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[0:00] Marjan Neshat: Hi, I'm Marjan Neshat. Welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:10] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another all-new episode of The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales. Our guest for this episode is Marjan Neshat, who is having a moment right now. She's in the current season of The Night Agent on Netflix, season two, which just premiered the same night that she made her Broadway debut in Sanaz Tusi's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy English. You'll hear Marjan mention Sanaz many times throughout the episode, as they've worked together quite extensively. And I love episodes like this, where my guest just opens up about their own cultural identity, which is just basically one of the central themes of the play English itself. Marjan and I speak a lot about her family leaving Iran many years ago, and her just being like a lonely child and finding comfort in having people around her who also like to emote and perform, aka theatre people.

So she found her home with all of us. And in the background, you may also hear some noises that come straight from the heart of Times Square. Once again, I'm back in a studio powered by WelcomeToTimesSquare.com, which allows you to be on a Times Square billboard and be a star for a day. So if you can, please head over to my Patreon account or Spotify, and you can watch this episode in the lovely studio. Lastly, as always, find me on the socials, tag me in your stories, etc., etc., yada, yada. Get your tickets to go see English at the Runabout Theatre here in Times Square if you can, and if it's touring by the time you listen to this, please go see it. It's just a phenomenal show. And now, everyone, please enjoy this episode with Marjan Neshat. Here you go. One, two, three.

[1:44] Alan Seales: Our guest today is an acting powerhouse who always brings so much authenticity and life to the roles we continue to see her bring to the stage and screen, with TV and film credits that include the 2014 RoboCop remake, Rescue Me, Law & Order, Mercy, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains, Quantico, Person of Interest, Elementary, and so many more. She's now making her Broadway debut in the new hit comedy English, now on stage through March 3rd. Marjan Neshat, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:10] Marjan Neshat: Thank you for having me.

[2:17] Alan Seales: I was thinking I had to pronounce your name. All right. So I saw English. I've seen English twice and absolutely love it. And I love comedies that deal with very serious subject matter. And this is one of those that I think there's always different layers to unpack depending on how deep you go and the more times you see the show. But for you, I know this is personal for you, and we'll get back to English, because I know you were born in Iran. Yes, you are Iranian. And this is a show that deals with being bilingual and finding your identity and depending on where you are and what language you're speaking. And there's a lot that you can unpack about this. But I want to start with just where you grew up and your origin and your backstory, because I read a little bit about it. I think it's really interesting.

[3:09] Marjan Neshat: So I was born in Iran. My mom had gone to nursing school in England. So when I was one, we moved to England, and then we moved to California. And then we moved back. My parents were not religious, and my uncle had been a communist. They were socialists. Initially, we went back because my dad never spoke English very well, and he never learned it, and he had a hard time assimilating. But when we went back, the revolution had sort of changed from an ideological revolution to a fanatical religious revolution. We tried to get out. They closed all the kind of outroads, and we got stuck there for about four years. So I finished fourth grade in Iran, and then my uncle, who had been a communist and jailed, and it was like, do not come back.

They will kill you, had moved from California to Seattle, and he applied for a visiting visa for my mom and my sister and I. And we went to Holland to try and get to the embassy there. And my mom always says the man kind of looked at her and looked at her, two girls. My sister was about seven years older than me. And the man was like, I know you're not going for a visit, just in his eyes. And she kind of looked at him being like, well, my life is in your hands. You decide. And he gave her the visa. And at the time, there was a real shortage of nurses in America, and my mom was a psychiatric nurse. And that's kind of how we got our green card, and my dad eventually came. And the trajectory of my life would have been very, very different based on that one man's decision.

[4:51] Alan Seales: That's really, I mean, it's interesting. Yeah, that one decision that could have turned you away and gone back, and it would have been completely different. But so it's weird for me, I guess, as someone who was born and raised in America, to think about the stuff that we see on TV, that often people such as yourself are hired to portray on TV and film and stage, you know, telling us these stories, and they always seem like stories. But for you to actually have lived through a lot of this, how is that coloring sort of how you're approaching these roles now that traditionally, like, I was going to say there's a stereotype that has to get filled to have people I'm trying to say this correctly. There's a people who look a certain way have to be cast in those roles, so that they are they look accurate on TV and film and Broadway and stuff, right?

[5:39] Marjan Neshat: You know, I mean, I think when Iran is centered, there is a I feel a sense of responsibility to portray it in the way that I find to be truthful. But the fact of the matter is, like, I haven't lived there since I was eight years old. So there's so much that has happened, you know, that that sometimes I think, I will know the most in the room about culturally where things are specific. And sometimes, like, if a person is, you know, has come in the last five years, they will know things that I don't know. The thing for me, it's interesting, because people have asked a lot about how I identify with these, in particular with English. And the fact is, like, I came here in the first six months of being here, I struggled in terms of learning English or relearning it, because I had spoken it when I was quite young.

