"You don't expect her to be a big part of the show, at least the way it starts out. She becomes a much bigger player in the storytelling, which I think is very on brand for The Old Man," Shawkat says of Parwana's two-season arc, which ends with her being more influential than her two American father figures, Dan Chase and Harold Harper. "That's really what drew me to it from the very beginning, that they were like, 'We want these stories of this American hero, but what did he actually do? And what's the aftermath?'"
As an actor, she knows the show's unique style - all those long action takes and gloriously verbose monologues - requires an exacting level of detail that might drive her and co-stars Jeff Bridges and Amy Brenneman a little batty, but that will deliver the right amount of tension onscreen. As a biracial woman of Iraqi and American descent, she appreciates the inner lives the show created for her character's biological father, Faraz, and aunt Khadija, Afghan leaders who protect their village's women and children from the country's religious complexities.
Collection
[
|
...
]