HAIL TO THE KING
Avan Jogia, who plays pharaoh Tut in TV miniseries, is intent on taking his career to the next level
Canadian star transformed into Tut for TV minseries,
At 17, Avan Jogia was a struggling (OK, bored) high school student at Killarney Secondary School in Vancouver with enough acting credits on his IMDB page to make him seriously question the point of his math homework.
His parents struck a deal. “Go down to L.A. for six months; if you get a job, good for you, you’re an actor,” Jogia (whose name is pronounced AH-van JO-gheea) recalls. “If you don’t get a job, then you have to come back to Vancouver and you have to go back to school.”
Much to the chagrin of stay-in-school advocates everywhere, Jogia was quickly offered the role of the charismatic Beck Oliver on Nickelodeon’s Victoria Justice vehicle Victorious. While starring opposite Justice and a then-unknown Ariana Grande made him the toast of the tween mags, Jogia, now 23, was ready for something more.
This month, the Canadian actor gets his chance, playing the iconic Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the three-part epic Spike miniseries Tut (premiering July 19 at 9 p.m.).
“I’ve been doing this now for nine years, and now it’s finally bearing the fruits of labour.”
AVAN JOGIA
The sand soap is produced by Montreal-based Muse Entertainment Enterprises, known for splashy miniseries such as The Pillars of the Earth and The Kennedys.
“I’ve always been a give-me-the-ball type person,” Jogia says over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, where he is playing with his dog, Maybelle, while reviewing the first cut of a short film he recently directed. “The more responsibility, the more pressure, the more comfortable I feel. For me, I finally got to do the thing that I wanted to do.”
Tut fills in the holes in the known history of Tutankhamun by imagining the young pharaoh’s growing suspicion of his advisers, including the scheming Grand Vizier Ay, played by Sir Ben Kingsley.
Shot in Morocco, the production called for Jogia to spend16-hour days filming elaborate action sequences in oppressive desert heat. He followed a restrictive diet to lose weight for the role and yet no one had more energy on the gruelling shoot. During a chase sequence, he tripped and cut his hand. Not wanting to interrupt the schedule, he had the onset medic give him stitches during his lunch, then swapped his fighting hand to finish the day. “I was adamant about wanting to finish,” he says. “Slowing down the pace doesn’t help me.”
Kingsley describes Jogia as an “intelligent and alert” co-star. Asked if he mentored Jogia on set, the actor laughs. “I’m not that pompous!” he says. “It’s like tennis: you smash a ball over the net and you want them to smash it back at you to have a great game. If I can play a good game with (my co-star), we’re both learning.”
To Jogia, Kingsley is a personal hero: they share the same Indian-English background. (Jogia’s father is British-Indian and his mother is British-German; his older brother, Ketan, is a music producer in London.)
Jogia says being a mixed race actor in Hollywood has been “a very long journey.” However, he is encouraged by recent casting decisions, including John Boyega’s lead role in the upcoming Star Wars sequel. (Boyega, 23, plays Finn in the film to be released in December.)
“The lead in Star Wars, being a black man: that’s truly amazing,” Jogia says. “It’s going to help further prove that it’s about the story, it’s about the humanity, it’s about the spectacle, and we can watch anyone of any race onscreen and there are no hangups.”
The coming months bring a series of meaty dramatic roles that signal Jogia’s eagerness to be taken seriously as an actor. He has pivotal roles in indie films 10,000 Saints, a coming-of-age story with Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld set in the punk scene of ’80s-era New York City, and I Am Michael, the true story of a gay activist, played by James Franco, who became an evangelical heterosexual Christian.
“I’ve been doing this now for nine years,” Jogia says. “And now it’s finally bearing the fruits of labour.”
He compares his own transition from teen idol to leading man to his Egyptian alter ego’s rise to power. “For him it’s solidifying his position as a person of power and freeing his people,” he says. “(My goal) is a little less grand: I just want to tell good stories. We are similar as far as our willpower is concerned. I just don’t have to worry about ruling Egypt.”