But having lived most of my life in English, I'm actually much more comfortable in that language than I am in Farsi, to my shame, you know, and, and so the thing that for me was such a, like a win in meeting Sanaz is that I actually kind of had an interview with her recently, where I asked her if she always wanted to put Iranians on stage. And she was like, yes, I was always fascinated and interested and in love with them. But it was only when I discovered how to put them on stage in my voice that it opened up. And so she's kind of writing these roles in a place that's like between worlds. And so all of us in the play who, you know, I was born there, I think Tala was born there and left when she was really young, we are all more proficient in English than we are in Farsi.

And yet we get to use ourselves in sort of a way where we slip into English when we are speaking Farsi, which is the language that we are most free in ourselves. And so it's been really kind of miraculous to get to create that from a place of not othering ourselves, but actually embracing our particular journeys, which is not entirely American and not entirely Iranian. It's like a combination of like an in-between world.

[7:46] Alan Seales: No, I totally get that. And I will come back to this when I want to deep dive into English in a second. Because there's so much to unpack about this in related to exactly what you just said. But I want to back up again, because at some point, through all of these moves, and all of this revolution, you decided you want to perform.

[8:08] Marjan Neshat: So when I told my mom, I was like, this is what I want to do. She's like, people in our family don't do this. We did not leave, you know, like, my sister was almost picked up by the morality police. And this is like how she was like, I have to bribe anyone I can get out of here. Yeah, morality police is real. Yeah. I like fell down on the floor at like six being like, my sister, and that's why I think they let her go because she I was I would have been unchaperoned. So like we came from this. And really, like, you know, we, my cousins there, she was like, how do I explain this? Like you came for the opportunity to do, you know, be a doctor, be a lawyer and change the world. And I was like, this is my way.

Like, this is how I understand how to change the world. I was a very hypersensitive kid. And, you know, I've talked about this before that, in most avenues of my life, that was a weakness. Everyone's like, Oh, you know, she's gonna cry, like this is gonna happen. And it was the one place that I found where my sort of thin skinnedness could be used to shed light on something or become my strength. And so I, and I think I was always on the outside didn't fit in was very lonely. And the first play I did, I was like, I like it's possible not to feel alone. What is this, you know, and so I was also very stubborn and headstrong. Like when I told her, her like first example was Marilyn Monroe. She's like, you'll die of drugs and sex and all this stuff. And I was like, so be it, mother. It's a good way to go. We all gotta go somewhere.

[9:44] Alan Seales: So it was, I was not, I feel like, you know, at that time, there was a lot less people going into that, like from, you know, my cultural community, but I it was like, I don't know. You said you were in Iran until you moved, you left again in fourth grade, right? But what were you watching? I finished third grade in Iran, and I moved to Seattle in fourth grade. Okay. So then as a kid, though, like, are you, when, what were you watching that got you into this? And they were like, I need to emote, I want to find my people in that cry with me.

[10:16] Marjan Neshat: So in all of my, for me, the entry point was actually books. Like, I found my solid, like, I think I cried myself to sleep reading Anne of Green Gables from like fifth grade through like, you know, it was just that her sort of size of like, dreaming, you know, and being I think, I think it was in fourth or fifth grade that they showed us the Colleen Dewhurst miniseries. And like, I watched it, and I read all the books, but my entry point was through that. And I remember I used to read this series of it was kind of like romance fiction. And, and they were historical. And I read a story about Hollywood romance. And again, it was just like, in a way it was an escape or a dream world. But I, it seemed much more of a place I wanted to be than the place I was at.

And then I think when I was 12, I auditioned for a production of Romeo and Juliet. And like, I didn't get that. But that's when it started. I read those books. And then I was like, I don't know, there was like some call to, I think it was just a deep desire to be a part of something. And because I read so much, and because I lived so much in my imagination, that's kind of how I escaped loneliness. Like it seemed to fit that.

[11:37] Alan Seales: Were you lonely as a kid? Like your sister?

[11:40] Marjan Neshat: Really? My sister was about seven years older. I think her concerns, you know, like, when we left Iran, she was just like someone who it was like, as if she'd been an only child for, you know, the first almost seven years of her life, and then I came along, she was like, Okay, I don't really want to play with you. And so I think we went through, we're quite

[12:01] Marjan Neshat: But at that time, she just was like, dealing with such different things. Her and her friends wanted to go out for walks. And my mom's like, you can't, you know, there was like, all the restrictions and stuff, like the way that that was boiling up in her body was so different than what was happening to me, where I was like, I'm just bored. I read books and play. And she was like, I don't want to play, you know, so I think we just went. And then when we moved here, I went into fourth grade, and she went into 10th. And then a few years later, she went to college. So I, we were not, I don't know, like our sensibilities became much closer as I grew up. But yeah, I think my experience from moving around and from like being kind of thin skinned was always like, I was lonely.

