The Daily Show’s
Aasif Mandvi
words by Brent Simon
photo by David Needleman
He’s become known for playing himself, and lowering the satirical boom as the “Middle Eastern correspondent†on Comedy Central’s hit show, the Peabody Award-winning Daily Show. But Aasif Mandvi is also an OBIE award-winning actor with a successful, decade-long career that’s spanned film, television and stage. In addition to assaying the 2008 presidential election on the small screen, Mandvi will next be seen in David Koepp’s Ghost Town, with Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear. Phoning from New York, after a muggy morning of filming on his new movie, 7 to the Palace, Mandvi had some things to say about dentistry and telling-off comedy superstars.
h: So, I now have a mildly racist-sounding anecdote involving you that I thought I’d share, just to infuse the rest of the interview with awkwardness.
Aasif Mandvi: OK, fine, go ahead.
h: I was at a party playing “Celebrity†with a group of what I assure you are perfectly delightful people. Each person puts three names in a hat, trying to stump folks, and this was right around the time you started out on The Daily Show, so yours was especially good in this regard. In the first round you can talk, give clues; in the second round you can only say one word; in subsequent rounds, you can’t talk at all. So someone drew your name and pantomimed a turban, which befuddled folks, but then in every subsequent round “turban†become visual shorthand for your name. So I’d like to apologize, first, but then also ask the question: What’s the most ludicrous sort of bigotry you’ve encountered as it relates to your career?
AM: That one ranks. (laughs) I mean, I guess I’m just glad I was included in the game Celebrity, that’s the positive side for me. And I do wear a turban on my off days, so I guess it’s not that bad. In terms of my career, I think since Sept. 11 Americans have become much more aware that there are different kinds of brown people in the world. Oh, one time, for a commercial audition for a snake charmer they asked me if I had my own snake I could bring. That may rank as the most ludicrous story, actually.
h: It must be stressed that I think even Britney Spears was reduced to the flash of a bra strap.
AM: Yes, I guess on some level Celebrity is reductive -- the game and the actual acquisition of fame.
h: When I interviewed Rob Corddry, he said that coming from The Daily Show, sometimes auditioning for roles was confusing to casting directors.
AM: The Daily Show has a very distinct voice and persona, but I think I’ve had the opposite problem a little bit, where people in the industry have gone, “You’re an actor, [why are you] on The Daily Show?†I’ve only been on The Daily Show two years, but I’ve been a working actor for almost ten, so I feel like most people have known me as a guy who’s been in movies, and on TV and on stage and stuff like that. But now it’s interesting because the show is such a cultural phenomenon that people identify it with me more than anything else, which is what every actor wants in their career, to find that level of recognition. I used to get, ‘Don’t I know you? Did you go to school with my wife’s sister?’ But now I just get, ‘Daily Show!’ It’s nice, it definitely feels like you’re making an impact.
h: In Ghost Town, you play a dentist colleague of Ricky Gervais, and get to chastise him for ‘being a dick.’
AM: That was great. I’m a huge fan of Ricky Gervais, he’s a god to me in that way, so I was thrilled to work with him, and that’s the reason I took the role. I’ve seen his stand-up and the British Office, and we had a great time. He cracks up all the time, he’s so free. We would improv and play around, but he has a bad habit of cracking up in the middle of takes. Still, that makes the set really fun, and I was glad for the overtime, frankly.
h: Not that you necessarily had to do any research, but do you now have some sort of special insights about going to a dentist’s office?
AM: Well, I’ve played two dentists now -- in Ghost Town, and on Oz. And they’re very different -- one is sweet and the other a sadist. When I did Oz, I had to pretend like I was sewing gums into a guy’s mouth, so I actually learned the procedure of what happens in a gum graft from the dentist that was the expert on set. And so for a little while after Oz, I really believed that if anyone needed an emergency gum graft in a restaurant, I could probably do it!
h: The movie you’re shooting now, 7 to the Palace, is a very personal tale, isn’t it?
AM: Jonathan Bines and I wrote this script inspired by a one-man show I did off-Broadway about ten years ago called “Sakina’s Restaurantâ€, with characters from my family and my life. We wrap in about ten days, and then will eventually look at some festivals.
h: And you also just recently finished shooting The Proposal with Sandra Bullock?
AM: That was a fun film as well. I had a really fun time working with Anne Fletcher and Ryan Reynolds. And just like calling Ricky Gervais a jerk, I had a great moment where I got to have a meltdown and scream at Sandra Bullock -- a really indignant meltdown. So it’s been a good year -- I’ve gotten to really sock it to some superstars!
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