First up in our series of interviews with three inspiring and game changing women is actress Necar Zadegan, featured in MOJEH Issue 33. Just as at home on a theatre stage as on our television screens, Necar is living the LA dream. We talk to the Persian star about finding her place in Hollywood and the eternal search for the perfect role.
By Natalie Trevis
All images photographed by Benjo Arwas
Necar Zadegan has a knack for playing strong women, with credits that include First Lady and President Dalia Hassan in political thriller 24, Queen Soraya of Iran in Fifties drama Masters of Sex, and Delia Banai, hotshot divorce lawyer, in Bravo’s current hit show (based on the bestselling books) Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce. Zadegan, looking effortlessly radiant and fresh faced after a trip to the gym, tells us that she picks her roles with a certainty that shows she has more than a little in common with the savvy women she so often plays. “You have to have a strong reason for wanting to do certain roles,” she affirms. “I think, what can I give to them? If I can give something to them, then I have to do them, and if I don’t think I can, then somebody else should do it.”
Born in Germany and raised in San Francisco, 33-year- old Zadegan has always been close to her Persian roots, even forging a connection with her heritage amidst the bright lights of LA at the start of her career. “I love the Middle East. I think it’s a very special, misunderstood part of the world. I think that unless you go, you don’t get to know all of its charms and magic,” she says. “When I moved to LA to get into film and television, I accidentally fell into this Persian theatre company with Shohreh Aghdashloo: A fantastic Iranian actress, who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the film House of Sand and Fog. When I moved here, they were looking for a young actress; the next thing I knew, we were travelling the whole world. Behrouz Vossoughi, a very famous Iranian movie star, was in the show – in Iran, there is nobody more famous than this guy – and we would sell out thousand-seat houses at 100 euros a ticket. It was a very big show,” she recalls.
Zadegan’s simple guiding principle when selecting roles is to look for “a great role, in a great project, with a great team”, to which she can offer something unique. A philosophy that has led her to embrace several roles that have a connection to the Middle East. “I’ve been very happy and lucky to portray the characters I have,” she muses. “I was doing a Broadway show, [Tony Award- winning and Pulitzer prize-nominated] The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which was a show with a Middle Eastern theme, and the characters that I played were very strong-willed women with high moral compasses, who, in a lot of ways, were on the right side of history. The story lived in a world of magical realism, but the fantasy it told was a fantasy that has truth in it. I believe in that specifically with regard to Middle Eastern stories. I am very sensitive to that.”
It was this grace and sensitivity that Zadegan drew on to play former empress of Iran, Queen Soraya, in Masters of Sex; valuable qualities given the emotive storyline surrounding the Queen’s struggle with infertility. “She is a really iconic role for Persian people,” she says. “I was lucky to portray her. That show told that story with such incredible honesty and strength, in a very truthful, good way: The right way.” Challenging subject matter is something Zadegan, like most actors, actively appreciates. “I don’t think because I’m Iranian I shy away from stories about fertility or about sex, at all. As a matter of fact, I think that as Iranian women, we have to take up the torch to become even louder about those subjects. I think the rest of the world misjudges Middle Eastern women as these fantasy creatures behind the veil. But that’s not the case. They’re incredibly educated, incredibly world aware and when you know that, I think the burden is placed on us to remind people.”
Zadegan has the kind of calm presence and self- awareness that doesn’t just bring a certain sophistication to her roles, Middle Eastern or otherwise, but suggests she is also more than capable of handling the potential pitfalls of the industry. Aside from an unrelenting and unhealthy emphasis on appearance, competition for roles in Hollywood is fierce. How does she handle the pressure? “As you grow up, you have to decide what kind of woman you want to be,” she tells us, “what you want to portray. I think that when you’re younger, as an artist especially, you have to take certain roles just to build a career. I had to. Then once you’re afforded the career, it’s up to you what direction you want to take it. Whatever you decide is ok, but it’s your choice and it’s your decision and if you’re conscious about it then you can be active in that role that you play. I don’t necessarily think of being a role model, but the fact is that I am. I’m aware of that responsibility and so, I think that means that you should, whatever choice you make, have conviction about it.”
A woman who is definitely owning her choices is Delia Banai, the divorce lawyer Zadegan plays on Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, alongside Lisa Edelstein, Beau Garrett and Paul Adelstein. “Delia is probably the only character on the show who has become the woman who she always wanted to be. That’s a really big deal for anybody, and yet, she still finds herself in a place of un- contentedness. In the next season, my character plans her wedding – which is something that this character thought that she would never do – and because of that, she sometimes says yes when she means no, and is often doing things against her nature.” Does being absorbed in a character for so long (Zadegan has just got back from filming in Vancouver when we speak) come with its own set of challenges? “It’s tricky, because I am such a self aware woman and I am so direct, to a fault maybe. While this character may want to be those things, she is not and she’s doing things against her better judgement because she is finding herself. It’s so antithetical to how I am right now, but it makes sense to be passionate about this person’s journey. As an actor, it lives inside you and you want to make it live inside you, so you take on some of those feelings and those insecurities a little bit… I’m always thinking about ways to better the character, to deepen the character in new scenes. But it doesn’t have to necessarily weigh on you,” she says thoughtfully. “Sometimes, you can have a very emotionally draining day at work, but I think that must happen in every job.” With more nudity, more dubious decision-making, stellar guest stars and a wedding to top it all off, the next season of the show is set to be as chaotic for Delia as Zadegan is zen.
While we watch the drama unfold, Zadegan has her sights set on a trip to recharge in Spain, but not before flying to Monte Carlo to head up the jury of the Monaco Film Festival. From that glamourous interlude, Zadegan will return to LA to continue forging ahead in roles old and new come 2016: She’s got plenty more empowering stories to tell.