So as a thin skinned person, naturally, you go into theater where everything is totally easy. And I mean, it is kind of masochistic, really, like someone else was like, How did you do with the rejection? I was like, a lot of therapy. But I guess it was, I think if I had found something else that allowed me, allowed, like, I guess, something else that culminated all my areas of interest, and also allowed me to use the things that were going on with me, I probably would have followed that. But I never, like I started this thing. And it's really all I've done since I was 14 years old. But it feels good to cry, doesn't it?

[13:37] Alan Seales: To me, it does, for sure.

[13:38] Marjan Neshat: It feels good to put yourself out there and to go through these emotions eight times a week, or however you're however much you're doing it in community theater, your local regional theater, whatever it is like to, yeah, to find these people who want to go on this journey with you. I just I think, you know, I joke about this, but I think to go into a profession where ultimately, you want to both expose yourself and be witnessed and be in communication, there is like, you just have to have a certain degree of unmet, unmet need. And I think I was just told a lot of that. So that you because you have to sort of trick yourself to continue to go to those places. But there is something I think, in the both in the camaraderie and in the communication, that it really does feel new every night.

It's like a new possibility to be affected and to affect people. And I'm have always been, you know, like when we started, and really, do you have any questions? And I was like, How was your day? I'm infinitely curious about how people get through their day. Like if I could talk, if I could stop anyone in the stream, be like, what's the first thing you do when you get up? And do you drink coffee? And like, I'm just I'm human behavior to me is, and how people reveal themselves is just one of the more interesting things. So I get to put my lens on that all the time.

[15:04] Alan Seales: Yeah. So just for context, yeah, before we started recording, I said, Do you have any questions for me? And out of like 400 something people I've interviewed now, I think you are the only one who said, How's your day?

[15:13] Marjan Neshat: I really wanted to know.

[15:16] Alan Seales: I didn't know how to answer that. Because a lot has happened to me today. And this is not my episode. So yeah, I've had a lot of things I've been dealing with today. And yeah, not my episode, but it's really interesting. What's it called? Not sociology. Anthropology. So I feel like, yeah, you could you've got like, another universe where you're a wonderful anthropologist.

[15:40] Marjan Neshat: Or I do think I think if I had not pursued this, the only thing I can sort of think of, I might have done psychology. Yeah, I just like I'm very interested in human behavior, and the connection between how we get through the day.

[15:59] Alan Seales: Do you have a role that you've done where you've got, you've been able to explore kind of a corner of yourself a corner of your mind or human behavior that you didn't think you would be comfortable in or something that you thought you would be comfortable in that you were like, Whoa, this is weird?

[16:11] Marjan Neshat: Well, I mean, talking about not being comfortable in after, you know, when I did, I had a year where I did these four plays, starting with Selling Cobble, and then English, and then Sonoz's next play, Wish You Were Here. And then I was offered Sandra, which was a one woman show, written by David Cale. I was like, Yeah, why are they offering this to me? Like, I'd never, I'm not someone who, you know, there's actors who are real shapeshifters, and they like live in characters. And I think that I'm definitely like, an actor who follows the interior life. So I don't know, I think I counted it up once. It was like 17. The story was told through the perspective of Sandra, but like, I had to play my own lover, I had to like, have sex with myself on stage.

It was so terrifying. I played a 70 year old gay man, like it was just all of these things. And every day during rehearsal, Lee Silverman, who's amazing, I don't think I could have gotten through it without her. But I was like, Why did you hire me? This is the most terrifying thing I've ever, ever done. Like, I think I was like, I think I'm dying. And it was the same combination. I remember David Cale had written Harry Clark, and Billy Crudup did it like a few years previous, and they put us in touch. And I remember our first invited dress. Like I texted him, and I was like, Is it too late to run away? No, but where would you go? And I was like, I guess that's true. But it was like, I felt, you know, I'm a young kid.

And I was like, when they get anxious, they just shut down. And I was like, I really want to shut down. This is too terrifying, like to have 90 minutes of material in your head that you have to say in front of people. And Lee said this thing, she's like, actually, it's because until you have an audience, you haven't met your scene partner. Yes. And that was something I did not understand. So all through rehearsal, I was like, I'm in scenes with myself. But I think my sort of skill as an actor is like, I know how to listen. I'm like, I don't know how to not have the time to listen and respond like quickly back and forth. And that was really, it was like being handed a stick shift, and I had to learn how to drive this car. And I think by the end I did, but it was truly the most terrifying thing I've ever done.

