Kubbra Sait Interview: Foundation
Screen Rant spoke exclusively to Indian actress Kubbra Sait about her role in Foundation – as the first season’s main villain, Anacreon leader Phara.
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Apple TV+’s Foundation has given Indian actress Kubbra Sait a chance to stand on the world stage. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books and short stories were generally considered impossible to adapt for the small screen. The stories literally span a millennium, there are immense demands on visual effects, and precious few recurring characters. But the nature of television has changed over the last decade, with the success of Game of Thrones signaling a move towards long-form storytelling and deep world-building. But showrunner and writer David Goyer spotted the opportunity, and – working with Apple TV+ – he’s brought Foundation to life.
Asimov’s style is extremely cerebral, and he tends to skim past some of the major galactic events, simply because his focus is on the Foundation itself. This has naturally led Goyer to heavily adapt the books, with some original characters added into the story. One of these is Phara, the brutal Anacreon leader who is responsible for the first Seldon Crisis that threatens to shake the entire galaxy. Goyer cast Indian actress Kubbra Sait for the role, and she’s portrayed Phara as something of a force of nature, a harsh and brutal figure who doesn’t care who lives and who dies.
Foundation will serve as an introduction to Kubbra Sait for many viewers. Screen Rant spoke to her exclusively about her background, the emotional core of the character she’s playing, and the challenges of bringing the terrorist leader to life on the small screen.
Screen Rant: I suspect many of our readers will have found this to be an introduction to you as an actress. Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
Kubbra Sait: I’m not a qualified actor, I didn’t go to drama school like most actors in the U.K. I think that is one thing that blows my mind because in India the second you are out of your mother’s womb you’ve already been given a label, you’re either going to be a doctor or an engineer. And if you’re really silly or stupid, maybe you will be an accounts person. If you join the arts, then you are really a goner, no future whatsoever. So I was one of those kids who was studying commerce, and I actually have a degree in accountancy, and God knows – I don’t like numbers, I have no idea what I was doing, it almost feels like a whole different life to me.
But that being said, there was this attraction that I had to the arts, and I was on stage and I found myself debating my way out of conversations, participating in elocutions, and it was fun – enjoying that instant gratification that came along with it. I don’t really think acting was something that was my calling, so to speak. I think when I really acted for the first time – and things shift inside you, and I’m not saying this lightly, they just do. The little things, like you have goose pimples, and your voice gets heavy and your heart gets full. And when I feel those emotions, you just laugh till you cry, when these things happen to me for real is when I was, like, “Yeah, I think I want to pursue this. I think I want to learn more.” And I think that was really got me into pursuing acting as a career, and that got me to work in many films and shows here in India, and a similar round of opportunities presented itself to audition for Foundation.
So I think Lucinda Syson, who is in the U.K. in London, it was her question to my casting agent in India, “Do you think Phara could be from India?” And there were many names, I happened to be one of them, I think I was the only person who was called in to Ireland – I was the happiest person alive! People were, like, “Why are you so happy? You’re going to Shannon? You’ll understand nothing in Shannon.” I was, “You don’t understand, this is the foundation of my life.” One of those things. But I got myself to Limmerick, and I did my screen tests, and I waited for about 40 odd days – it was a really long wait, because my first audition was back in September 2019, and I heard back with an affirmative – “Yes you are Phara” – on January 11th, 2021, all that hard work paid off.
How did you prepare for the role? Did you go to Asimov’s books, or did you prefer to go through the script?
Kubbra Sait: I’m so glad you gave me the option of the scripts, most people just ask me if I’ve read the books! No, I haven’t, and the reason why is because Asimov’s writing is so deep, so prolific, and it’s so… old, if I can say, you know?
It’s an acquired taste.
Kubbra Sait: Yes! And if you’d been introduced to this world when you were 14 years old or 12, if you are a science-fiction geek, then you did not become one at the age of 40. You were a science-fiction geek at 4. And I was reading comic books, these really weird characters, so I chose to stay by my script because my script was so heavy on words, and ideas, and thoughts, and Phara isn’t in the book, so I know I wasn’t really missing out on much. I was creating a whole universe here.
