EARLY ROLE AS HAMLET LEADS TO SCI-FI STARDOM
As a kid, Cas Anvar — one of the stars of the sci-fi series The Expanse — wanted to be a chemical engineer. But his school drama teacher planted an entirely different seed.
“He stopped me in the hall and said, ‘Anvar. You will be auditioning for the play next week.’ No question mark. It was a statement,” he recalls.
A self-described nerd and introvert, Anvar didn’t think he belonged on stage. But he nailed the audition.
“It was supposed to be just for fun, but I got cast as Hamlet and it’s kind of hard to go back from there,” he said. “I was bit by the bug when I was 16 and spent five, six years trying to shake it and couldn’t do it. I finally asked my parents if they would support me and they said, ‘If you get into the best school in Canada then we’ll agree it was what you were meant to do.’ ”
Anvar auditioned for the National Theatre School and didn’t even get a callback, so he returned to university. The next year he auditioned again and got accepted. His parents kept their word. He later started a theatre company in Montreal, known for its Shakespearein-the-Park tours.
Today, he splits his time between Toronto and Los Angeles. But Anvar spent the first five years of his life in Regina.
“I don’t think my folks could handle the cold,” he said of his family’s eventual move east. “And they brilliantly chose to go seek out the warmth of Montreal. I don’t know what they were thinking.”
He will return to his native province for the first time (aside from a short visit to shoot an episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie a few years back) for Sask Expo, where he’ll speak on a panel and meet fans.
Anvar said he loves the convention experience and feels at home with his geeks. He’s happy to nerd out about The Expanse, a show that
takes science very seriously.
“We go above and beyond to make sure the science on the show is real. It’s not one of these shows that has warp drive and laser blasters and faster than light travel. It really is what space travel will be like 300 years from now, including all the foibles and flaws and weaknesses of humanity that will follow us into space,” he said.
The show has an astrophysicist for a show runner and writers who are also scientists with connections at NASA. Anvar said he’s not used to being the smartest person on set.
“Now I’m kind of average but that’s very exciting for me because every time I go on set they’re teaching me something about science I didn’t know,” he said, adding fans often express their appreciation for that attention to detail.
Anvar has worked in a variety of different film and TV genres, including for critically acclaimed dramas like Argo and Room and series like The Strain. He’s also worked as a voice actor, notably as Altair in Assassin’s Creed: Redemption.
Although he’s well-versed in many genres, his passion for science fiction is clear. He thinks the genre is critically important because it can teach in a way other genres can’t, he said.
“It pulls us out of reality and puts us into a fictitious world that allows you to create parallels without pointing fingers. Hopefully what that does is make the people who actually need to learn open to receiving these messages. Science fiction has the honour and privilege of being able to talk to people about themselves, to show the mirror up to nature, as Hamlet would say.”