[18:31] Alan Seales: That was how I got home from high school when my stick shift was delivered to me. My mother came to my high school with my car that we'd just gotten. It was a stick shift. I'd never driven it before. And she was like, all right, I'll see you at home.

[18:46] Marjan Neshat: No.

[18:46] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[18:47] Marjan Neshat: That's so brave of your mother.

[18:52] Alan Seales: She was like, you'll figure it out. I know you will. And I did, and I got home for dinner.

[18:56] Marjan Neshat: Yeah. I mean, it took me longer than one car ride, but it took me a month of rehearsal, you know, a while into performances. But I was really, that was the most uncomfortable. By the end of it, was it okay? Or did you go out every night?

[19:14] Marjan Neshat: Every night. I basically started, once we started kind of previews, I lived close to Prospect Park, and I would go for one walk around the park, and I would say the play out loud. And then basically when I left home, on my way to the theater, I would say it all again. And it took just weeks and weeks of saying it. Because during rehearsal, we were working, so I didn't have a chance to necessarily even get through all of it. There was so much material. But it was like through the trust of like, 90 minutes is in my head. And meeting really my audience, which was my scene partner. Like each night, it's sort of like opened and opened. But I've never been so terrified. Like that first time, I really was like, I think I'm going to die. I was just standing backstage being like, this is it. I'm going to die.

[20:14] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[20:20] Marjan Neshat: Welcome back to the episode. Everything I've seen you in, you bring such a level of realism and authenticity and something you said that obviously contributes to it, but I don't know how much of this is just raw talent versus listening, but it's literally listening.

[20:31] Alan Seales: Like, because I can tell when you're in a scene with people, you're so engaged and present with them. And I can tell that, I mean, let's take this to English now, because you're the teacher, coincidentally, maybe not coincidentally playing Marjan. That's your character name and your real name. And she has to be sort of different things, I think, to different people. She's a therapist and sort of a bit of a life coach while literally just teaching English, right? And something your character says that still sat with me, because the themes of English are kind of like finding your identity. Who are you when you're not speaking your native tongue? And then I immediately left, and I was like, yeah, if I was learning another language, I'm such a dad jokes guy, and I like puns.

Could I do that in Farsi? Could I do that in Spanish? Could I do that in Portuguese? I don't know. And how long would I not feel like myself? And that's exactly what English is talking about. And I absolutely love it. But something your character says, you say, I like myself better in English.

[21:43] Marjan Neshat: It's funny you say, you know, Sanaz was doing an enormous amount of rewriting when we did the production of The Atlantic. And when she brought in that line, I was like, I can't say that. She was like, you will say that. It took me a while to be like, wait, is this? I really talk a lot about this, is that I found the sort of key to this character more in questions than in answers. Like I had so many questions. I'm like, well, why? Why does she feel more alive in English? And why, why? And Sanaz was always, she's so, she's such a genius. And she was like, uh-huh. And really, it was like having to sit with that, that I kind of, like, she opened up to me in the sense that, like, I don't actually think she has all the answers to why she feels that way.

You know, and that, and I think, you know, at the end, she does say, I got tired. Like, even though she espouses to all these things, like it, being called Mary and not being able to make people laugh and not being able to, you know, like, she didn't quite hack it there. Like, she got tired. But there was something about, I think, you know, sometimes we idealize and romanticize parts of our lives because, you know, the thing we're living through doesn't give us that. And so, I think that it's not, nothing about her is like black and white. You know, like, you never know. Part of it is like lifting it up for the student's sake and lifting it up for her own sake to hold on to something. You know, this thing of, I feel like I'm disappearing.

It's just like, I think she is quite a romantic character, and she lives sometimes in the romance of possibility than what is actually right in front of her. And like, you don't know what it's like to go home to her husband who, she's clearly comfortable saying he doesn't speak English. And it's like, are you the person who lives outside of this construct in an imaginary world in which you get to be the better version of yourself? And I think it makes sense in that that person gets tired because it's hard to live in that construct all the time. But the layers of it are just bottomless. You know, like, I talked to Sanaz a lot. Like, I'm a huge fan of Chekhov, and I feel like working on, I've worked on a lot of it, and I feel like I could work on it forever, and I wouldn't crack it. And her...

