Archie Panjabi says goodbye, Good Wife, hello, spy life
NEW YORK — When Archie Panjabi makes her entrance on NBC’s “Blindspot,” viewers may catch themselves checking out her feet.
As Kalinda Sharma, her Emmy-winning private detective on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” Panjabi was famous for her boots: toweringheeled, over-the-knee, black-leather numbers that telegraphed inscrutability and sexual boldness.
Now, as Nas — an anagram of NSA, or National Security Agency, where she heads a secret department investigating the tattooed Jane (Jaimie Alexander) — her boots veer brown, suede and practical. (Season 2 of “Blindspot” begins Wednesday at 10 p.m.)
After departing “The Good Wife” amid rumours of a feud with Julianna Margulies and getting rattled by earthquakes in “San Andreas” last year, Panjabi yearned for some action. And that required the appropriate footwear. “We went through 100 pairs, but somehow wearing heeled shoes for the NSA-FBI didn’t feel right,” the British-born Panjabi, 44, said.
In an interview at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, her posture perfect and diction precise, Panjabi — who lives among New York, Los Angeles and London — talked about returning to network television and saying goodbye to Kalinda. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: At first glance, Nas seems strong, complex and even a bit manipulative. Should we expect Kalinda 2.0?
A: There are definitely similarities, but there are also differences. Nas doesn’t use sex as a weapon, at least up till now. Kalinda was immensely sexual, and there was a lot of fascination with her sexuality. And Nas is fiercely protective of her team, but she’s also got this wild, unpredictable side. She’s there to heal the wounds, but I’m sure along the way she causes a few.
Q: What else should we expect this season?
A: It’s basically the government versus this so-called terrorist organization. So you’ve got these two worlds going on, and it’s grey, as a lot of things are.
Q: Did you worry about being typecast after Kalinda?
A: I couldn’t have asked for a better role to break into American TV. People loved that character, and I got a lot of love in return. Q: What did you do in the interim? A: Two months ago, I did a political satire (“Power Monkeys,” shown in Britain) about Brexit. We’d turn up, and the writers would give us dialogue based on the news, and we had like 10 minutes to learn it and to go on set. And it would be broadcast when you got home that night. It was terrifying. I felt the same thing with “Blindspot,” which moves incredibly fast. Q: How fast is it? A: You have cameramen on these little chairs that roll around, so while you’re talking about saving America, they’re dancing around in the background. The first day, I found it hilarious.
Q: You’ve said that kissing Gillian Anderson in Netflix’s “The Fall” — apparently more passionately than the director anticipated — made you realize that you had to leave “The Good Wife.”
A: (Laughs) It was meant tongue-incheek. I did the interview in England, and of course our sense of humour is a little bit different. There was a part of me that was joking, “Oh my gosh, I think I’ve played Kalinda for too long now because I’m taking control!” Q: What about that rumoured feud? A: I just feel the show’s finished now, and it’s time to move on.
Q: Why do you think there was so much Sturm und Drang around her departure?
A: She came a mystery and she left a mystery, and I think people were always intrigued by that.
Q: And her departure shall remain a mystery?
A: When I unzipped the boots, it felt so right. I had reached a stage of closure. I loved that character, and I’m often asked, “Would you come back to do the spinoff ?” But I don’t know about stepping back into those boots. I don’t know if I could do it.