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 “We Are Lady Parts.”
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.
Farewell, shrinking violet. Amina is in her “villain era” now.
“She’s found this confidence, and it’s almost like a new pair of shoes that she’s breaking in,” Vasan, 37, said in a video interview. “She hasn’t quite found her landing yet.”
The sitcom’s three-year hiatus was also good for Vasan — born in India, raised in Singapore and now living in London — who won a Olivier Award in 2023 for her performance as Stella in a revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“We 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 — it had to go even deeper,” she said before explaining her fascination with YouTube wormholes, “Veep” on repeat, Townes Van Zandt’s music and the stationery she assembles before taking on a new job.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1
The Art of Zarina Hashmi
Zarina was the first time I’d seen someone’s art and gone, “Oh, wow, I love this.” Then I realized she was of Indian heritage herself. So much of her art is about borders and home and memory and place. There was something about a simple piece of art that spoke to me in a really visceral way.
2
My Cats, Pirate and Marley
Their story is very dear to me because they’re ex-theater cats. They had been adopted by the Bush Theater, where I did a play called “An Adventure” in 2018, and they were kind of like professional mousers. They’re 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.
3
Rewatching Comedies
Sometimes at the end of a long play or workday, you just want to watch a comedy. There’s a few that I rewatch. “Veep” is one of them, and “The Office.” I love the artists even more rewatching them because I feel like it’s such a testament. If you’re laughing the third and fourth time, the joke still works.
4
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
The ritual of making it is very soulful for me. I start with cold oil, very, very thinly sliced garlic — the more the better — and let it slowly warm up in a pan so it has more time to infuse. Then I add bird’s eye chilies, finely chopped parsley and lots of Parmesan. So much Parmesan.
5
A Get-Going Soundtrack
You get up, and you play music, and it’s blasting through the house, and all your molecules are responding to it. It’s not just that you’re waking up, but also your creative brain and your heart are waking up.
6
YouTube Wormholes
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’s a real character study.
7
Going to the Movies Alone
I love the idea more and more of booking myself into the 1 p.m. show, and then I’m 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.
8
‘I’ll Be Here in the Morning’ by Townes Van Zandt
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, that can save you when you need it. The chemistry in your body changes.
9
Stationery, but Not Just Any Stationery
A Muji gray highlighter — 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’s got to be very simple and neutral.
10
Watching Famous Foodies Cook
Julia Child, Madhur Jaffrey and, oh my God, Nigella Lawson. A deep dive for me is watching Indian mothers and aunties. And I’m 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.