[24:03] Marjan Neshat: This character feels that way to me. There's like an infinite amount of stuff. I was like, well, why? It's not really, I don't think you could take her to task and every single day of her life. She's liked herself better in English, but in that moment and what she's trying to teach and what she, you know, like it's so, it's very easy to stay alive in that play and listen because it's like she's shifting all the time. It is. And when I've seen it, I've seen, like I said, I've seen it more than once. And then there's different beats and different moments that are emphasized each time. And I feel like you as Marjan, the actor, are able to discover different moments about Marjan, the character, every single time and why she's doing things and why she's treating different, the other characters in different ways, because they all have different reasons for wanting to learn English.

And like Pulya's character, as soon as she finds out that she's learning English because she wants to communicate with her grandson. And as soon as that the reason for her learning English is off the table, she doesn't even come back. And then like, so all of this is so wrapped up, yeah, with identity. And I think there's a lot of parallels to the real world now, unfortunately, in that, like, you don't choose where you're born, you don't choose who your parents are. And you're all of a sudden you're thrust in this world and you're learning a language and you're in a scenario. And then when you leave for a better life, or you leave for a different life, or you leave for whatever reason, or you just move because you get a new job.

Actually, as I know, I moved from Florida to North Carolina when I was little. And I never made this connection until right now. I felt so outside and so different because I didn't have a Southern accent. And I got made fun of. I understood what they were saying most of the time. There were literal words I did not understand. Like, in algebra, did you ever learn the FOIL method, first, outer, inner, last, like order of operations? You learn that?

[26:01] Alan Seales: Order of operations.

[26:02] Marjan Neshat: Yeah. So they called it the FOIL method. And in the South, it's FOLE. Like, it's pronounced F-O-L-E, FOLE, like oil is OLE, fire is FAR, you know, you get different dialects. And I was falling so far behind in algebra when I transferred, because I didn't understand the full method. First, outer, inner, last is not FOLE. And just that, I remember that so distinctly. And that was two forms of English.

[26:34] Alan Seales: Yeah. But this is the thing, you know, accents, also, like, you could have had a brother who instantly picked up that language and was like, you know, free and clear in a Southern accent.

[26:46] Marjan Neshat: Sure.

[26:47] Alan Seales: This is the thing that I feel like the play also kind of so beautifully encaptures, is like, you don't, not everyone's relationship to even the same language is the same.

[26:58] Marjan Neshat: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing that makes us who we are, or the things that we aspire to, or the possibilities we feel, like, you know, Elham's, like, contentious relationship with it versus Gholi's, like, optimistic and, like, you know, open relationship. It's just, they could be sisters, they could come from the same household. And like, me and my sister, so different, you know, in the way we meet the world. And that is also, this is the thing, you know, we talk about people from this part of the world, and like, part of it is like, actually, none of them are the same, even all five of them. And that is something that I think we would all be, especially at this time, where everything is so divisive.

And we're like, dealing with just, like, I kind of turn on the news and turn it off. I'm like, I can't really deal with the broligarchy. It's gonna destroy me, you know, and like, I don't know how to be. And I think that, you know, we never are our worst selves when we are tender, or when we're open. And I think that that's part of what the play gives you is like an opportunity to come and be reminded that you had an experience like that, even in America, even a few states apart from each other, that we are actually all much more capable of seeing our similarities and being opened by that, to just our kindness, or our, I don't know, empathy. And we will probably like ourselves better in that state than in the state that they're trying to put us in, which is like, hide and cover, you know?

[28:31] Alan Seales: What's interesting, something you said earlier, was, basically, you shut down when there was a lot of stress, right? It's fight or flight. And I mean, it's kind of like the gazelle that gets caught by the lion, they stopped running, and they just go into shock and let themselves get eaten because it's a self-defense mechanism. And I think there's a part of this too, that happens in social situations, especially when you're very uncomfortable, you just kind of shut down and you let whatever's happening to you happen to you. And you don't realize that you're doing it until it's all over. And I can only imagine that's exacerbated if something like that is happening, you're stressed already, but then you also add in a major language barrier, where you don't even talk.

It's not like a Southern accent versus non, it's literally like, and yeah, it's a language that you have no experience with. I can't, oh, that's, yeah, that's painful. But within English, have you had, or I guess after the show's over, the stage door experience, the audience reaction, have you had people come up to you, and especially bilingual people or people like Iranian people who are...

[29:38] Marjan Neshat: I mean, the Iranians are always all crying. We just, I think it's this, for many, many different reasons. But also, I feel like there's a degree of respect that they feel to be like, oh, our story was important enough to be shown. And to be shown on a Broadway stage, that is infinitely moving to be like, you're less lonely, you're less ostracized. But then my friend came to see the show, and she said she was sitting next to this man who had come to New York from Ohio with his son. And they came to see a Broadway play, and he was like, happened to be walking by, he saw English, and they were just trying to see a show. And I believe he was South Asian. And she said, they sat next to me coming to see a comedy.

