She is no stranger to the ardent TV viewer (we’ll get to that later). But there has been an incredible rise in ‘Ritu Arya origin’ Google searches since she emerged as The Umbrella Academy Season 2 standout back in August. “It’s been crazy. I’m just overwhelmed with how many women have reached out and said how inspired and proud and empowered they feel, to see a South Asian woman play a role like that,” begins Arya.
A wild card on the Netflix show about a dysfunctional family of adopted children who possess superpowers, her Lila Pitts sure shook things up: right from her introductory scene in a psychiatric ward, where she is seen sticking cigarettes up her nose, to overpowering every one of the superhero siblings in the final episode and vanishing with her time-travelling briefcase. In the interviews that followed, the British-Indian actor has said a lot about Lila, her feisty, rather “unhinged” character, and not enough about life before and after Lila.
A still from The Umbrella Academy
So Arya takes some time off the sets in Atlanta, where her big-budget action-comedy, Red Notice, is being filmed, to get on a call with The Hindu Weekend . And flesh out what we already know: she grew up in London, speaks Hindi and Punjabi, graduated in Astrophysics, went to drama school, and is part of an alt-pop band with a recent single titled ‘L.O.V.E’.
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Weird is good
“I think growing up I thought there seemed to be quite an inequality between men and women, especially in my community,” says Arya, choosing her words carefully. “I have two brothers and I wanted to keep pushing the boundaries of my expression and freedom. Which often meant that my parents thought I was a bit weird.” They were supportive, though, about her interest in Astrophysics, playing drums as a teen, acting, everything.
- For her Lila Pitts prep, Arya had reportedly put up porn in her trailer. She’d read how Angelina Jolie had done that for her 1999 film, Girl, Interrupted . “For Lila, I tried not to think too much about fictional characters as I feel it would be about copying someone else’s creation as opposed to making it your own. I’m careful with what I’m watching while I’m creating a character. I did read Fight Club. And I watched Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, ” she says.
In retrospect, she notes, she was very strong-minded and would have gone straight to acting, if that was what she wanted. “I think it all started from watching Bollywood films: Shah Rukh Khan, who is still my idol, and Kajol, from Darr and Baazigar to DDLJ … all those films I grew up loving and thought, maybe I should be that, because I don’t see these people on TV that I’m watching in the UK.”
Fans (and there are many; her Instagram followers this year have reached 4,58,000) tracking Arya will find her in several sci-fi shorts and TV appearances from 2013 onwards. There’s Humans and the BBC soap, Doctors , Sherlock , Doctor Who , Feel Good and 2019’s festive rom-com, Last Christmas . Lady Parts , a 2018 sitcom about an all-female Muslim punk band, checks her favourite boxes: comedy and diversity. There are many more like it on this actor’s list, for good reason. Arya, whose Lila Pitts has a twisted sense of humour and possibly some of the best lines in TUA season 2 — “You are an open book written for very dumb children” she tells her love interest, Diego Hargreeves — plays an INTERPOL agent, chasing the world’s most wanted art thief, in Red Notice.
In the video for L.O.V.E, which the three KIN band members filmed individually during lockdown, Arya holds up a sign saying KINfest. Perhaps it references the many music festivals we are missing this year?Arya, also a songwriter, says the single is not about romantic love, but love for life. This track and the KINspire Me mixtapes on Spotify have drawn many Netflix regulars to her music. Here she shares her playlist that defines 2020:
Looking racism in the eye
Arya likes to keep her personal life private — and that includes her age (27 according to the Internet, 32 going by a people.com report). But when I ask her if she ever had to struggle with gender and cultural stereotypes, she is remarkably candid. She admits that in a world of systemic racism, she has been affected both directly and indirectly. “From a young age, I would see the women in the kitchen serving the men who would drink and party. I was bullied at my predominantly white school, called all sorts of names. Only last year someone spat on me on the bus, telling me to ‘go back home’… I could go on and on but to be honest, I use this to empower myself to create change,” she says, adding, “It drives me to push boundaries for women and people of colour, to gain further equality by taking up space and having a voice. I try not to complain, rather lead by example. And always, always leading from love and compassion.”
On Arya’s real-life heroes
Ritu Arya’s British comedy recommendations
It is easy to see why Ritu Arya has us in her corner. And when Red Notice , Dwayne Johnson’s action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, releases next year-2021, we hope she will give us more reason to cheer.
