9-1-1 actor Anirudh Pisharody previews season 9 episode 3 “The Sky is Falling,” airing tomorrow night at 8 PM ET on ABC.
Anirudh Pisharody has become a fan favorite as Ravi Panikkar on 9-1-1, which explores the high-pressure experiences of police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers, drawing from the real lives of first responders and the situations that they regularly face. We talked about the transition from a probie to a permanent member of the 118, which storyline he’d like to expand on, the disasters in season 9, and much more.
On how Ravi and Buck have evolved and balance each other as partners.
“I really feel like, to use Star Wars as an example, it was very much an Anakin-Obi-Wan-style relationship. Obviously, Oliver being Obi-Wan and just kind of being that mentor figure and pushing Ravi’s buttons whenever he kind of needs to, because the character’s going through his own sort of situation. And now, I think especially in the latest seasons, Ravi has grown to a point where he can kind of be a peer to Buck, be a shoulder to kind of lean on, which I think is really powerful. I think everything that that character has gone through, he’s there to kind of fill that void and be some level of moral support for this family.”
On “paying it forward” as a firefighter.
“Being a fireman, any civil servant, right, it’s a selfless career, whether it’s a fireman, an EMT, a policeman, all those sorts of things. I think in Ravi’s mind, it was the one thing that he knew that he could actively be changing lives,” he explained. “It was a tangible way for him to see, okay, this is someone that I can directly impact, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s exactly what he wanted to do, and even when he does that off-duty Long Beach save, right, it impacts him so much, but at the end of the day, he’s just trying to kind of keep that message alive that Hen had told him.”
On doing background work for his role.
“Initially, when I got it, I was just kind of in that one scene. I wasn’t stressing too much about it because I felt like it would be diminishing returns. But once they started bringing me back, and I had a name and everything associated with it, that’s when I did start doing work. So in the early season, definitely. I’ve got a bunch of journals just filled with like, what he was doing, his life leading up to it, the past five years, past 10 years, that sort of thing.”
Pisharody continued to share, “Where he wants to go, his likes, dislikes, all those sorts of just character-building information that you put out. And then, after a certain time, it just kind of becomes rote, and it’s just kind of ingrained in you. But definitely, yeah, in the early days, you definitely have to do that. I think just in order to kind of fill the shoes as well, and to really embody a character.”
Watch my full interview below:
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Sophia Soto
Sophia Soto is a writer and interviewer with a passion for all things entertainment. She is a Senior Reporter at The Nerds of Color and contributes to Awards Radar, What to Watch, Screensphere, Nerdtropolis, and Temple of Geek. You can see her past work on Den of Geek, Yardbarker, Remezcla, Young Hollywood, Looper, Paste Magazine, Primetimer, Soundsphere, Brit + Co, and Starry Constellation Magazine. Her current favorite TV shows include Outer Banks, Tell Me Lies, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Additionally, she is a complete Marvel nerd! Connect with her on X (@srsoto26) and Instagram (@srsoto264).
