NBC’s ‘Reverie’ beckons Sarah Shahi to another world
If Sarah Shahi believes acting takes her into another world, that’s more literal than ever for her now.
Seen earlier this month in a guest-star return to “Chicago Fire,” the “Person of Interest” alum resumes full-time series work as the NBC fantasy-drama “Reverie” premieres Wednesday, May 30. From “Extant” creator-producer Mickey Fisher and Amblin Television, it casts Shahi as an exhostage negotiator turned college professor. She leaves the classroom when her former boss (Dennis Haysbert, “24”) enlists her to retrieve people so immersed in a virtual-reality program, they’ve lost their consciousness in a dreamfulfillment space called Reverie.
Also featuring Sendhil Ramamurthy (“Heroes”) and Kathryn Morris (“Cold Case”), “Reverie” isn’t the easiest show to explain, the friendly Shahi admits. “Ever since we did the pilot, I tried to figure out what the show was about and how I would talk about it,” she says, “but I think I found a way. It’s almost like ’Inception’ meets ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ set in a psychological-thriller context.
“My character lost her sister and her niece in a situation that made her quit being a hostage negotiator, and she’s recruited to work for this VR firm. And that’s an idea that’s not 30 years in the future; it’s very attainable, maybe three years away. Here, people go in and get an implant in their arms, and they’re able to create these alternate realities for themselves.
“Those are so ideal, the people are getting stuck in that universe and dying in this one,” notes Shahi. “My character has to go into their minds, figure out what they’re running from, and try to get them to come back before it’s too late. And watching this woman get crazier and lose her sense of reality is pretty fun, too.”
Shahi allows “it was hard sometimes to come home and have a cup of tea and go to bed, then do the same thing the next day.” Home is active enough for Shahi: She and actor husband Steve Howey (“Shameless,” “Reba”) have three children, including twins.
Especially on the heels of the Amblin-produced, VR-heavy movie “Ready Player One,” Shahi believes the time is right for “Reverie.” She recalls that when she got the call to do the show, “I was like, ‘Amblin? You mean, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin?’ There was no way they were going to want to work with me and also be nice guys, and Darryl and Justin (‘Reverie’ executive producers Frank and Falvey), they’re my pals now.
“If I’m going to be working my a... off,” Shahi notes of negotiating “Reverie’s” plentiful special effects, “I want to surround myself with people like them. I just feel lucky, on so many levels, that that’s exactly what’s happened.”