And he's like, by the end of the show, it was like, as if he was unzipped. And all of a sudden, he was like, I didn't know there was plays like this on Broadway. And I didn't know. And he was like, I gotta tell my wife, we should see less musicals. But that it was just like, so unexpected. He happened to be walking by and he saw some element of his life story reflected in a way that he had not expected at all. And I feel like that is, it's both, it's a gift to know that you're in conversation with people that you, like, it's not, it doesn't make us smaller, it makes us bigger. Because it's not just Farsi, it's just language. The fact that you had that story about algebra, like that, that infinitely, that's like a point of commonality. You know, with you and that man, and the Iranians and me.

[31:22] Marjan Neshat: I love, love the choice at the very end of the play, where the last couple lines, last couple minutes are all completely in Farsi. There's, there's no English because throughout the, what's been set up throughout the whole play is that when you're speaking English, like when you're speaking your native Farsi on stage, it's your how you're speaking now, no accent, sounds just like you're talking to me right now. And then when you're speaking English, the characters are struggling. So you put on an effect and have the accent. And then I love the choice at the end where everything is 100% in Farsi. And I've heard people being like, there needs to be subtitles. I can't understand anything. And I'm like, you guys missed the message. If you are uncomfortable, in two minutes of Farsi, imagine how they fucking feel.

[32:09] Alan Seales: That's exactly right. That is, you know, Sanaz talks a lot about this for, you know, an hour and an hour and 37 minutes. We've given it to you in a way that it's like we relate on. And, you know, there is a degree of, I guess, like, playing with alienation that's put in there of how they feel. But it's also just an opportunity to be like, for 30 seconds, you also get to feel what they feel all the time. So like, what they say is actually not that important. Like it won't. If you've been with us all along, you get what the play is saying. Yeah, it doesn't say anything that all of a sudden, you're like, oh, now I understand the play. It's just now you understand their soul.

[32:51] Marjan Neshat: Yeah. Or your own, your own relationship to what it's like to be on the outside of something. Yeah, it gives you that empathy for people that are different from you, which everybody needs to have right now.

[32:58] Alan Seales: Yes, you got it. Exactly right. Yes. Well, everyone needs to go see this play. I think it's incredible. But I want to touch on The Night Agent.

[33:06] Marjan Neshat: Yeah, because that season two just came out on Netflix, right? And I love you in it.

[33:10] Alan Seales: Thank you. And so you were you're telling me a story about filming it right before we started recording, but save it for the recording.

[33:21] Marjan Neshat: So yeah, so The Night Agent season two just came out. I think it came out the night you opened English on Broadway. Yeah, crazy. So you got you got two great things happening. What's the feedback been like there? And what was that like, filming that for Netflix? It was I had probably one of the best experiences I had on a TV show that show like the writers and showrunners were so wonderful. And they really like, even before we started filming, they set up a zoom or like all the people who were sort of in the Iranian like mission got to meet each other, talk to each other, have drinks with each other. And also they gave us this perspective, like, look, there's things that you will know about your character and like their relationship to clothing, a headscarf, that we like, not that you have to do our work for us, but that like, we want you to know that if anything rings untrue to you, we are here to hear about it.

And like adjust. And I remember writing a few things to the writer who was like so open and you know, like it was a very, for such like a big budget, fast paced production, I felt like we were all very well respected. And that, you know, like my ideas about what I wanted to do with the character, even if they were like small or minute, we're all taken seriously. And it felt, you know, people talk a lot about representation. And I'm always on like the side of yes, but that doesn't mean one thing. And like, like, I'm not representing all Iranian women or all Iranian mothers, like I want to play this part the way that like, I am, I want to play her like, she puts a lot of, she relies on her daughter and they have like, she's raised her to be a really strong, tough girl and brave.

And she's not, you know, there's like, there's a lot of different Iranian mothers and some will be like, no, no, I do everything for you. Like, it was like, I, mine is this way. And I think that and I was like, I was really adamant about like, when she comes out of Iran, like, do you think she's still wear the headscarf? And I'm like, no, people are dying in Iran not to wear that. And I think I'm up that school. Yeah. And they, you know, like, no one ever pushed back on any of that. But when we were shooting episode five, and I won't get but you know, there's so many things that happened. And we shot it over two nights in LA. And the the climax of that episode, which I won't say but like, we were just running behind and the sun was coming up.