To me, the most compelling characters have a strong theme, an idea at the heart of their character. What would you say drives Phara as a person?
Kubbra Sait: Her quest for justice. It stems from the fact that her planet has been burned to the ground, the injustice that has been done to humanity on that planet, is something she’s not going to take. And she’s been training, probably since she was six.
When I was actually presented with the character of Phara, it was compared to a terrorist character. The kind of power, the kind of brainwashing that goes into becoming that person, who is just on one mission, and it doesn’t matter if others lose their lives in the process, it’s just so single-minded – a single focus of destruction. There’s nothing that’s gonna stop her, there’s nothing that’s gonna deter her. She’s got as many people as she can in her army to support her, and nobody cares about what happens to them.
I think [episode 4] has something beautiful about Phara, because of what an Imperial leader says to his people, “The Anacreons blew up the Starbridge, and I understand that it’s personal to some of you, which means it is personal to all of us.” And that’s what Phara is doing too. She knows that this is personal, this isn’t just about her brother, her family, it’s about her people, and she’s so passionate about bringing the Empire down. As a human being, personally, I don’t think two wrongs make a right. That’s my justification for this entire thing – I’m not Phara.
What did you find most challenging about bringing Phara to life?
Kubbra Sait: A couple of things. One, the language; it’s not this language you and I are speaking right now. It’s English, but it’s very academic English, very literal and archaic, and it’s just rhyming and flowing, it’s opulent English. So I needed to use the dictionary quite a few times. Because I understand what’s written there, but I can’t take a shorter route and use the easier words, I have to take the words. This is what makes the show what it is.
The second part was that I had never, ever done stunts in my life, and I had to learn stunts and fighting. We used to train – when we were shooting we weren’t training, when we weren’t shooting I was backstage the whole time. Fighting, throwing punches, turning people down on harnesses, and so once I learned how to throw a punch, now I have to learn how to throw a punch like Phara, the acting in the fighting.
But I think the most incredible experience of being a part of this show was learning Anacreon. It’s a whole new language, and I was loving the cuss words! No other person on this Earth knows these words. And I learn all these words, and it was funny, we would be hanging out with our colleagues, and the creator of the language would be around, and we’d ask, “How do you say balls?” It was really trippy, and it was a lot of fun working with them, and learning languages, and then when you hear it, it sounds like we grew up with these languages. I’m like, “How did we manage that?”
Were there any actors in Foundation you wish you got more scenes with?
Kubbra Sait: Can I tell you who I did not want a scene with? Lee Pace. He’s so good! Nobody would see me. God forbid I had to be opposite him, nobody would see me, he is spectacular. But I wish I had scenes with Jarred [Harris], I wish I had scenes with Lou [Llobell], phenomenal people.
Just the fact that we would walk around the studio, and they would be filming on a different stage, and then we would cross paths during lunch or whatever, and literally Lee, Jarred, they would really stop, look at us… Are we making the same show even? Because look at you, you’re scared, and you’re dirty, and they’re so proper and so prim, and put together, and they speak in a particular fashion and everybody speaks like that. And we’re just like animals, we’ve got blood on our hands, running out of our hands and noses and whatnot, and then you’ve got the Empire – living in their proverbial peace.
This is truly two different shows, and it blows my mind to see how beautifully this show has come together, and how Jarred is on the Empire, but he’s got so much to do with Trantor.
My hope is that Foundation will serve as a springboard for even bigger things for you going forward. Can you give us a hint – do you have anything else in the works at the moment?
Kubbra Sait: Well, I am currently filming a project in India, because this is where I’m from, but honestly I wish these are words from your lips to the ears of God. Everybody works for that one moment which is their breakthrough, and I don’t think I could have been luckier than to be working on probably one of the biggest shows made in the history of world television. This is a spectacle to be a part of, so I know lots of people are going to be watching this show, absorbing what we’ve created, now and in time to come.
I remember in 2019, I was in L.A., and my manager was so kind to set me up with these meetings, and I would knock at the door and explain who I am to people. But it didn’t somehow still feel right, I felt I was still there cold-calling and making a sales pitch. Now I think the door’s open. And I’m there. So that feels good.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/foundation-apple-tv-interview-kubbra-sait/