Actress Nazneen Contractor. Photo by Joe Deangelis Photography.
It was just a few short years ago that Nazneen Contractor made her debut as Sergeant Layla Hourani, the multi-lingual ICS (Immigration and Customs Security) agent who died tragically in the Canadian TV drama The Border. That was soon followed by her performance as Kayla Hassan, daughter of Kamistan President Omar Hassan in season eight of the hit Fox TV series 24.
No matter what role she plays, the actress’ beauty and talent make her unforgettable. Born in Mumbai, India and raised in Nigeria, Africa until the age of seven when she and her family immigrated to Toronto, Canada, Contractor recently became part of Star Trek history portraying Rima Harewood in producer/director J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness. Like all of Abrams’ projects, the actress’ audition was shrouded in mystery.
“When you read for a J.J. Abrams’ project, you’re given [audition] sides not from the project itself, but from one he has already done or from a TV show or movie that he really loves, and that embodies the essence of the character you’re auditioning for,” explains Contractor.
“I don’t know where my sides came from, but I played a mother whose child was wanted by various government agencies because she possessed some kind of gift. In one scene my character is talking to the authorities, and in the other one she’s talking to her child and telling her that what she has is a gift and not to feel bad about it.
“When I auditioned for Star Trek Into Darkness I was two weeks away from having my baby, although my character isn’t pregnant in the movie. I got a call the night before about the audition, and my manager assured me that the casting people knew I was pregnant and that it was fine. The movie was scheduled to begin production in six weeks and I was having my baby in two weeks, so everything was perfect.
“I went to the audition, did my thing, and about halfway through my last take, J.J. walked into the room. Everyone was a bit flustered, but we finished and then they introduced me to J.J. I couldn’t tell you what I said to him because I was so beside myself and star-struck,” says the actress with a laugh, “but an hour-and-a-half after I left, I received a phone call telling me that I had the job.”
The 12th adventure in the Star Trek feature film franchise and sequel to J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot saga, Star Trek Into Darkness pits the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise against an old adversary that was established in the original Star Trek TV series and the second Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan. In Star Trek Into Darkness, Contractor plays a mother who makes a difficult decision that sets into motion the entire film.
“This was my first time playing a mother, and being a new mother I had a great deal to draw on,” she says. “So I think during the timing of this entire thing – from the audition to me having my baby and then starting work on the film – the acting ‘gods’ were with me because I had all these new emotions to draw on in my performance. My character is someone who exhibits unconditional love for her child and makes a pretty controversial decision to save her child. She then has to deal with the consequences of that for the rest of her life.
“So it’s a big issue and a very real one. I’m sure there are mothers out there in the world who’ve had to make the horrible decision of choosing their child over the greater good of others. It was a challenge for me in the sense that, again, I’d never played a mother before, but I was thrilled to do so, and J.J. was incredibly supportive. He spent so much time on-set just trying different things to make sure we got it right. It was amazing, and one of the highlights of my career so far. I’ve been fortunate to have had some pretty great moments as an actress, but this one was very special for me.”
Part of the actress’ work in the movie involved her establishing a background for her character as well as family. “We did a lot of second unit and B-roll filming with regard to the Harewood family, including still photography and home videos in various locations,” notes Contractor. “That was wonderful because I got to meet Noel [Clarke], who played my husband Thomas, along with Anjini [Taneja Azhar], who played our daughter Lucille, and we were able to hang out together and get to know one another.
“J.J. would come and go because he would be doing principle photography on the actual Enterprise set or at a different location, while we were doing all this extra footage that he would later incorporate into the movie. It was all rather intimate and it didn’t really feel like working on a big movie because it was a small film crew of about 20 and only me, Noel, Anjini, and the family dog. It was a real gift because we got to flesh out our characters a little bit more and figure out their back stories.”
How familiar was Contractor with the Star Trek franchise prior to being cast in the movie? “I have an older brother who was into Star Trek: The Next Generation,” says the actress. “So that was definitely on our TV a lot when I was a kid and it made me a Patrick Stewart [Captain Jean-Luc Picard] fan for life. I think I was too young, though, to fully understand what was going on, but I was very fascinated by that whole world.
