NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Marjan Neshat is a veteran of stage and screen who teaches fledgling actors. Like so many of us, she sometimes has bouts of self-doubt.
鈥淚 think on the first day of class, I still always have imposter syndrome, but I鈥檝e grown to live with it,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 never thought that I had the gravitas to be like, 鈥業鈥檓 going to teach you acting.鈥欌��
This semester, her students at The New School got to witness self-doubt kicked to the curb when Neshat became a first-time Tony Award nominee. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure they鈥檙e all a bit more smitten with me now,鈥� she says, laughing.
Neshat earned the nod for her work 鈥� appropriately enough 鈥� playing a teacher in Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated play 鈥淓nglish,鈥� which premiered on Broadway in the fall.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something about this play that feels so bottomless,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚t kind of felt like winning the lottery because it was, to me, everything as an actress that I care about 鈥� it was artistic, and it was subtle and it was nuanced.鈥�
A different depiction of Middle Eastern life
鈥淓nglish鈥� explores the ways in which language shapes identity, can help people feel understood or misunderstood and the push and pull of culture. It's set in a storefront school near Tehran, where four Iranian students are preparing over several weeks for an English language exam.
Neshat plays their teacher, a woman who loves rom-coms and English but who is unmoored, a foot in Iran and one in England, where she lived for many years but never completely felt at home.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 always belong to what we鈥檙e born to,鈥� says Neshat. 鈥淪he understands the potential of language and the potential of reaching beyond yourself. And yet she鈥檚 at a point in her life where she鈥檚 also losing a lot of that.鈥�
The play is packed with cultural references 鈥� like Christiane Amanpour, Hugh Grant and 鈥淲henever, Wherever鈥� by One character admires Julia Roberts鈥� teeth, saying 鈥淭hey could rip through wire. In a good way.鈥�
鈥淚 feel like so often, when you鈥檙e telling stories about a different culture, especially in the Middle East, it鈥檚 like, 鈥榃ell, we wanna see them behind the veil鈥� and 鈥榃e want to see our idea of them.鈥� And I feel like, especially with my character, I feel it defies all of that. I feel she is romantic and flawed and complicated.鈥�
The play has made history by making Neshat and co-star Tala Ashe the first female actors of Iranian descent to be (The first Iranian-born actor to receive a Tony acting nomination was Arian Moayed.)
The two face off at the Tonys on June 8 in the category of best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play alongside Jessica Hecht, Fina Strazza and Kara Young.
One woman, two worlds
Neshat's family fled postrevolutionary Iran in 1984, when Neshat was 8, and she hasn鈥檛 been back since. She decided early on she wanted to act, despite her mother's fear that her daughter might share the same fate as
She adores the plays of Anton Chekhov and watching movies on the Criterion Channel, and she's obsessed with the novel 鈥淎nne of Green Gables.鈥� 鈥淚鈥檓 not like super-showy. I鈥檓 interior and deep,鈥� she says. When 鈥淓nglish鈥� ended its run, she and the cast wept in their dressing rooms.
鈥淪he (Neshat) thrives in mystery and yearning and I think I鈥檝e always strived to capture a feeling that goes beyond language. She鈥檚 after that, too,鈥� says Toossi. 鈥淚 think she holds contradictions and leaves space for the audience. She operates in a register must of us can鈥檛 quite reach.鈥�
Neshat's credits range from the movies 鈥淪ex in the City 2鈥� and 鈥淩ockaway鈥� to an off-Broadway production of 鈥淭he Seagull鈥� with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming, and to roles on TV in 鈥淣ew Amsterdam,鈥� 鈥淨uantico,鈥� 鈥淓lementary鈥� and 鈥淏lue Bloods.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e sort of been saved by art in so many ways,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been sometimes like a really bad boyfriend, and it鈥檚 brought out all my middle school rejection and angst, but truly, in the best of ways, I have, I think, become more myself or understood who I am.鈥�
鈥楢 cry into the void鈥�
鈥淓nglish鈥� 鈥� written in the wake of President Donald Trump鈥檚 during his first term 鈥� premiered off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company in 2022 with Neshat in the teacher's role.
鈥淭here is something very emotional about the fact that she wrote this as like a cry into the void when the Muslim ban happened and the fact we were like opening shortly after Trump became president,鈥� says Neshat. 鈥淛ust the culmination of all these things, it felt like an event.鈥�
She has a tight bond with Toossi, nurturing her 鈥淓nglish鈥� and also appearing in the playwright's 鈥淲ish You Were Here.鈥� The playwright once saw Neshat at a play reading before they ever met and soon gave the teacher in 鈥淓nglish鈥� the name Marjan. Neshat jokes that 鈥渟he wrote me into being.鈥�
鈥淗er writing has given me some of the richest roles of my life,鈥� says. Neshat. For her part, Toossi says getting Neshat and Ashe to be Tony-nominated is her proudest achievement.
On the opening night for 鈥淓nglish鈥� on Broadway, Neshat was joined by her mother and her 12-year-old son, Wilder, and they marveled at the journey life takes you.
Neshat's grandmother was married at 13 in Iran and never learned to read or write, though she dictated poems and letters. Just two generations later, their family has star on Broadway.
鈥淭he little girl I was in Iran would never have imagined that I would be sitting with my mom and nominated for a Tony,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t just truly is a ride.鈥�
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
