‘Hazbin Hotel’s Amir Talai on Barriers Faced in Hollywood

The success of Hazbin Hotel hasn’t been lost on Amir Talai. The journey to this point hasn’t been the easiest. Chatting with Perri Nemiroff on Collider Forces, he discussed the importance of diversity in the media along with the barriers he overcame.

Talai attended UC Berkeley to “Get a real degree,” he joked, in mass communications. However, this choice helped him in ways he couldn’t imagine:

“What’s interesting is that my degree actually ended up serving me more than I expected it to about five years after I graduated, because
I started to examine the media that I was participating in
through the lens of what I studied in college. Because at UC Berkeley, the advertising and marketing degree is a little more theoretical than practical, and so I really wised up to, like, the stories we tell — what effect is that having on the audience and society at large?
Why does it matter that most of the leads in Hollywood movies are white?
What impact does that have, and
how can I move around in an industry that is not made for me?
”

Talai spent the next half decade trying to craft an acting career. However, there were barriers to overcome, “I think the first five years I was sort of saying yes to everything, auditioning for absolutely everything, just trying to get people to know who I am and hire me. And I reached a place where I was like, ‘Oh, pretty much everyone knows me, and yet there are a lot of barriers for me.’ So once I had reached the stage where I was like, ‘Oh, I’m doing about as well as a Persian guy in his mid-twenties can do, and yet there are so many doors that are closed to me,’ I started to examine those doors, right? Because the first five years were like, ‘Just get as much as you can.’ And then I did, and I was like, ‘And yet there’s this gulf.’ So, that’s what it was. It was me stepping back and going, ‘Oh, okay.’”

He added:

“I don’t have the experience of doors bursting open. If I were to describe it,
doors peek open briefly, and you slide through if you can, but they don’t stay open
. And I’m talking about opportunities for

Persian guys, for trans kids, for fat people — anyone who is not the typical

. I mean, how many times have we heard
at the Oscars, ‘This is the year of the woman,’
right? It’s happened so many times and
yet
. Same thing in politics, and the same thing when it has to do with the race at the Oscars. I remember not too long ago there were more green leads on Broadway than there were Black leads. So,
I have hope for the future because I see that door swinging open more frequently
, but I wouldn’t say it’s been burst open in any way.”

Amir Talai’s Advice For Actors

Talai shared one of his favorite projects he worked on called Campus Ladies which offered him a lot of creative freedom. “That was the most collaborative thing I’ve ever been a part of. It’s funny, I’ve been sort of chasing that dragon ever since — being a part of something where everyone is creating. I felt like an actor and a writer at the same time. It helped that it was on Oxygen Network, and I was getting paid nothing because the stakes were so low. The higher you get, the more fear there is, and the less people are willing to let you play. I say this mantra every day,” Talai said, sharing a piece of advice he discovered for himself over time.

“And it’s both sort of aspirational but also like sort of… ‘I am grateful to be at the top of my field,’ which is not the case yet, ‘making millions of dollars,’ which is not the case yet, ‘having fun working with amazing people.’ That third part is happening. It’s great to focus on the things that…
The fact is, especially for certain types of performers, you’re not gonna get that sort of deep, Oscar-winning role most of the time
, and so what you have to do is you have to enjoy everything else.”

“
Seeing the obstacles in Hollywood has made me recalibrate and go, ‘What is really important to me in life?’
And what’s really important to me in life is not winning an Oscar, but it’s having fun working with amazing people. If I can do that, it’s way more important than a statue.”

Hazbin Hotel has been renewed through Season 4. Check out the full interview with Talai below:

Watch on Prime Video