Meet the gossiping auntie from Ms Marvel, actress Anjali Bhimani!
It is always a joyful surprise when you interview someone who is as excited about the show they are in, as you are. It’s like meeting a friend and having a fun catch-up about the latest episode over a steaming cup of chai. But when the person is involved in making the show, you get lovely tid-bits of background information too. Such was my happy experience when interviewing Anjali Bhimani, a star in the new superhero show, Ms Marvel.
“I love it so much so I'm glad that other folks are really enjoying it, especially in our community,” Anjali says. “What's funny is that onset, I didn't think twice about it. Because you're onset, you're working and obviously, the whole crew is not necessarily South Asian. But then watching the episodes, multiple times, I found myself tearing up, and not so much at the joy of seeing our culture or religions that are underrepresented, represented. But something about it being so normal. You know, every character on that show does feels like someone I would be meeting on the street starting with Kamala (Kamala Khan is the titular character played by actress Imaan Velani, who Anjali is wonderfully praiseful of) herself.”
This normalcy of life for south Asian immigrants, from the parents who say ‘I trust you, it’s the world I don’t trust’ to the word beta being sprinkled so randomly and liberally as it is in real life, is part of why the show is doing so well in south Asian communities. “To see something like Ms. Marvel [in terms of representation] and as a superhero. I mean, let's just talk about how awesome that is. There's so much I love about watching this show, as a fan of the show and as a fan of Marvel itself,” Anjali says. “And as a big fan of superhero stories and the modern day mythology that we have thanks to them, I think it's a really, really special thing. I hope other people are feeling that kind of intense wash of warmth that comes from just this feeling of ah, okay, they see us, they see me, they see my friends and not just because of one aspect of who we are, but the complexity of who we are. And the uniqueness of who we are.”
Image of Anjali by Matthew Kenneth.
This in part, is why today it is the highest rated Marvel superhero show on Rotten Tomatoes. But for fans outside the community, it has also been an educational experience. “I was actually doing a watch along of episode two on my Discord because I've been inviting people to come watch along the episode with me,” she explains. “And then afterwards, we do a little Q&A. But there was this lovely young British kid who said, ‘I'm so embarrassed to ask this, but I don't know what partition is, can you explain it to me’, and being able to have that conversation with someone who genuinely wants to know, but for whatever reason, it's not in their history book, or they haven't gotten to that point yet. To be able to, for a TV show, to get people excited about learning not just about a culture, but about a major event that shaped a culture, that shaped several cultures, that to me, I was so grateful that we have that opportunity because of this show, too.”
Her role as the gossip-y auntie, Aunt Ruby, is my favourite in the show and Anjali plays it with an infectious joyfulness and aplomb. “It was pure, pure joy,” she says of the role. “And any chance I get to play like an amalgam of all my amazing aunties is dope. My auntie's are so lovely. And while in the broader community you get the super judgy folks and the things that unfortunately cause the stereotype to exist, there are layers to them, too, right? This is my personal take on Ruby but I feel like she doesn't think of it as gossip. She feels like it's her duty to be like, oh, here, let me fill you in. Just so you fit in. Let me catch you up. Or if there's a piece of news that she gets, like something's going on in the community, she’s like don't worry, I'll take care of that. I'll be the reporter. I'll share it with so and so. And granted, she does it to varying degrees of success, because sometimes nobody needs to be told, it's private business but I just love it.”
As well as Ms Marvel, over the course of her career so far, Anjali has worked in every medium from film and tv, to radio and theatre, but her extensive work providing her voice for characters in games, means she is instantly recognised by millions, even before she is seen. “It still blows my mind,” she says. “And the gaming community more than any other community that I've ever had in my entire life, are just this rabidly artistic, generous, giving and connected community. It's in a way that I've never experienced before. Having been a gamer when I was younger and kind of feeling like I have to hide it because it wasn't so cool, I lived this double life where I can be who I was during the day and then run home and play computer games at night. And having come to it young as a player and then being on this side of it as a performer is literally a dream come true because I did not think that that was an option. Most of my career is oh, I didn't know I could do that. Am I allowed to do that? Okay, cool. Voice-Over is so much fun, because nothing depends on the package that I'm in. You know, I can be a boy, I can be a girl. I can be a humanoid broom, I can be an inanimate object, I can be whatever, it doesn't matter. So your fantasy can run wild, your imagination can run wild.”
From the Ms Marvel set.
I ask her then what inspires her, a favourite question of mine as it quickly tells you what’s important to a person. With Anjali, what stands out is her deep empathy and love of life. “people will tell you all the time ‘oh, the acting business is so hard. It's such a struggle’ and all this. So you really have to have a very strong why and your why can't just be I love acting. Yes, you want to do it for the love of the art. But there's got to be something deeper than that. And for me, it's the chance to take people on journeys they've never been on before. It's the chance to take them on this ride that, not to say they can't go on by themselves necessarily, but to do all the heavy lifting for them. I'll go through everything. I'll cry, I'll laugh, I'll fight bad guys, whatever you need me to do. You just sit in your seat. I got you. And then we can talk about it afterwards, and see how you feel? And did it make you to turn the kaleidoscope that you're looking through just one more notch so you see the world a different way? That makes storytelling exciting to me, it makes it much more valuable than just, I'm on stage doing a thing. It just gives me a bigger sense of being of service, which makes it more important for me.” In a strange way she’s been of service to me when we speak because her infectious joy almost made me forget I was miserably ill with Covid.
Given her vast experience then, what is her advice for south Asians looking to enter the acting industry? “I would say find your way in based on your passion: which form of storytelling do you enjoy the most, because you're going to need to enjoy it to be able to continue with it as you learn, as you grow, as you become more and more successful. Start with the one you enjoy the most but be open to any avenue that presents itself for storytelling, because ultimately, it's all branches of the same tree. But I do think there's no reason you should be doing something that you don't like. There's no reason to choose that. You got to pay the bills. Do what you need to do but long game, there's no reason to choose something you don't like. I think we have a lot more agency than we think when it comes to our career paths. I know, as a younger actor, I spent a lot of time wishing someone would give me the answers. And what I did not realise is that the answers are in each and every one of us. We just asked the wrong questions. Learn to trust your gut.” Resounding advice for any young person in any career path.
Reflecting on my question she says: “I do think we're experiencing a lovely explosion of South Asian talent in front of the camera and behind the camera in the studio. Like our people are definitely being seen and doing the thing, and some of them are just doing it without talking about it, which is why people don't necessarily know about it because you don't have to be loud about it to actually do it.”
From the Ms Marvel red carpet.
And it ties in with her hopes for viewers of Ms Marvel: “I hope that people take away how important it is to step into whatever your power is, whatever is your powerful place, whatever is the place that you believe in yourself, whatever is the place that you are the most useful on the planet. It can be a scary thing to discover that you have agency, that you have empowerment, it can be a scary thing to discover that especially as a young person. I can't imagine having figured that out when I was in high school because it took me years and years and years past that to figure out oh, wait, I have control over this life. Oh, no, I have control over this life! Like when you figure that out, and you really step into it, that's when great things happen. And and I hope that by following Kamala on this journey, and all of the characters, I hope that inspires people to understand that it's in you. It may not look like fighting bad guys, but it is in you. And it's not to be scared of or rather, whatever fear you have trust that you can handle it.”
Ms Marvel is available to stream on Disney Plus.