Renowned actress Shabana Azmi is opening up about her positive experience working on the highly-anticipated series Halo. The 71-year-old actress praised the show's colorblind casting and the possibility to play a complex role without being cast only for her ethnicity.
The upcoming series is an adaptation of the video game Halo, a popular science-fiction franchise that involves a war between humanity and an alliance of aliens called The Covenant. In the new Paramount Plus show, Azmi plays the key role of Admiral Margaret Parangosky, alongside Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief and Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, among others.
Azmi is one of the most revered actresses in her native country, having won India's national film award for best actress five times. However, most of her Western roles were solely focused on her ethnicity and had little to no depth, so being able to play a nuanced character in Halo came as a pleasant surprise for her. "Asian actors have been saying that they really were struggling for color-blind casting because they were saying why should the Caucasian be recognized as the mainstream?" Azmi told Variety. "And why if Laurence Olivier can play Othello, then why can an Asian actor not do it? And now when I do Halo, I realize that they have really got color-blind casting, because in spite of the fact that I play Margaret Parangosky, I have not been asked to change my accent, the color of my eyes is exactly the same, they did not color my hair."
Azmi then shared the example of her co-star Yerin Ha —who is Korean and plays Kwan Ha Boo— to illustrate the fact that while the series features actors from all over the world, they weren't cast for their ethnicity alone. "That was a very wonderful experience, because something that we’ve been struggling [with] for so long, finally, we could see that actually happening," added Azmi. The actress went even celebrated the role as her first instance of "colour blind casting" on her official Instagram account.
The Halo TV series suffered multiple setbacks due to the pandemic but managed to maintain expectations after delivering an exciting first trailer in January 2022. The sneak peek showcased some thrilling action sequences and multiple references to its source material, but early reviews for the show's first two episodes called the live-action an acceptable but ultimately disappointing adaptation of the franchise. Nevertheless, Paramount Plus already renewed Halo for a second season ahead of its premiere.
Those sentiments echo the criticism against the series' video game counterpart, Halo: Infinite, which launched in late 2021. While the game enjoyed an incredible amount of success following its release, Halo: Infinite has since faced backlash due to several online play issues. Despite negative reviews, the Halo series could still be a refreshing take on an otherwise waning franchise.
Halo the TV series streams on Paramount Plus on March 24, 2022.
Source: Variety