And like, literally, we had like half an hour to be like, this is the this is like the climax of the emotion and I was just there like go and I was like, just like really was like, you don't have very many takes and you better you better feel that right away. So it was very high octane like

[36:04] Marjan Neshat: Sort of put you in the similar, not similar situation, because her situation is so much more dire than me getting a take. But it was like, we did have this sense of like, okay, the rays of the sun are just coming up, and there's so much we can do. And we all had to be out, you know, like we were flying. And so it was really like, it was live wire. I love that because I remember the scene very vividly. I know exactly what you're talking about, and didn't realize that you guys were like fighting, literally just filming logistics. And to watch that and see how perfect it feels in the finished product. And everybody, everybody, such a great, a great, great. Everyone has been so wonderful. But you know, it was like the driving through the terrain and the this and that was like hours. That last like when everything goes down was like 45 minutes of just like, wow, yeah, yeah, well, I get that. I get that.

[37:02] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this break.

[37:07] Alan Seales: Welcome back to the episode. Talking about, you know, the cultural identities of you personally, like you've been, of course, pulling your parents are still I'm sure have a lot of traditional Iranian values that they bring to you and the family and but you've been back and forth between a couple different countries. So do you I mean, this is a stupid question. I'm gonna ask it anyway. But do you feel like you are one culture versus another like you are an American who was transplanted here or you were like, Oh, you see what I mean?

[37:39] Marjan Neshat: I do. I don't I feel I don't actually really even know how to say this without sounding crazy. But like sound crazy. This is the crazy part of me that feels like I've had, you know, I read things or there's things that I will experience that that are Iran to me. But I also feel like I really think maybe I belonged in like turn of the century Russia, like I think I was blown in Chekhov theater company or the Moscow theater or like, and I read this book when I was 16 called Mists of Avalon and I was like, I was definitely a high priestess in King Arthur's time like I really relate to this like pagan or like I feel like I used to walk around being like if there was a drug where like you could take it and live one day in like whatever time period you picked like I would be so addicted to that drug like I so I feel I don't even I'm definitely Iranian there's but but I'm definitely part of you know, but it's not any of those things, but I'm also like not any of those things, right?

I don't I don't know. I don't feel entirely one thing. That's why I part of why I have part of why I'm so upset with just what's going on in the world, this country specifically right now, because we are a country of mutts, a country of immigrants, a country of people who wanted to get away from all the oppression from all the stuff. And then now we're turning around and, and continuing to, to repeat history. And I'm like, have we learned nothing? It's part of why I feel like I double down on the arts, because I think at its best, it makes us more expansive. And I feel like everything in our culture right now is doing things to make us smaller and smaller. And from a small place like you can't. It's like if you're, if you're just so closed in, they can sort of push anything through.

They're like beating the will out of us. And I think that, you know, like people keep asking me, like, what do you want people to feel when they leave English? And I'm like, just a little more tender, like a little more human and open. I think if you do, then you go out and you just make the less cut off choice. Yeah. And I think that it might be the only thing we have to hold on to. I mean, if we're lucky enough to have homes and not be deported, you know, like, just not basic life skills, but just in terms of our humanity or spirituality, or, you know, whatever it is that makes you get through the day. Like, I think we need an ability to like, especially in this time where everything is curated, and you're always like online, like the ability to just be with another human being and feel their essence. I think that matters.

[41:15] Alan Seales: Oh, it absolutely does. And that's why part of why I love that the last week to set 30 seconds is, is not in a language that most of the audience can understand, because it leaves you feeling uncomfortable in a good way. And that's what I love about it is because the last thing I feel after I've been laughing, and I've been crying, and I've been like, putting myself in the shoes of all these people I've been watching, the last thing I feel as me as Alan is an uncomfortability that all of a sudden, I realize I take for granted I don't have that every day. So go see the show. It's awesome.

[41:46] Alan Seales: All right. So we're going to wind down the episode here. And if you'll notice, there's 60 seconds on that screen right there. And we're going to play a little game called plot in 60 seconds. So I have a list of 16 shows. You're going to give me a number one through 16. I will tell you what show that corresponds to. You give me the plot to that show in 60 seconds.

[42:07] Marjan Neshat: Oh my god. One through 16. This could be an epic fail. This is popular, popular musicals. If you don't know, make it up. Popular musicals. I'm gonna be so bad. Oh boy. Okay. Okay. Okay. One through 16. Give me a number.

[42:18] Marjan Neshat: Three.

[42:19] Alan Seales: Three corresponds to Aladdin. Go. 60 seconds.

[42:25] Marjan Neshat: Are you racially profiling me? No, it's right here. I'll show you. No, no, I don't. We joke all the time that Aladdin across the street and we're like, Oh, look, it's us. You know, Aladdin. Well, there's a magic carpet. There's a, there's a, a genie in a bottle. And there is a very beautiful woman showing her midriff who's about to sing her heart out. I'm sure there's gotta be some love involved. You have to find the spirit that was unleashed from this bottle and connect and then live happily ever after. I told you epic fail coming up.

