Talking more OUTSOURCED with Rizwan Manji and Aneesh Sheth
In honor of what may have been the series finale of OUTSOURCED last night, let me quote my favorite Rajiv moment from the episode:
Todd: What can I do to help?
Rajiv: Do you know where the gift table is?
Todd: Yes.
Rajiv: Good. Go to it and see if someone gave us a time machine.
Todd: I get it. And then set it to before the bachelor party?
Rajiv: No. You must go back much further. Go back to your father’s bachelor party and impose the same humiliations upon him, thereby ruining his wedding to your mother and negating your very existence. When I see you fading away before my eyes, I will know you have succeeded.
After the Stanford event, Rizwan Manji and Aneesh Sheth were kind enough to spare a few minutes of their time to answer a few silly questions for all of us OUTSOURCED fans.
What was your favorite episode or scene to film?
Rizwan: I think my favorite episode was the Diwali episode [“Home for the Diwalidays”]. It just looked beautiful, and there was a lot of stuff that was crazy. And I think my favorite scene to shoot was that security camera footage that I did with Todd just because it was fun because we got to shoot one part of it, and then I got to act with myself, and since I’m so egocentric, it totally fed into my whole “everything’s about me” because I literally acted in a scene with myself. So I love that scene.
Aneesh: See, he doesn’t need any practice to play Rajiv. He is Rajiv, you know? There’s no practice there.
Well, that’s actually one of our other questions! Who is the most like their character on the show and who is the least like their character on the show?
Rizwan: Parvesh [Cheena, who plays Gupta] is most like his character. Although he’s not annoying, he’s actually very lovable. Everybody loves him!
Aneesh: He’s really sweet. So sweet.
Rizwan: But he is, he’s like that. He’s sort of like this teddy bear. The least like their character? [giggles] Anisha? Anisha [Nagarajan] is so not like [Madhuri]. She’s very loud, and she talks a lot, and she can belt out a song.
Aneesh: She’ll sing anywhere she can.
Rizwan: She is so not the shy wallflower. She’s doing the best acting performance.
Speaking of singing, when will we see Rajiv sing again?
Rizwan: Oh, I’ve already sang [sic] twice, unfortunately, so I’m hoping they will not. We got to get Aneesh to sing; she’s the singer, so hopefully they’ll bring her back on to sing.
Aneesh: I hope they bring me back! I could sing to Charlie at night.
So could you talk about how you developed your accents? I know you grew up in Canada, and most of you grew up in America or Britain. How did you develop your Indian accents?
Rizwan: I’ve been doing it since I started. Growing up, we always liked fake-talking like our parents, and it always just came naturally to me. I probably do some hybrid of East African, Indian, Canadian something-or-other. I feel like I’ve been using kind of like my dad’s accent. That’s what I feel like I’m doing. A combination of that and everything I’ve heard in the past.
Aneesh: It’s the same thing [for me]. Growing up, you have Indian parents who have that accent, so you just listen and you mock them all your life, and you end up getting a career out of it.
What is one thing that you really like that we would be shocked to discover?
Rizwan: You go.
Aneesh: Are you going to embarrass yourself?
Rizwan: I’m going to embarrass myself, I will. You will be shocked to know that I really—and my wife’s going to kill me—I’m a big fan of…this show—it’s going to be really embarrassing to say it: Millionaire Matchmaker.
Aneesh: Oh my God.
Rizwan: I don’t know why. I watch that show, and I really like it, and I wait for it to come on, and I don’t know why. What about you?
Aneesh: I am obsessed with football.
Rizwan: That I am shocked about. It’s more shocking than Millionaire Matchmaker, I’d say.
Aneesh: Put me on the field, give me the ball, I will run like hell.
Rizwan: Oh my God. I think you’d probably be good.
Aneesh: Right?