Sima Sepehri joined the second season of hit mystery drama series The Hardy Boys airing now on Hulu (USA) and YTV (Canada). Sima portrays the cunning, intimidating and sarcastic Angela Todd, who works for the mysterious corporation, Stratemeyer Global, and has been sent to Bridgeport to recover The Eye.
The Hardy Boys is based on the classic book series and follows the adventures of teenage sleuths Frank and Joe Hardy who, after moving to the small town of Bridgeport, begin to uncover its mysterious secrets.
In addition to her acting, Sima is also a rising stand-up comedian and currently runs a weekly stand-up show in Toronto called Tiny Grievance Comedy. The show champions women’s voices and diverse acts and features local acts.
We had the opportunity to chat with Sima about her role, the challenges of playing a “villian” and what’s next.
Kat: You portray cunning, intimidating and sarcastic Angela Todd, who works for the mysterious corporation, Stratemeyer Global in this season of The Hardy Boys. How did you prepare for your role?
Sima: I absolutely love playing the bad guy. I think it is so fun. But I believe that with any character, regardless of how awful the person is, in their point of view, they aren’t bad at all. They are just doing the best they can. I had to give her a lot of back story to justify her actions. She’s pretty evil and lacks empathy. I did some research on the psychology of sociopaths and narcissistic personality disorder.
Kat: Did you find any commonalities between yourself and Angela?
Sima: Absolutely not. Angela is truly out for herself and would hurt anyone to get what she wants. It’s quite literally the opposite of me. She is capable of a lot of harm that I could never in my life inflict on people.
Kat: Was there anything about your role that was particularly challenging?
Sima: It was difficult for me to point a weapon at a minor. That kind of gave me an awful feeling. But after the scene, we hugged it out and that felt good. Everyone is obviously a professional but I did feel really bad about it.
Kat: What have been some of your favorite scenes to shoot and why?
Sima: I really loved the scenes I shot with my partner on the show Mack played by Mal Dassin. We had a lot of fun offscreen just hanging out and joking around and he made being on set really great and we became good buddies. But my character Angela was actually pretty mean to him.
Kat: What do you hope fans take away from your character and/or this season of the show?
Sima: I really hope that they think Angela is a badass. And normally we see men in those types of roles so it is interesting and fun to see a woman playing that type of character.
Kat: Is there a type of character that you’d like to portray, that you haven’t had the chance to yet?
Sima: I would love to play a funny superhero in a comedy.
Kat: What’s next?
Sima: I have a show in development with one of my best friends and that is super exciting. I also run a stand up comedy show called Tiny Grievance Comedy and some other exciting projects I can’t really say too much about. But stay tuned!
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