SciFiChick.com was recently able to sit in on a Q&A with executive producer Ira Steven Behr and stars Ryan Cartwright and Azita Ghanizada of Syfy’s newest original series Alphas. Alphas premiers Monday, July 11 at 10:00 pm on Syfy.
How did each of you become involved with Alphas?
Ryan Cartwright: Okay. Yes. I think I was the first actor on board. I was having another fun horrible pilot season in LA running around doing my monkey showings trying to get a job and then this really good script turned up and I just wanted to be a part of it immediately.
And went into the audition and it was a tricky role for me because the character has autism and it was a bit intimidating. But then once I’d signed on one good piece after another fell into place and everyone that got on board after that and that was already on board that I met was fantastic and smart. So I was super happy to get it.
Ira Steven Behr: I had taken a year off actually to finish up a novel I had started a couple years ago and decided to finish it. And I just turned down TV work for a year, which did not make my agents happy or my wife.
She wanted me out of the house and as soon as I was done I called my agents and said let’s see what’s out there. And one of the first jobs I went on was Alphas and I saw the pilot, which I thought was really interesting and I really liked the characters, which is what I really look for in a pilot.
And I met with Zak and Michael Karnow because it’s really important you know, if you’re going to be the show runner it’s always nice if you can get along with the guys who thought up the project so there’s not going to be any kind of tension.
And we got along really well and I just thought the possibilities for a really good show were there. So and I had been doing a dance with the Syfy Network for about ten years of them offering projects and me turning them down or me going to them and it not working out.
So I figured you know what, let’s just end this once and for all and let me do something for Syfy. And here we are.
Azita Ghanizada: You know, I was the last person cast. I think they had a hard time finding Rachel. She was originally written as somebody kind of very different than what she has become now that Ira and Zak and Michael and everyone else in the writers room have really dug their teeth into her.
And so, I think in my real life I’m a little bit more ballsy and courageous than Rachel is and so I think people had a hard time originally seeing me as that. But I kind of went in and rearranged bits and pieces of myself and understood very quickly what it was like to live in a conservative home.
I’m a child from Afghanistan and grew up with very strict parents in the United States and that was part of Rachel’s journey from the pilot, kind of not fitting in at home was something I responded to. And I just kind of went in and did it and they hired me, those silly bastards. And I got on a plane, I went to Canada and we really you know, kind of found it on the day.