“On a different note, as a woman of ethnicity, for a long time you would only see people of ethnicity in Sci-Fi shows or movies. Now, of course, it’s totally different, but when I was younger that’s all I saw. It was not unusual for a Sci-Fi cast to have, for example, a Black character or an Asian one, because the stories were set in the future, right? When I started out in acting, I did some Sci-Fi television and loved it. I loved the idea of fantasy and it’s so theatrical in that sense.
“All the good Sci-Fi stuff, especially J.J.’s Star Trek reboot, is what really got me interested in the genre. It’s something grand and, again, theatrical on the surface, but deals ultimately with universal themes. Star Trek Into Darkness really does go into the darkness. It explores the darker recesses of humanity and survival and what it takes and what you would do for your family, whether it’s your character’s family or the Enterprise family, on all those levels.”
Growing up, the actress trained to be a classical ballerina. She continued that training at the Etobicoke School of Arts, where she also studied theatre. When she turned 16, Contractor set her sights on an acting career. Upon graduating high school, she accepted a full scholarship to the University of Toronto where she pursued a Masters in theatre as well as a double major in psychology and sociology. While at university, the actress honed her craft onstage at the prestigious Stratford Shakespeare Festival. As Contractor previously mentioned, she made her TV debut playing Ire in Siren’s Song, an episode of the Sci-Fi TV series Starhunter.
“I played an alien from another planet whose people were infected with this terrible disease and their entire world was wiped out,” she recalls. “For some reason, my character had some type of genetic mutation where she became a host for this disease as opposed to a victim of it. So this girl went around inflicting terrible pain on people, but not consciously. It wasn’t her choice to do it. She snuck onto the hero’s ship and caused all this destruction before ending up getting killed.
“The night before my audition, I explored all these ways to say the lines and exhausted myself until I found this character. Although I hadn’t done much of anything acting-wise, the casting director must have felt I was a good fit for the role because she really worked with me to get the part right. So the audition itself was such an enthralling experience, but then when I actually booked the job, my God, it was like a dream come true. I had a blast, and along with having a pretty big part in the episode, being on-set was a huge education for me as far as the technical process of TV. It was a very fast learning curve, but I was hugely grateful for that.”
Contractor’s appearance on Starhunter was followed by roles in a handful of made-for-TV movies as well as on other TV series including Relic Hunter, Street Time and a regular role in the aforementioned The Border. In December 2008, she moved to Los Angeles in order to take advantage of more opportunities for TV and movie work, and five months later was cast in 24.
“One of the director/producers that [eighth] season on 24 was Milan Cheylov, who I worked with on my second TV job, which was an American TV show called Street Time,” says the actress. “I did a multi-episode arc on that series and Milan directed one of my biggest episodes. Canadians living in Los Angeles tend to congregate, and a week before my audition for 24, my husband and I went to a dinner that Milan and his wife hosted at a restaurant. Milan and I had the opportunity to reconnect and he remembered me from Street Time, which I thought was very sweet. He really engineered the whole 24 audition for me. The casting people knew about me before I even walked into the room. I had three auditions and it was between me and another actress. I thought it wasn’t going to happen, but then after my final audition, I booked the part.
“Originally it was only supposed to be for two episodes, but after my character’s father died, the producers decided that they wanted to keep me and the woman who was playing my mother on the show. It turned out to be my first job in America, a full year of work and exposure on a TV show that was enjoyed by millions. It was a real gift.”
Like a chameleon, Contractor is able to slip comfortably from one role to the next. When it comes to her profession, being versatile is a huge asset and the actress knows that only too well. “I’m lucky in that I’m able to skip between genres,” she says. “I put a lot of time, effort and energy into making each of my auditions the best it can possibly be. My job is to give them a viable choice together with my interpretation of the role, and if I book it, it’s so rewarding because it validates every other audition that I didn’t get.
“Having said that, there are times when you lose out on a job, but down the road you’re offered another part because the casting people, the director, the producer, whoever, remembers the great work that you did in the previous audition. In a town where everyone is struggling for the next part, if you can sort of separate yourself and do the types of projects that make people remember you, then you’re that much more ahead of the game.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all photos of Nazneen Contractor by/courtesy of Joe Deangelis Photography, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
