The key is to be aware . If you are consciously aware of your actions and to you they seem positive , then charge on my boy and don ' t let anybody stop you !
The Outpost comes , he ' s like ' Wait ... what is this other life that I ' ve been missing out on ?'" Anand is excited to be able to portray Janzo ' s evolution , saying that the ability " to be able to already start off a character that ' s about to go through a huge change in his life from the very first scene is incredible ."
Despite remaining coyly evasive about whether Janzo ' s obvious infatuation with Talon blossoms into romance , Anand certainly doesn ' t mind lending his fictional counterpart a little of his mojo . " In my own head , I ' m always going to get the girl . Whether it ' s a TV show or not , I ' m always going to get whoever I ' m pining after and whether it ' s reciprocated or not is a different story ." Janzo desperately needs to channel some of this unbothered swagger , as the hapless alchemist faces an uphill battle to win Talon ' s heart . " Janzo has absolutely no idea just how out of his league Talon is . He is so ignorant to it that he thinks it is an actual possibility and so he will continue that quest of Talon . He has no idea that he has no chance ," Anand admits with a mix of affectionate pity and admiration for Janzo ' s " endearing " romantic ignorance .
Immensely proud of his Indian heritage , Anand is over the moon to witness and be a part of the recent increased screen presence of Indian and South Asian actors playing a much broader range of roles . It ' s an invaluable and long overdue mainstream visibility for South Asian actors , who are often typecast into very stereotypical roles . Anand mused on the shared commonality of this experience for actors of color and why it shouldn ' t be merely accepted as an inevitable part of the job .
" I was just speaking to Janina Gavankar about this . I think it is to be forgiven that early on in an actor ' s career , specifically one of color , one often feels like there is little power to say ' No . I ' m not going to put on an accent for you ' unless it completely makes sense to the storyline . For if you say no , there are a plethora of actors behind you happy to do it . The reality is that we always have that power - you just have to have the kahunas to stand up for yourself and your community . All that being said , thankfully momentum is changing - a la Janzo , where roles are often now colorblind ( we still have some work to do ) and if I was to attach an accent onto a character in the future , it would now be of my own doing as a choice I am making and not for comedy relief ."
Janzo ' s transcendence of race is incredibly refreshing to Anand . " I couldn ' t be happier to play Janzo for the fact that it has nothing to do with my skin color ," he says . " Anyone could have played Janzo , any ethnicity could have played Janzo , he ' s just lucky that he got to be played by an Indian person ." The sci-fi / fantasy / horror genres can continue to diversify " by having more actors hired for their abilities and not because they need a token brown person . Sci-fi / fantasy / horror is truly a myriad of genres that don ' t often have a wide range of Indian actors on screen . I ' m happy to now be part of the growing number of brown folks pushing that barrier !" Anand also teased upcoming projects : " I shot a horror film with Eli Roth and bumped into him at Runyon Canyon very recently - hopefully , you ' ll be seeing a little more of me in the horror world very soon !"
His appreciation for boundary-breaking men of color runs deep . He reflected on his personal Indian role models , present and past - even if they ' re hidden , as he discovered while watching the recent Freddie Mercury biopic .
" I think Riz Ahmed is doing a great job and I ' m not sure if he ' s intending to be a pioneer on that front , but he ' s doing a brilliant job . I saw a pre-screening of the new Queen movie , Bohemian Rhapsody , and Rami Malek is absolutely brilliant in the role . What I was completely unaware of is that Freddie Mercury was Indian and I had no idea ... I saw the film and I was completely mesmerized and I sat there thinking , ' this person is my new inspiration .' The film was so inspiring and it is so current to today ' s world . He was a person of color , he was Indian , and he drew and painted outside the lines , everything about him . So historically Freddie Mercury is a brilliant example ."
While he plays an introverted misfit shunned by society , in his real life , Anand happily embraces his idiosyncrasies and enthusiastically endorses nonconformity . " If I catch myself doing something to please others , I ' ll often stop myself , turn around , and go in the complete opposite direction ! The key is to be aware . If you are consciously aware of your actions and to you they seem positive , then charge on my boy and don ' t let anybody stop you !"
When asked if he ' s had moments of feeling like an outcast , his response was gleefully self-affirming . " The noun for outcast is : a person who has been rejected by society or a social group . I don ' t feel like I ' ve ever been rejected . Have I gone against the grain of what society deems normal ? Every day of my life !"
" Now when I think of this quote , once again , I think back to Freddie Mercury ."
Ultimately , his advice is simple : if you ' re feeling like an outcast , don ' t . Embrace what makes you unique . " Stop calling yourself an outcast . Don ' t stop being different ."
Maybe we should stop fixating on who fits in and who doesn ' t and instead focus on the wonderful nerd inside all of us .
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