‘Black Mirror’ Star Anjana Vasan Talks ‘Demon 79,’ Working With Charlie Brooker and Color Blind Casting
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Stage, television and film star Anjana Vasan’s latest role is the lead in the “Demon 79” episode in Season 6 of Charlie Brooker’s hit Netflix series “Black Mirror.”
Set in northern England, 1979, Vasan plays a meek sales assistant who is told she must commit terrible acts to prevent disaster in the episode written by Brooker and Bisha K. Ali (“Ms. Marvel”) and directed by Toby Haynes (“Andor”). Paapa Essiedu (“Gangs of London”) has a pivotal role in the episode.
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“Every episode of ‘Black Mirror’ is different but this one felt just distinctly like trying to do something different,” Vasan told Variety. “And when I read it, I was genuinely surprised. I didn’t know where the story was going to go. And I thought the dynamic between Paapa’s character and myself was so interesting and so surprising. I just wanted to be a part of that world, I wanted to go into 1979 and just explore her journey.”
Vasan plays Nida, a character who is of Asian origin. After working out a backstory for her character with Haynes, Vasan discussed the role at length with Ali because of the “cultural specificity” of the role. “I just wanted to [know] where was she in her headspace when she wrote certain things, particularly with the micro-aggressions that she faces, we just talked a lot about that, and both of us being immigrants, and that sense of being an outsider and how we connect to Nida in that way, just to understand the emotional landscape of where she is,” Vasan said.
On working with Brooker, Vasan says that he and Ali and the producers were always in the room to figure out the intricacies of costume and period-specific requirements. “It was very collaborative in that sense but in terms of the story itself, they were very much led by us as actors,” Vasan said. Brooker kept his cards close to his chest when it came to his overall vision for the show. Vasan was aware that there were other episodes happening but didn’t have much more information beyond that.
“A lot of what was happening with the other episodes were very much a secret for us, they didn’t tell us too much about it. I just kept bugging them for clues and information,” Vasan said. “I got a sense that they were very proud of this season and that it was going to be something a bit different and a bit new, but they were very good at keeping secrets. I didn’t know too much until I saw the trailer myself.”
In the episode, Nida is faced with a dilemma and must do “unspeakable things,” Vasan said. “Trying to find that difference of someone who is under distress for so long was a challenge,” Vasan said, adding that what she found the most rewarding was working with Essiedu. “Paapa is an amazing TV and film star but his background is still very much theater like me. So I felt like, we just understood what we were doing without having to say too much. It was so easy and so fun. And I felt like we found things together all the time. And that’s quite rare, to just have that kind of chemistry and not have to explain it,” Vasan said.
Born in south India and raised in Singapore, Vasan relocated to the U.K. after graduating with an MA in acting at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She grew up watching theater in Singapore, and being exposed to the gamut of arts the city-state offers, from local plays to the Western canon encompassing Pinter and Shakespeare to Korean avant garde theater, made her want to be an actor. Her wide range of influences in multi-cultural Singapore also included the Tamil-language films of director Mani Ratnam and superstar Rajinikanth and Bollywood films.
Vasan had key roles in BBC-AMC+ series “Killing Eve,” Netflix’s “Sex Education” and Channel 4’s “We Are Lady Parts” for which she was nominated for a performance BAFTA. Notable film roles include “Mogul Mowgli” and “Cyrano.” The actor’s vast array of theater credits include numerous stints with the Royal Shakespeare Company and plays “Rutherford and Son,” “Dara,” “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” and “Life of Galileo.” In April, Vasan won the supporting actress Olivier for playing Stella in Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” opposite Paul Mescal who won best actor. In her upcoming film, Thea Sharrock’s “Wicked Little Letters,” Vasan plays a police officer named Gladys Moss.
Vasan is frequently cast in color blind roles and when she does, she says she always asks the director why. “Why me for someone who’s called Gladys Moss? It’s an important question that I ask,” Vasan said.
“Making it diverse doesn’t take away anything, it can add meaning, or it can be a neutral thing. And depending on the context of what the director is doing and what the cast are doing together, an audience is intelligent enough to know when we need to, because we apply that same level of logic, when we watch a white actor when they’re playing a Danish prince or when they’re pretending to be Russian. We know that this is a British actor not doing a Russian accent, but they’re meant to be Russian. So why can’t we apply that same logic to someone who’s Brown?,” Vasan said.
“But it’s important not to completely eliminate who you are and your ethnicity, it does signify something. And I think for Thea [the director of “Wicked Little Letters”], the character that I’m playing, there’s an underlying meaning that happens when someone like me steps into a role like that, based on the story,” Vasan adds. “We often don’t give permission for people of color to get to extend the boundaries of who we are and audiences are now savvy and smart enough to realize when we are cluing into ethnicity and not, for a role.”
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