![\"Benjamin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/200dfe53161159865d0b70661715db24a4388aa8201497556e57331c509499ca.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we\u2019re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they\u2019re given. This week, he talks to Shabana Azeez. The 29-year-old Australian actor is best known for her role as medical student Victoria Javadi in the Golden Globe- and Emmy-award winning HBO TV series The Pitt<\/a>.<\/p>\n We\u2019re both migrant-background Australian kids. Were there certain attitudes and conversations \u2013 about sex and relationships \u2013 going on in your household that felt different to those taking place in other homes? Oh god, completely. My family\u2019s Muslim, but I went to a Catholic school. Some things were so different, but others were exactly the same.<\/p>\n Oh, what did you notice? There was a lot of purity culture, shame and heteronormativity, and a lot of focus on marriage and procreation. They were like, \u201cWe are not like those other people.\u201d<\/p>\n Did you feel attractive growing up? Oh my god, no. I got bullied really badly for being ugly as a kid. There was a race-based element. People were like, \u201cOh, I want to get tanned, but I don\u2019t want to be as dark as Shabana.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Wait, is that really what they said? That\u2019s a quote. And there was a fat-phobic element: when puberty hit, my body changed and the bullying changed. Suddenly, people were being nice to me. I remember internalising: \u201cOh, so you people could have been nice to me the whole time\u2009\u2026\u201d Now I desperately don\u2019t want to ever attach my sense of self-worth to how I look.<\/p>\n How do you feel now? [Makes a funny face] I think I\u2019m rrrrrreal funny. I\u2019m grateful for that childhood. It made me funny!<\/p>\n MONEY<\/p>\n Would you say you grew up poor, working-class, middle-class or rich? Well, I went to a private school my whole life and lived in a beautiful home with a big family. We had a very comfortable life. Actually, I think it\u2019s really important to talk about your privilege. We\u2019re comfortable talking about systems that oppress us because you want to change those systems. But I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d be here if I didn\u2019t grow up financially stable; it meant I was able to take risks as an actor.<\/p>\n Related Article True or false? Your parents once said, \u201cAudition for drama school and, if you don\u2019t get in, never speak of it again\u201d? [Nods] And I did the worst audition ever for drama at Flinders [University] in Adelaide. I crashed my car on the way to the audition, too. [Azeez did a Bachelor of Arts and Media at the University of Adelaide.] But I don\u2019t think that being good at acting necessarily requires training. I think it requires some sort of EQ [emotional intelligence], some sort of ability to be vulnerable \u2013 and an almost compulsive need to embarrass yourself.<\/p>\n What jobs are you saying \u201cyes\u201d and \u201cno\u201d to now, and how much is money a factor? I\u2019ve always worked below my pay grade which, as an actor, is $0. That has served me well. I\u2019m doing that less now, which I\u2019m very grateful for. But I really want the metrics that I \u2009use to judge a project to not be financial. I want to do a gig because the story or impact is amazing. Lesbian Space Princess<\/a> was about queer joy. Birdeater was about coercive control. The Pitt is for healthcare workers. I\u2019ve been very lucky that it\u2019s all very impact-driven. I want that to continue, but it\u2019s also just luck that people see that in me.<\/p>\n BODIES<\/p>\n Your American accent in The Pitt is so flawless that many Australians initially didn\u2019t even know you were Australian. How did you acquire one so convincingly? I used the Paul Meier book, Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen. If you get the e-book, it\u2019s got each accent with audio clips. Also, probably everybody can do an American accent. If you sing any pop songs, you\u2019re already doing it flawlessly. Just sing it, then bring it down to talking.<\/p>\n On The Pitt, you have medical supervision and undergo \u201cdoctor boot camps\u201d to ensure accuracy. What have you learnt about the human body? That the human body is so complex. Suturing has been really fun for me, as well as seeing how intubating works. We learn how to massage the heart. We have these rigs where you feel the heart, and the doctors will be like, \u201cYep, that\u2019s how it feels in real life.\u201d And you\u2019re like, \u201cWow, this is what it feels like to hold a heart\u2009\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Are you ever grossed out? Only with the lateral canthotomy, a procedure where you cut the eye open. With other procedures, when the body\u2019s open, you don\u2019t really think, \u201cThat could be my body.\u201d But looking at a guy\u2019s face while it\u2019s being cut open \u2026 that\u2019s confronting.<\/p>\n Is it true that you were surprised at being cast on The Pitt considering your south Asian co-star Supriya Ganesh had already been cast? Did you assume the industry wouldn\u2019t put two brown girls in the same show? My character wasn\u2019t written as south Asian, hers was. Mine was originally Middle Eastern. I thought, \u201cAm I taking representation away from people?\u201d<\/p>\n One of the leads in season two is Iranian, though. [Nods] And it\u2019s really important for there to be two people of [the same] colour. It\u2019s the Brooklyn Nine-Nine way of doing things. If there\u2019s more than one, then none of it is tokenistic. For me and Supriya, it changed our experience. To be the only woman, the only person of colour \u2013 whatever it is \u2013 can be isolating. It\u2019s healing to have two of us.<\/p>\n When does your body embarrass you? At dinner, you can lift up my plate and see exactly where it was because there\u2019s food all around it.<\/p>\n Wow. Like a snow angel except, instead of snow, it\u2019s filth. Mmm, food angel\u2009\u2026<\/p>\n What\u2019s your superpower? I\u2019m very observant. I don\u2019t love to be \u2009looked at, but I\u2019m really good at paying attention.<\/p>\n The Pitt is now airing on HBO Max.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Shabana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/614465961b691cd4ca4f111041745c95cdd093e3.jpeg\")
Shabana Azeez: acting requires \u201csome sort of EQ [emotional intelligence], some sort of ability to be vulnerable \u2013 and an almost compulsive need to embarrass yourself\u201d.Alamy Stock PhotoSEX<\/p>\n![\"Australian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3676b133b2cf111c597e70aaa9a98bacee91035e.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Reko](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d872a0dc27f7289fbca54febc077e4b518b706ca.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Azeez,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/86e221f6e86db2a5d4cb9b972d615c310d7ad2c1.jpeg\")
Azeez, who stars as Dr Victoria Javadi on The Pitt, has a simple trick for nailing the American accent.<\/p>\n