ROSE & IVY In Conversation With Poorna Jagannathan of Netflix's Never Have I Ever

You have such an interesting background you were born Tunisia, and has lived in Spain, Pakistan, India, Argentina, Ireland and now America. How did that inform and shape your view of the world?

I think my political world view was shaped by my travels. We were in Pakistan during a very tense period with India—it was enemy country for sure. We were pretty scared when we got there; as time went on we learned we are exactly the same people and my deepest friendships are still from that country. We were followed around by Pakistani spies for the first year and one day my dad’s car broke down and he asked them to come and change his tire, because he had no idea how to change a tire. They were like, no we can’t change your tire, we are on the other side. But they changed the tire and we became friends and we called them uncle. I saw a lot of boundaries collapse early on and a lot of myths dissolve. I have an absurdist world view when it comes to politics and it comes from my time there.

When did you realize you wanted to be a performer?

Very, very young; I was always drawn to the idea of performing and what that could look like. I don’t think I got onto a stage until college. I was traveling all of the time and I didn't meet any actors or performers. I never understood what that life could be like but I had a deep desire to tell stories.

Poorna is wear Prabal Gurung and shoes by Ingrid Incisa di Camerana. — *Poorna is wear* *Prabal Gurung* *and shoes by* *Ingrid Incisa di Camerana*.

Was there a body of work that left and impression on you?

I think E.T; it made me feel full of joy. It was the most amazing thing and I wanted to be part of it and I wanted to create. It made sense of the world around me more than anything else and that you could bring a piece of joy, a piece of connection, and a piece of emotion into the world. I wanted to be part of whatever that was.

I love hearing stories about persistence, having a vision or dream in your mind and seeing it through. You worked in advertising for 15 years while pursuing acting. Walk me through that period, what did you tell yourself to get through?

My journey through corporate America was fantastic—I always had the best accounts, the best bosses, and the best experiences. On the weekends, I would take acting classes and I noticed how I felt so different from my ‘perfect’ job. An acting class would start at 10am and in a blink of an eye, it would be over—it would be seven hours in—I wouldn’t even notice time would pass. Whereas at work, I would be staring at the clock. It was a relief on Friday and anxiety on Sunday. I was so different in acting class or when I was picking up a script, I felt so full of life force and I felt so depleted of it in advertising. I was good at advertising but I never wanted to get promoted (laughs). I told my boss, I think I would make a great number two, I am so happy. I didn’t want to excel, I couldn’t keep my mind off the scene I was doing on the weekend in my adult acting class. I felt, energetically, I was a different person. I couldn’t deny myself the life force and the joy while acting. It was a huge risk, when I quit I started my own consulting business. I was doing advertising and brand consultancy until four years ago. I still get requests (laughs). The community in advertising is very supportive. There is a job you never want to end; you are always thinking about it and can’t wait to get back to work. Then there is a job that you don’t. It’s the risk of saying, let’s see what happens if I pursue the first.

It’s about following your bliss, that’s very inspiring!

It is and as an immigrant myself, it feels like a very Western concept. It’s not about money, I had none of that. It’s a hard one so I had to always juggle it with advertising, but it’s possible. I also think if you want to be an artist, you have to be happy with all levels of what form your art takes. Mine could have been just taking acting classes, doing something on the weekend, theater in New Jersey, TV, or film. You have to be okay with all forms of how your passion manifests.

I love that. We so often just want to be catapulted to the top but it’s also about the ladder and the little steps it takes to get there. now to talk about Never Have I Ever! The series hit during covid and you had over 40 million people tune-in, so incredible. Did you know when you first signed on that it was going to be an instant hit?

I knew that the writing was good and personal. Mindy (Kaling) and Lang (Fisher) both have lost parents; when I was reading the script, it was really funny but the parts that meant the most to me came from a beautiful, profound sense of grief. I knew the writing was there, I didn’t know how it was going to be perceived. It’s about an Indian family at its center and that could have gone any which way. It was also a matter of timing, it could have come out five years ago, or could have come out on network TV. It became Netflix’s jewel because of how well it did globally. It’s all about choices in the end and what they decided to write about like how to deal with something profound and comedic at the same time.

How did the part come to you?

It was a global casting call for all of us. I went the traditional route of my agent submitting me. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get it because there are amazing South Asian actresses out of London who have such a resplendent comedic resume. I didn’t have any comedy on mine. Since I had come up through drama, I would never get seen or get into a room that was casting for comedy. Casting can be very myopic—once they see you as one thing, you are always that thing. I was worried I wouldn’t be considered at all but Nalini has a very particular sense of humor and she is South Indian like I am. I was raised around women just like her and so I tapped into the character very easily. The first audition was a tape I sent it and then the second was an in-person audition. On one of the auditions, I was threading my upper lip for the entire scene, I was threading my mustache, and they found it very funny.

I love all of the characters. your character, nalini, balances being a mom, her career yet putting family first and healing from the loss of her husband. What evolution can we expect from your character this season?

Dealing with mental health issues isn’t common in our community, it’s very frowned upon. You have to have everything together and put one foot in front of the other. I think season two is a wonderful exploration of grief and how moving forward is not the same thing as moving on. It’s a few steps forward and a few steps back. There is an exploration of desire, which I find so fascinating because it’s so seldomly explored. I play a lot of mom roles and I get a lot of mom roles to read but they are so unidimensional. The immigrant mom roles specifically and so here you get a view into Nalini’s desires as a woman, her sense of fulfillment, her grief, and her vulnerability. It’s also about her life beyond just being a mother and most importantly you see the fierce love between her and Devi grow and their understanding grows.

I also love Devi’s character, she is bold has a strong sense of who she is.

We all have so much to learn from her. Rage is off-limits for a girl, specifically in South Asian culture, but I am learning more and more, it is in many cultures and also in America. Looking and seeing an angry girl gives you so much strength—first of all, what is there not to be angry about? How wonderful it is it express it and see where the chips fall. I do hope that audience members learn more from her.

You’ve talked about how the show has really hit at a deeper level. Would you say as an artist that is always your goal to have those connections and make others feel seen?

There have been numerous attempts of TV series like this in the past. There have been many South Asian and Middle Eastern pilots that have never taken off. I think now there are a lot more places to tell stories and there are a lot more stories to tell. Never Have I Ever is not the definitive experience of South Asians in America—there are so many other experiences and nuances, there is so much to explore there. I am hoping this is just the beginning of an illustrious start for people like us on TV. You don’t know what it feels like to be seen until it happens and to see yourself in media is somehow willing yourself to being, your feet plant firmer on the ground. I remember knowing that art could start doing that when I was in The Night Of, there was one journalist who critiqued the piece. He only talked about what it felt like to see us eat food with our hands. The entire show was brilliant, but all he fixated on was it was the first time on American TV he saw a family eat the way that he eats and what that triggered for him. It normalizes things; people like me have always been outsiders and it gives you foot into the inside.

You’ve also have produced. What other dreams do you currently have for your career?

I think I finally have the guts to tell my specific stories. I come from a family of many, many dysfunction and I rarely see that on TV; also, since I am myself an immigrant and to see even more nuanced portrayals of immigrants. We are always on the margins; we are always invisible so trying to center those stories more. I am on the path to bring these stories to life through producing.

In Conversation With Poorna Jagannathan