\n<\/p>\n
The past three years have been good to Amina, the introverted scientist in London with rock-star dreams played by Anjana Vasan on the Peacock series \u201cWe Are Lady Parts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Amina completed her Ph.D. in microbiology. She landed a job in stem-cell research. And she underwent a glow-up befitting the lead guitarist of an indie punk band made up of five Muslim women.<\/p>\n Farewell, shrinking violet. Amina is in her \u201cvillain era\u201d now.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s found this confidence, and it\u2019s almost like a new pair of shoes that she\u2019s breaking in,\u201d Vasan, 37, said in a video interview. \u201cShe hasn\u2019t quite found her landing yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The sitcom\u2019s three-year hiatus was also good for Vasan \u2014 born in India, raised in Singapore and now living in London \u2014 who won a Olivier Award in 2023 for her performance as Stella in a revival of \u201cA Streetcar Named Desire.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe were determined for a show like this not to just be this anomaly, that the show with five women of color at the helm had to have another iteration \u2014 it had to go even deeper,\u201d she said before explaining her fascination with YouTube wormholes, \u201cVeep\u201d on repeat, Townes Van Zandt\u2019s music and the stationery she assembles before taking on a new job.<\/p>\n These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n 1<\/p>\n Zarina<\/a> was the first time I\u2019d seen someone\u2019s art and gone, \u201cOh, wow, I love this.\u201d Then I realized she was of Indian heritage herself. So much of her art is about borders and home<\/a> and memory and place. There was something about a simple piece of art that spoke to me in a really visceral way.<\/p>\n 2<\/p>\n Their story is very dear to me because they\u2019re ex-theater cats. They had been adopted by the Bush Theater<\/a>, where I did a play called \u201cAn Adventure\u201d<\/a> in 2018, and they were kind of like professional mousers. They\u2019re very old, and the theater asked us to adopt them, and we did. For someone who never grew up around animals, I have fallen in love with them because my work brought them to me.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Sometimes at the end of a long play or workday, you just want to watch a comedy. There\u2019s a few that I rewatch. \u201cVeep\u201d is one of them, and \u201cThe Office.\u201d I love the artists even more rewatching them because I feel like it\u2019s such a testament. If you\u2019re laughing the third and fourth time, the joke still works.<\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n The ritual of making it is very soulful for me. I start with cold oil, very, very thinly sliced garlic \u2014 the more the better \u2014 and let it slowly warm up in a pan so it has more time to infuse. Then I add bird\u2019s eye chilies, finely chopped parsley and lots of Parmesan. So much Parmesan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 5<\/p>\n You get up, and you play music, and it\u2019s blasting through the house, and all your molecules are responding to it. It\u2019s not just that you\u2019re waking up, but also your creative brain and your heart are waking up.<\/p>\n 6<\/p>\n I love doing that free association thing with YouTube and letting it lead me down this path of things I never thought I would care about. The other day I found myself really invested in this person who is living in Tokyo on their own. Watching someone do things is fascinating. It\u2019s a real character study.<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n I love the idea more and more of booking myself into the 1 p.m. show, and then I\u2019m out of there two or three hours later and back home. I quite enjoy formulating my own opinion of what it is before I start talking to people about it.<\/p>\n 8<\/p>\n There are songs that you create to get into a character. There are songs that you listen to when you are feeling down and you want to feel more. Then there are songs with a direct line to your soul<\/a>, that can save you when you need it. The chemistry in your body changes.<\/p>\n 9<\/p>\n A Muji gray highlighter \u2014 not the neon, it messes with my brain. Super-sticky Post-it notes. And ruled A6 or B5 notebooks. It has to be a good quality book, but it\u2019s got to be very simple and neutral.<\/p>\n 10<\/p>\n Julia Child, Madhur Jaffrey and, oh my God, Nigella Lawson. A deep dive for me is watching Indian mothers and aunties. And I\u2019m obsessed with Stanley Tucci. Maybe I can engineer it where I work with him, and then he makes me a drink and bowl of pasta. That would be the dream.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Art of Zarina Hashmi<\/span><\/h3>\n
My Cats, Pirate and Marley<\/span><\/h3>\n
Rewatching Comedies<\/span><\/h3>\n
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio<\/span><\/h3>\n
A Get-Going Soundtrack<\/span><\/h3>\n
YouTube Wormholes<\/span><\/h3>\n
Going to the Movies Alone<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u2018I\u2019ll Be Here in the Morning\u2019 by Townes Van Zandt<\/span><\/h3>\n
Stationery, but Not Just Any Stationery<\/span><\/h3>\n
Watching Famous Foodies Cook<\/span><\/h3>\n