Yahoo! Southeast Asia Weekend Edition interview
Nothing really new but some interesting insight on the Alicia/Kalinda friendship, Archie's movie career and her love for Kalinda.
I like that she reiterates the fact Kalinda's background is not necessarily linked to her ethnicity because I'm not really interested in her having been through a typical traditional childhood with an arranged marriage and all.
"Somebody in Hollywood once told me that an Indian girl would never make it in Hollywood."
Hollywood has long been filled by the "somebody's" who pronounced doom on the dreams of countless aspirants (what more aspirants who are not your corn-fed Americans) but when actress Archie Panjabi heard that statement, she was actually inspired.
"I'm grateful to that person because it made me think: it was impossible, but I can make that possible," she said during a session with the Singapore media last June 13th at The Four Seasons Hotel.
Archie Panjabi more than made it possible; she won an Emmy Award playing the role of the mysterious Kalinda on "The Good Wife", which many critics call the best show on television right now. As the cool, enigmatic detective, Kalinda is not defined by her ethnicity - a rare place to be on US television. "I think anybody from any background could have played that character. She just happens to be Indian. And so people tend not to really ask questions about her background. People just accept her. She's just known as Kalinda, not as the Asian woman, or the Indian woman."
She adds that the creators of "The Good Wife," Robert and Michelle King, were keen to avoid making Kalinda a stereotype. Keeping things obscure was "something that adds to the mystery of this character, that you really don't know where she's quite from.
"They told me to tone down my American accent because… they liked my American accent. They called it exotic; you knew she had a bit of American, a bit of Brit, you couldn't tell where she was from. The fact that she was Indian, the fact that she had this accent, she wore these clothes, and she was the toughest character on the show, all added to this mystery because people have never seen something like that before."
Archie was in Singapore to visit her nephews who reside here. In person, she's demure and gentle, seemingly far removed from her sexy, no-nonsense TV character.
"Being described as 'kickass', and 'hot', you know… all these adjectives were unfamiliar terms to me," she admits. "'Oh you're so badass' took a little bit of time for me to digest what that actually meant and being an actor I needed to have an exact translation now, you see. (Laughs) The cast helped me. They would always say, 'Oh it's a good thing. It's a good thing!' and I'm like: 'No, I want to know exactly what it means!'"
Perhaps it's the boots she's often worn on the show that add to her "badassery"?
"I actually wanted to wear jeans, because I felt her confidence, and her sexiness should come from whatever she wears rather than tight clothing," says the 39-year-old actress. "But the creators, and Dan the show's stylist, was very keen to reflect that personality in the clothes, which I think in hindsight is a very good choice. The boots were something I always felt she should wear just because she gave a certain look, very powerful, and I think both men and women find that sexy.
"That was the starting point of the creation of her character which is ironic because that's the item that people always comment on. It gave her a certain kind of posture and I think that's kind of how the character grew. The boots sort of gave her a sort of certain coolness, which I'm trying to recreate [in my real life], but it's not the same." (Laughs)
On tonight's season finale, Kalinda is coming to terms with her "betrayal" of Juliana Marguilies title character, Alicia Florick. Kalinda slept with Alicia's husband, Peter (played by Christopher Noth) back when she worked for Peter.
"The friendship [between Alicia and Kalinda] was something that they had never anticipated would kick off so well, it was not even something they were going to write about," she says.
"It's something that the audience responded to in such a great way so it became the soul of 'The Good Wife.' I think if they continued the friendship without anything happening, the interest in it would have gradually faded away. It was a risky but brave choice to break it up… Because how do you salvage a friendship so solid, was so solid, when this has happened? So I definitely think forgiveness is going to be a theme, as to whether she does forgive or not - I mean I don't even know what they're going to do.
As for Season 3, which starts filming in a few weeks, Archie is looking forward to relishing playing a fantastic role that really explores her skills as a performer and artist.
"A lot of people say to me: 'You come from film, why don't you go back to film?' I say to them: 'This is one of the most exciting characters on TV!' Let alone just for me. Why would I give up that opportunity? The way the character progression works in terms of being organic… You don't have to have a big say but you can communicate with the creators. I can improvise a lot... I really enjoy my job. To me, I've been given the opportunity from the creators, from CBS [network], of having a degree of freedom in terms of collaborating with the creators. To me that's what the craft should really be about; it should be about collaboration. And on this show they definitely encourage that."
Source:Yahoo!