“There is typecasting. There are very narrow perspectives or views on our culture and the cultures from the region. We’re often looked at with judgments, or when we’re not being judged, we are two-dimensional characters. You know what I mean? The wife of someone, or the sister, or whatever it may be.
And so, yeah, as you said, being able to embody this woman who is multifaceted, who is so deep and soulful and also so intellectual, and, you know, comes from this crazy academic background but also a humanitarian background, and also has this neurological condition that she’s been managing her entire life, and also comes from an immigrant family. She’s half Iranian, half Iraqi. There are so many things, and you dig into just one—you dive into just one of those identities, or however you wanna put it, and there, it’s so rich. There’s so much there.
And so being able to have that be part of her DNA, part of who she is, her foundation, but not have her story revolve around that either. Her story revolves around how she delivers care, how she relates to people, how she shows up. And that’s just—and then, on top of that, to have that character and embody this woman, that’s enough for me.
But then also to have that be recognized is incredibly validating and, I think, encouraging for so many girls. You know what I mean? That it’s like, we’re not going to be pigeonholed. We will, regardless of what happens, bring depth; we will bring the layers, we will bring the complexity to the roles that we play and the roles that we get.”
In conversation with Awards Buzz’s Shadan Larki, Sepideh Moafi discusses joining season 2 of The Pitt, representation done right, and delivering an empathetic, nuanced performance that led to a history-making Emmy nomination. Watch the full interview with The Pitt’s Sepideh Moafi below:
The Pitt is streaming on HBO Max.
