We sat down with Cas Anvar (The Expanse, Room) at San Diego Comic Con 2019 to talk about his role in the new film, The Operative. The film stars Martin Freeman and Diane Kruger. The Operative follows the story of Rachel (Kruger), a rogue spy from Israel’s feared national intelligence force Mossad, vanishes without a trace while attending her father’s funeral in London. The only clue to her whereabouts is a cryptic phone call she places to her former handler Thomas (Freeman), who is then summoned from Germany to Israel by Mossad. With Rachel’s life immersed in her assignments as part of a vast espionage effort against Iran’s nuclear program, Thomas must retrace her steps to determine what threats she may now pose to their operation, while also working to protect her. Cas Anvar play’s Rachel’s love interest, Farhad.
We asked Mr. Anvar about his character in the film and he felt if there were any similarities between himself and the character he plays.
“He’s a guy who ran his own business, he was divorced, he was looking for something that was missing in his life. I related to that and then he met this very exciting, very dynamic, very intelligent American woman, and he was in a very conservative country and it was sort of like she was bringing action and adventure and excitement into his life. That’s something that i could relate to. Having him go on this rollercoaster, having it go off the rails and being completely surprised and how that feels when something you think is going this way actually going this [other] way, I think that’s something we can all relate to in terms of betrayal and not knowing that this is what our life is going to be. So i think we’ve all been in that situation and that’s a very profound and poignant moment.”
What research did you have to do for preparing for this role:
“My particular character in terms of research was a lot easier since I wasn’t involved in any of the clandestine aspects of it. My character was basically a civilian. However he is an engineer, so my homework was basically developing and working on the language. A lot of my work in the movie was in Farsi and its a very specific accent. The accents change depending on where you are from. I’ve had to reach out to friends and relatives to get help working on the accent. ”
For the last few years, you’ve been known for playing Alex Kamal on The Expanse, that character is a pilot and has to learn a lot of technical jargon, for that character you had to learn a lot of technical terms. what technical terms did you have to learn for this character? How is it transitioning from one character to the other?
“This character is an electrical engineer and his character and his company is working with the Iranian government in terms of supplying them with equipment and hardware for their nuclear arms program. There are a couple of scenes where he is dealing with his employees and he’s overseeing their work and I had to learn it in Farsi, just giving people notes and telling them technical stuff about the work they are doing. That was the extent of my technical expertise. Most of the stuff I had to do in The Operative was dealing with the relationship. ”
Mr. Anvar also goes on to explain the complexity of having to shoot a movie all over the world because they weren’t always granted permission to film where the film takes place.
“We didnt film on location in Iran. We did Isreal, we did Tel-Aviv, we did Bulgaria, we filmed in three or four different countries. What they did do brilliantly is they got their DP and their camera crew and they went out and scouted all different places in Europe and found little corners of different countries that looked identical to the streets of Iran. They also did some very discreet cinematography of the street life in Iran and intercut it and it was seamless, the way they put all these different shots together from all these different countries and blended them into one scene. You can’t tell and it was beautiful.”
What is more challenging or rewarding when playing real-world characters versus sci-fi characters.
“It’s kind of like asking which do you like better voice acting or camera acting? Tt’s such different experiences. I personally am a huge nerd. I’m a big geek and I’ve done science fiction and fantasy. Since I was a kid I’ve been playing. you know, D&D, reading comic books and video games, following Star Trek and Excalibur and all that stuff. So to be able to participate and be on the other side of that adventure and be one of those characters in one of these epic fantasies is like a dream. I’m constantly just like a kid in a candy shop. On a rollercoaster being on The Expanse. And playing a character like Alex Kamal, a swashbuckler- with his witticism- best space fighter pilot in the galaxy -its a dream. Whereas doing roles like Room or Argo or in The Operative, or Shattered Glass which is a movie I did a while ago, these are hard-hitting beautifully crafted beautifully written movies that have huge impacts on the world. Shattered Glass was a movie that exposed journalism because you had characters that were creating fictional stories and passing them off as fact for two years, and nobody could possibly believe that that was happening, so this movie shows how it happens, and its made us rethink when we’re reading these things. The Operative, again, it shows you what’s going on out there. and it shows you how prevalent this is. And people dont think this stuff is happening and it is. Your cellphones are being tapped, anyone can have access to your phone. someone can turn my microphone from the NSA headquarters and start listening to our conversations. They can turn my laptop on, anyone can have access to you. There is no such thing as privacy, and there’s a whole bunch of people doing what Diane’s character does in this movie. doing all these things for the greater good, for national security and there’s a very small select few that are getting to decide what that is. And there are some very few people that have to execute and do these jobs and I would not want to be any of those people. I would not want to be the person who has to make the decision and wrap my morality around what the greater good is in a particular national security issue is and have to decide life or death for people because of what my superiors have told me. And the beautiful thing about this movie is it explores that. It explores the consequences, the damage, it explores the cost, the human cost, of being a spy and of being given the power of life and death. “
In our current political climate were you worried about how your character or this film would be received?
“When I read the script none of my political red flags went up. I didnt get any warning because this particular script deals with the CIA and the Mossad, but it could have easily been any other secret service. Because the mission to Iran could easily have been a mission to Russia, to Chile, it could have been a mission to any country with which another country has issues with and has national security issues with. It’s not a specific political statement piece toward one particular country or another. It could have been interchangeable with any country that has problems with another country. What it really deals with is the humanity of the people involved in these types of operations. You have these big machines, which are governments, which give directives down to agencies and then these agencies digest and process that and give a very complicated and very volatile directive to an individual human being. And that human being has a heart and a soul and a mind and a brain and a conscious and they have to then take this information and basically be the operative of their government. There is a huge cost. And you have to be a very specific type of person to be able to do this job. That’s another thing that Diane really captured brilliantly. Her character was hunted down and sought out by the governments because her personality type was so perfect for this, she was so suited for it. That’s another thing about this movie, it really shows you who these people are that become these types of operatives. Because it’s not just you and me that can do this. They have a very specific mind and a very specific way of living life and seeing things and their perspective and your morality approach has to be very unique. You have to have the mind for it. I’ve never really seen that in a spy film before.”
The Operative is in theaters on August 2nd.
