VV: That must have compounded the intricacies of playing a real-life person who is still, in theory, dealing with matters that you are portraying on-screen.ĪM: There is a moment where you have to separate yourself from thinking that. He was super-sweet, and he watched this big scene. I wasn’t surprised by it, but I’m sure I was nervous that day. We were filming when I - Todd - interrogated Katie Lowes’ character, Rachel. And then he showed up on set one day.ĪM: Yeah, he just showed up. So, I felt like I knew Todd through the energy of his words on those transcripts from the court. One way I researched playing Todd was to read the transcripts of Anna’s trial, and that was helpful for me. It was a reenactment of this one woman’s deportation case, and I read a bunch of transcripts from this case. Oddly, I had done this production with Waterwell called The Courtroom. I was so deep in text and trying to make sure I got all of Shonda’s words exactly as they were written. VV: Were you able and did you want to reach out to Todd Spodek?ĪM: I didn’t.
And for Todd specifically, and with Shonda’s portrayal of him, he’s fighting his own battles and trying to prove himself to the world. So, I completely understand, both for Todd and Anna, that there is an immigrant hunger that’s out there, for sure. It’s funny - I’m 41 now, and my mom came at this age to a new language, new culture, new grocery store, no friends.
So, then we came to the United States when I was 5 to Chicago, and neither of my parents spoke English very well. It sounds shocking to talk about now, even for me. My cousin died in that war I was born in the midst of that war. My other brother fought in the Iran-Iraq war for two and a half years. My oldest brother came to the United States at age 16 to study at university, but when the revolution hit in 1979, they told him he wasn’t to come back to Iran. Out of that came this amazing journey of my two brothers and sister that are much older than I am, growing up in Iran. It was an arranged marriage, and by the time she was 18, she had three kids. My mom got married in Tehran at a very young age. VV: I’d love to hear it if you’re willing to tell it.ĪM: Sure. We were not part of the group of people that left before the revolution. And we are the only family on my mom or dad’s side that’s in the United States everyone else is in Iran. Though “fleeing” is such a weird term because we got on an airplane and left. VV: As an immigrant who fled the Iranian revolution to come to America, you seem like you might have a unique perspective on the Anna Delvey story.ĪM: You’re right I think I do. Whatever is happening right now, I’m in.”
VALENTINA VALENTINI: When you read that first script, what were your initial thoughts about all of it?ĪRIAN MOAYED: My initial thought was: “I have to Google Anna Delvey.” And then, all of a sudden, I’m so deep into Anna Delvey’s courtroom looks on Instagram, and I’m like, “I am in. Here, Shondaland talks with Moayed about murky ethics and hustling in NYC, the parallels between Succession and Inventing Anna, and that staggering final episode of Anna where his character goes tête-à-tête with Julia Garner’s Anna. I mean, you can have clients like this and still be a nice guy.” I liked that she kept on saying that Todd is a nice guy. I had notes prepared and questions, and Shonda just led the conversation. “In October or November of 2019, I had a phone call with Betsy and Shonda ,” recalls Moayed. After all, defending someone who is so obviously a criminal isn’t always a cakewalk. Moayed also quickly realized that he needed to focus on the more humanistic side of Todd, who is a fictionalized version of the real-life defense attorney for Delvey, aka Anna Sorokin, who, posing as a German heiress, swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars out of New York City’s wealthy elite. It’s very honest to me, so I latched onto that aspect of him.” “I had a very distinct understanding of those lines. “I had my own version of that as an Iranian immigrant,” Moayed says of Spodek’s speech in the first episode referring to his humble beginnings as a valet for rich people. It’s this climb up the proverbial ladder of success that Moayed identified with most when he read the part of Todd Spodek - Anna Delvey’s defense attorney - in Shonda Rhimes’ script for the pilot episode of Inventing Anna.
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He’s also, as we mentioned, in one of HBO’s most popular series and has had recurring roles on CBS’ Madam Secretary and HBO Max’s Love Life he also played Agent Cleary in the recent massive box-office hit Spider-Man: No Way Home. In 2002, he co-founded Waterwell, a socially conscious and civic-minded production and education company.
Moayed moved to New York City wanting to be an actor and artist who creates for the betterment of humanity not just for entertainment. The Women of 'Inventing Anna': Anna Chlumsky
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