VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Shalimi Bathina & Phillip Johnson Richardson Reveal How They Got Into Their ‘Little Voice’ Characters

Stars of the new Apple TV+ series Little Voice Shalimi Bathina and Phillip Johnson Richardson shared how they got into their characters and their favorite scenes in a new uInterview.

Bathina described the new show as “a love letter to New York.”

“It follows Bess, who’s played by Brittany O’Grady, who is a struggling artist who’s working multiple jobs, and trying to figure out her balance between family and work and living in New York,” she explained. “And we are all her best friends that are kind of going through similar journeys with her.”

Bathina plays Prisha, an Indian American girl, who’s best friends with Bess. “She’s in an all-female mariachi band, and she’s struggling with her sexual identity, and balancing falling in love, and her family relationships, and her friendships and just trying to live her difficult messy life as we all did when we were in our 20s,” the actress said of her character.

“My character is Vinny,” said Richardson. “And I am one of her best friends who works at the bar with her, so I’m a bartender, I’m a Lyft driver, and I want to be her manager really bad. So, Vinny is like the definition of hard work.”

The pair also delved into working with Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music performed in the show. “I think she kind of provided this kind of warm presence on set,” said Bathina. “She’s amazing, absolutely fantastic.”

“Yeah, I’d like to add that she’s amazing,” joked Richardson.

Their favorite scene to shoot?

“I really loved Governors Island,” said Bathina as Richardson nodded along. “We really bonded as a cast that three days that I think we were there,” she explained. “It was kind of our first time meeting because we shot that episode way earlier, so we all were genuinely meeting for the first time as we were on camera. So it was really cool to kind of hangout with everyone we got like real vulnerable with each other cause we were spending like 10 hours a day with each other.”

“But I really do love scenes with my family, my parents, cause they’re just incredible actors – Sakina Jaffrey and Samrat [Charkrabarti] – amazing people, but also just I was in awe just watching them work so I was like really soaking it in,” she added.

You can catch Season 1 of Little Voice streaming on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer below: