Issue 39 / In Depth With The South Asian Stars Of Syfy's The Magicians

by Matthew Currie

In Depth With The South Asian Stars Of Syfy’s The Magicians

Mar 05, 2016

Summer Bishil and Arjun Gupta fill ANOKHI in on their dark, edgy, sexy magic series.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: a down-on-his-luck kid is suddenly whisked away from his dreary life and enrolled in a fantastical magic school — where all manner of otherworldly adventures await. But while that bare bones description may conjure visions of Dumbledore and Death Eaters, Syfy's The Magicians, which airs Mondays on Showcase in Canada, has proven to be anything but a Harry Potter clone.

Standing in stark contrast to the titular boy wizard in J.K. Rowling’s billion-dollar book/film series, The Magicians’ protagonist is a troubled 20-something named Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph), who we first met leaving a mental institution, following a severe bout of depression — a testament to the gritty, grounded, altogether more mature world that this show occupies. Over the course of seven episodes, viewers have followed Quentin’s entry into Brakebills College, a magical grad school hidden somewhere in Upstate New York.

^{The Magicians}^{cast (L-R): Stella Maeve as Quentin's longtime crush Julia, Summer Bishil as mystically gifted party girl Margo, Hale Appleman as hard-drinking preppy Eliot, Jason Ralph as troubled protagonist Quentin Coldwater, Olivia Taylor Dudley as bookworm with a dark past Alice and Arjun Gupta as roguish, mysterious Penny.}

_{Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

“I didn’t want there to be an avatar of pure evil; I didn’t want any Voldemort or Sauron,” says Lev Grossman, author of the popular trilogy of novels The Magicians is based on. “I didn’t want to be that obvious. I wanted the good and bad to be very grey and for the characters themselves to be like, ‘Am I a good person or a bad person? I don’t know.’ I wanted them to have to figure that out . . . they’re lost in a way that it’s rare for fantasy characters to be lost.”

It’s a journey that viewers have been happy to accompany them on, as the show performed strongly enough in the first few episodes to earn an early second-season pickup, while also amassing a steady stream of critical acclaim for its fresh take on the world of wizardry and genuinely compelling human drama. Also catching critics’ attention: the presence of two Indian-American leads.

^{Arjun Gupta as bad-boy spellcaster Penny.

Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

Arjun Gupta, a veteran of cable and network TV whose resumé features arcs on the high-profile likes of Nurse Jackie and How to Get Away With Murder, plays Quentin’s roommate Penny — the school’s resident bad boy, who’s emerged as an early nemesis for our hero.

“Penny, there’s a toughness in him in the books, there’s a rejection of authority, and there’s a conflict with Quentin,” says Gupta. “And so I built a character around those things. And I think that the toughness comes from having lived a life . . . and part of his hawk among pigeons [routine] is that he’s lived more than these fuckers and he knows life in a way these idiots don’t . . . I’m speaking as Penny here,” he assures us with a grin.

Refreshingly, he’s a character who wasn’t explicitly conceived as being of Indian descent; Gupta simply impressed producers with the right combination of danger, mystery and sex appeal. That said, he was a choice that Grossman had a tough time wrapping his head around at first.

The author explains: “When they cast Arjun, I didn’t get it. I was like, ‘It’s great that he’s Indian, but he’s not supposed to be good-looking!’ He’s not supposed to be really handsome and badass. But they took him in that direction . . . [and] he’s one of the best characters in the show. He really works. He makes a highly effective foil to Quentin, and is able to push back and give him shit and call him on his bullshit in a really effective way. It changes the dynamic of the ensemble, but in a good way.”

^{Penny (Arjun Gupta) lounging with love interest Jade (Kady Orloff-Diaz).}
^{Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

“Lev and I have had a number of conversations about this where he’s said the same thing,” Gupta chuckles. “And I’m honoured that he’s a fan of what I’ve done. That means the world to me. I don’t think the Penny I’ve created is as different as the Penny he created. He makes a joke that all the characters on our show look better than they did in his head, and that’s a compliment in some ways.”

Also among said characters is Quentin’s pal and fellow spell-caster Margo, played by Summer Bishil; the California-born thesp first rose to prominence in the controversial 2007 film Towelhead, earning acclaim for her turn as a young Lebanese girl from New Jersey struggling to adjust to a new life in the suburbs of Texas. Since then, she’s been making the rounds on series like 90210, iZombie and a regular role on ABC’s short-lived lottery-win drama Lucky 7.

^{Summer Bishil as wild child Margo.}
^{Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

With season two already confirmed, this will mark the first time she’s able to really grow with a character. And Margo is indeed an intriguing challenge — an outspoken, sharp-tongued party girl who’s nonetheless fiercely devoted to her friends.

“When we meet Margo, she’s the person who’s inappropriately humourous at times and big and wants to be seen,” Bishil explains. “And slowly, more layers emerge and her needs become more obvious and more interesting to play and hopefully watch. So that’s been fun, you know, starting from something that’s like, ‘Oh, I have a funny line here’ and then going into her desires and her heartbreaks has been really fun and rewarding, because I had to wait longer to play those.”

What’s more, there have been a few surprises along the way.

“When I auditioned, I knew it was based on a book series, but I didn’t have time [to read them]. Things moved pretty quickly from the time I booked it to the time I was in New Orleans doing the pilot . . . There were things that I didn’t know happened, like the threesome scene, until [co-star] Hale [Appleman] and Jason [Ralph] told me at dinner,” Bishil laughs, “and then sure enough, I read the book and it does happen. We just filmed that.”

^{Margo (Summer Bishil) is always up for a little bit of partying.}
^{Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

While the actors are very conscious of the expectations of the books’ rampant fanbase, they don’t necessarily feel hemmed in by them. With both Grossman and the show’s producers willing to go off book in terms of both story and character, it opens up a world of possibilities.

“I think what’s been wonderful about the process from a holistic point of view is that the showrunners have done that and Lev has given them permission to do that, so there aren’t those feelings of limitation,” Bishil explains. "There’s a feeling that you can grow in different directions and there’s also a feeling of a lot of freedom on set, that you can have a creative opinion about your character. And I think that makes for a happier group of people and a more interesting product to watch.”

^{Margo (Summer Bishil) and Eliot (Hale Appleman) get cozy.}
_{Photo Credit: Shaw Media}

Naturally, there are mystical forces and mythical beasts aplenty for these kids to contend with — particulaly, a grotesque monster in an impeccable suit known only as The Beast. But the real foe that Quentin and his fellow spell-casters — which also include Quentin's childhood crush Julia (Stella Maeve), alcoholic senior classman Eliot (Hale Appleman) and emotionally scarred bookworm Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) — must overcome is life, as drugs, booze, mental illness, and the day-to-day grind of living on the fringes of society will push each to the brink.

“We are telling the stories of real people and what real people go through,” Gupta concludes. “We’re reflecting the world as we see it now. And the world that we see now has a lot of darkness, as it always has. It’s important for us and for me to be a part of something that’s not shying away from that.”

^{Main Image Photo Credit: NBCUniversal}

Matthew Currie

Author

A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...