[43:13] Marjan Neshat: The most amazing thing is that they are across the street and we look at that poster all the time being like, if we only we look like that. Well, it's how bad did I do so bad, right?

[43:23] Alan Seales: On a scale of one to that was the worst thing ever. You were not quite the worst thing ever. But Christina Aguilera is not in Aladdin. Genie in a bottle. There's no bottle in Aladdin. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. That's what I meant.

[43:36] Marjan Neshat: The lamp. Not the lamp. I know. But there was something that. Yes, yes.

[43:40] Alan Seales: Okay. Sorry. Sorry, Aladdin. Don't hate me.

[43:43] Marjan Neshat: Oh, well, yeah, the Disney police are coming after you. Okay, so the three standard closing questions. I ask everyone just to wrap up. The first one simply is what motivates you?

[43:52] Marjan Neshat: You know, I have a kid. I have a son and I'm constantly telling him, find what you love and put it in the world. I think it's the only thing that will sort of save you. And so I think, you know, I'm motivated by living by that same ethos.

[44:05] Alan Seales: How old is he now?

[44:06] Marjan Neshat: Twelve.

[44:07] Alan Seales: Twelve. I know. It's so crazy. I can't believe minor eight and ten, the twelve, the teen, the tweens and the teens. I was terrible. I'm not a natural. I actually don't. I can't believe someone let me take him off and assume that I would keep him alive, but I sort of have so far. I can't take credit for this. I heard someone say like parenting is the only job you are given that you don't have to apply for, that you don't have any experience to do. I don't know if it's right.

[44:41] Marjan Neshat: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. All right. What advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[44:45] Marjan Neshat: Well, maybe I should have changed my first answer. I actually, this is the advice is like, don't, to myself too. It's like to believe in yourself and to keep going. But part of that is figuring out what it is that you have that you want to put in the world, you know, and not to do that by other people's definition of who you are.

[45:07] Alan Seales: Hit that on the nose. All right. So now last question. Hardest one. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, you can see it as many times as you want. What would you see?

[45:12] Marjan Neshat: One show for the rest of my life. Stuck on a desert island with solar powered DVD player. What would you watch over and over again?

[45:17] Marjan Neshat: Maybe scenes from a marriage. Bergman scenes from a marriage.

[45:22] Alan Seales: Wow. I like that. That's the first. I mean, I would be like who I am. It would be impossible to narrow it down. But that one is long. I could watch it over and over. I love Bergman.

[45:32] Alan Seales: Not Aladdin. You wouldn't watch.

[45:33] Marjan Neshat: I would not. And clearly they would not want me butchered their storyline so badly.

[45:38] Alan Seales: Well, where can we where can we connect with you online? Where do you play the social media game?

[45:55] Marjan Neshat: Mostly Instagram. It's Margie 33 Margie. So people go, you know, my it's actually it's funny. It wasn't like trying to anglicize my name. It was my cousins used to call me Margie and Marge, just like as a term of endearment. But it also happens to be, you know, like starting out in this profession. Like if I say my name the way my mom says my name, no one would ever repeat it. So like, you know, and all the times we had to go in person to audition, I would like Marjan is how Marjan is pronounced in English. If I'd moved to France, it would have been Marjan. But but in, you know, America, like all my friends call me Marjan. And it's it is my name. It is like what I've been called since I was in fourth grade. And I happen to like I happen to stand on stage every night and pronounce my name correctly in front of 730 people for the first time ever in America, which is also wild.

[47:15] Alan Seales: Wow. Okay, so what's the difference? So Marjan, if it's just on the on Marjan, that's the anglicized version.

[47:20] Marjan Neshat: It's very hard, I think, for Americans to have equal stress. And my name in Farsi, it's Marjan. Marjan. Yes. Marjan. That's very rare. Good job.

[47:33] Alan Seales: Thank you. Must have been your southern exposure.

[47:38] Marjan Neshat: No, if it was southern, if it was southern, I'd call you Marjan. Yeah. Yeah. Marjan. Marjan. Nash it. Nash it.

[47:43] Alan Seales: All right. Um, everybody connect with me on theater at theater underscore podcast on threads and Instagram and TikTok and Facebook. Visit welcome to timesquare.com. So you can check out the billboard where you can be a star for a day. That's the studio we are in. Welcome to timesquare.com. Thank you to jukebox the ghost for the intro and outro music that we will be hearing right now in post and Marjan Nishat. Thank you so much. Did I say that right?

[47:54] Marjan Neshat: Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciated this. Yeah. It was lovely. Thank you. Deep breath, make the world a little colorful.