We love when we have the opportunity to sit down with actors that let us think about the characters and the situations that they present to us in the roles that they play! Reza Diako has been in a number of shows that we have enjoyed from Guy Ritchie's The Covenant to Apple TV+'s Tehran, and Netflix's The Diplomat! His approach to his characters; his belief in having to shake hands with the characters that he is portraying; and the need to dig into himself in order to present them to us on screen is amazing. We talked about his approach, how he got into the industry and his portrayal and approach to Apostle Philip in international phenomenon, The Chosen.
Depp's interviews could there be a career here and is it too late? It was funny because I was taking classes more so for the psychological reasons of embodying humanity more at the individual level, rather than what I was studying which was categorical. What is really weird is that some months later serendipitously, I ran into Johnny Depp on my birthday, and we actually talked to each other and I told him about how much I cared for him. AM: It all lends itself to how you navigated one part of your life and continued into this direction that also meant a lot to you.
ATHLEISURE MAG: What is the first film or TV show that you fell in love with and at RD: Right, it just shows the synchronicwhat point did you realize that you want- ity of the situation because after that ed to be an actor? encounter, things just kind of flew. He actually signed a Happy Birthday mesREZA DIAKO: Let’s see. One of my first sage for me and after that we just kind favorite films was actually – it was quite of parted ways. About 6 months later, – well let me say that there are a lot of I’m at a place where I’m pausing medifilms that I watched and as the story goes, cal school because I had a very difficult my mother was a big film buff since she illness situation going on. Then my actwas young like 11 or 12. She would watch ing continues and that’s when I realIngmar Berman (The Seventh Seal, Wild ized that my acting gave me a sense of Strawberries, Fanny and Alexander) films. meaning and purpose and an impetus So I think that that got passed down to and happiness. I decided to apply for me. You know, I have a psychology back- drama school because I had a great ground so I was always interested in acting coach in London for years and I psychological films and so I think that at got in. Then I trained at Mountain View some point when I was quite young I was in London and it was so serendipitous exposed to Persona by Ingmar Berman. I and that’s when things started unfound it really profound, but it was a lot folding as I was coming out of drama of serendipitous affects that got me into school. They were casting Tehran and looking for young Persian heritage acacting. tors and I never thought it would come There was a time when I was studying psy- by so quickly and it was so interesting. chology and then in medical school and I But yeah, I was always watching films was struggling because I was getting ill. with my mom and I would say that InWeirdly, I was watching some videos by gmar Berman's Persona and a lot of Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean interesting Iranian films as well peofranchise, City of Lies, Black Mass) and it ple like Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman, was weird because I spent a couple of About Elly, The Past) – A Separation months looking into his interviews. I was which had a big impact on me, but it taking a lot of acting classes since I was was the whole range. Then there was a teenager. Art ran in the family because Johnny Depp and his performances in my mom was a painter, I did a lot of mu- the Pirates of the Caribbean or I’m a big sic so forth and so forth and here I was Heath Ledger (10 Things I Hate About studying medicine and watching Johnny You, A Knight’s Tale, Lords of Dogtown)