
We loved you in Delhi Belly and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. What’s stopping you from doing more films here?
I simply haven’t been offered anything in Bollywood that I am drawn to. I speak to Akshat Verma a lot — he is the writer of Delhi Belly — and who I think is one of India’s most underrated screenwriting talents. We’re plotting away and hopefully something will come of it one of these days.
What will we see you next in?
I’m in an action movie called Mile 22 starring Mark Wahlberg, that comes out in August. That was insane to shoot. The director, Peter Berg, was an actor who got so tired of waiting around for the one camera to set up, he became a director and has at least six cameras going at the same time!
Then I’m in a movie called Share by Pippa Bianco that comes out hopefully this year. It’s a special movie for me and I couldn’t be prouder of it. It’s produced by A24 who are behind movies like Moonlight and Lady Bird, so I’m hoping it’s a gem that everyone sees. And then I’m in Season 2 of Big Little Lies which I can’t open my mouth about... but it’s the wildest ride I’ve ever taken!
You have a Calcutta connection… your father grew up in Lake Road. What are your childhood memories of spending your holidays in Calcutta?
My Calcutta connection is so deep. I would spend so many summers there. My grandparents lived there and all the cousins would convene in their tiny home on Lake Road. And my dearest aunt, the musician Jayashree Singh, just passed away but she was my last connection to that city. But my father’s heart was always in Calcutta. Even though he was south Indian, he would insist he was a Bong and considered Bengali his first language.
