Cas Anvar Talks ‘The Expanse,’ Character Alex Kamal, Co-Star Thomas Jane [Video Exclusive]

Cas Anvar stars as fighter pilot Alex Kamal on SyFy’s newest space opera, The Expanse. Anvar recently sat down with uInterview to talk about his experience working on the show, which he calls, “Hardcore, realistic sci-fi; I like to call it a fusion between Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner and Alien.”

CAS ANVAR VIDEO EXCLUSIVE

The Expanse explores what would happen if humans successfully managed to colonize parts of the solar system, leading to some of the similar political tensions felt between nations back on Earth. Centuries of making these worlds hospitable and mining resources have led to the rise of distinct cultures, social classes, and rivalries, spanning from Mars to the asteroid belt. Anvar’s Kamal is a Martian fighter pilot who becomes caught in the plans for war. “Mars is its own independent nation — there’s a lot of tension between Mars and Earth,” Anvar explained. “You’ve got this holy trinity between Earth, Mars and the Belt, where there’s all this friction and it’s just waiting for a spark to ignite it into an interstellar war.”

What makes his character and the other Martians in the series stand out is their blending of various ethnic identities; Kamal, who speaks with a Texas accent, is of Pakistani and East Indian descent. “Mars in this universe was populated by, what our writers and creators thought, ‘What would be the most likely people that would end up on Mars to colonize it,'” Anvar revealed. “If you look around in our day-to-day, the people that are the most successful at taking themselves and going somewhere else, and creating a culture and just planting themselves somewhere and adapting, they believe, were the East Asians, the Asians and the Texans.”

Contemporary science fiction generally employs a lot of green screen and special effects, so Anvar was especially surprised when he walked onto The Expanse’s 80,000 square foot space in Toronto and found full ships built for scenes. “The ship that I fly, the Rocinante, we have all three stages of it, all three levels of it. You could literally shoot us coming out from the galley or our quarters going up the stairs into the main deck, and then up the stairs up to my flight deck where I pilot, all in one take — if you had the desire,” he revealed, further saying that the real-life imagery is a rare treat for an actor. “It would give you an incredible feeling of scope, and for an actor that’s a playground; to be given everything to work with rather than having to imagine it is really a luxury and we were afforded that luxury.”

The grittiness of The Expanse no doubt attracted sci-fi and horror talent to the screen, giving Anvar a chance to work alongside fellow actors like Punisher alum Thomas Jane, who frequently improvs on set. “He doesn’t like to rehearse in the same way that you might be use to, you really never know what he’s gonna give you. He’s completely in the moment, he’s completely organic, he will improvise like crazy, and he’s given free rein to do that because he’s really good at it,” he said. “So, you always have to be completely present and aware and on your game because he’ll throw something at you.” Jane is also infamous for not liking shoes, and can frequently be seen barefoot. Anvar recently joined in. “I did the red carpet with him at the Toronto Film Festival, we went and did the InStyle party and you’ll see a photo online of me, Dominique Tipper and Thomas barefoot on the red carpet. So, that was a source of constant amusement.”

Season two of The Expanse is set to air on Syfy in 2017.