“Two weeks before I auditioned for the role, I was sworn in a courthouse in Manhattan,” Moayed explains. I understood why people say that everyone should be a juror at least once in their life. It makes you realize how unfair our fucking system is. It’s crazy to see how much we charge young people, and especially black people and non-white people in general. It’s completely abnormal. »
Arian drew on that court experience, but also on the transcripts of Delvey’s trial, to prepare for the role of Spodek, who still practices in his law firm in Lower Manhattan. “You can feel he’s appreciated in court,” he said. We feel that he has a special aura. He sometimes makes jokes, even if they fall flat. I learned a lot from these transcriptions. »
This attention to detail comes naturally to Arian Moayed, who began his career in theater and notably earned a Tony Award nomination in 2011 for the role of Musa in Baghdad Zoo Bengal Tiger by Rajiv Joseph, a play in which he co-starred with Robin Williams. When he’s not playing New Yorkers on television or teaching acting at the Professional Performing Arts School in NYC, the actor is also the co-founder and chairman of the board of Waterwell, a non-profit association, with a civic and social vocation, dedicated to theater and artistic education. His background feeds his on-screen chemistry with Anna Chlumsky, who in Inventing Anna interprets the journalist Jessica Pressler – the one whose article on Anna Delvey, published in 2018 in the magazine New York, inspired the series. “Anna Chlumsky and I both come from the theater and it has simplified our work, explains Arian. Theater people have a kind of connection between them, it makes things easier for us when we play for TV or the cinema. »
Of all the characters in the series, that of Todd Spadek is perhaps the only one to be completely honest with the hustler. He doesn’t hesitate to tell the Russian that she may not be as smart as she imagines. “There’s a line as they argue, Todd says, ‘Do you really believe your lies?’ Sounds like a rhetorical question but I wanted to ask myself if it was actually more than that. What if that’s the real fucking question Anna has to answer? Moayed analysis.
the performance of Julia Garner is both explosive and overwhelming. “It’s a hell of a force of nature, really,” says Arian. And she’s so fucking young. The actor’s face lights up when it comes to talking about his female partners in Inventing Anna. ” In Succession, most of my scenes are with guys. In Inventing Anna, I only have scenes with women. » When I ask him who, from the Anna Delvey by Julian Garner or Sarah Snook’s Shiv Roy, is the ultimate girlboss redhead, he starts laughing. “I love them both. But I think Stewy and Shiv should have a scene together in Succession. So I will say Shiv. »
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