Percy Jackson and The Olympians actor Aryan Simhadri reveals he ‘didn’t know’ who Abhay Deol was during Spin
Indian-origin actor Aryan Simhadri plays one of the main characters Grover Underwood in the series adaptation of Percy Jackson & The Olympians. As the show recently returned with its new season, Aryan Simhadri talks to us about representing the South Asian community in the West.
“It means so much but it’s also genuinely terrifying to think about sometimes. My least favourite question in interviews is ‘who do you look up to?’ I feel like there’s so many plethora of other actors that my co-stars or my peers can choose from, but there’s not really that much representation when it comes to South Asians or Indians on screen in the West. The fact that that’s now starting to change, and I get to be a part of that, is ridiculous,” he says.
Reflecting on the contribution of Percy Jackson & The Olympians in his career, Aryan shares, “It has contributed hugely. I started off doing mostly just Nickelodeon and Disney Channel sitcoms and commercials. And then I got here and there was a scary moment when I realized that kid acting just was not going to cut it anymore. This has been the most growth I’ve ever experienced as an actor.”
He adds, “Being on Percy Jackson made me fall in love with acting again in a hugely new way, because it’s like a whole different kind of acting. Speaking from experience, when you get to do something like this and genuinely feel things and not be like in on the joke, and do real acting is just like a different pool, a different world to kind of explore. I’m obsessed with it now and I don’t want to stop. It’s incredible.”
Aryan got to work with actor Abhay Deol in the English film Spin, and he shares that he was unaware about his stardom at the time. “When I worked with Abhay Deol, I had no idea who he was. Don’t tell him I said this, but I’d never seen Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. And my parents were freaking out, telling me ‘you have no idea who you’re talking to right now. You need to ask him for advice’. And for me, he was just my friend, just this really cool guy I got to work with.”
So, does he have any Bollywood plans? “I can’t speak Hindi, but I would love to do a Tollywood film. I grew up watching Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, and their films. And that’s kind of why I fell in love with Percy Jackson, the book series, because that entire thing, the mythological aspect of it, it just feels like Indian mythology. It’s like this fantastical world and it feels like the films I grew up watching,” he ends.
