Plus: Ghai teases that Safiyah is ‘very taken’ with all of the women of Gotham City.
Queen Safiyah will see you now.
And it looks like she got her wish.
Dean Buscher/The CW
You could just sense by the way she held herself that you don’t mess with her.
She lets her army do her dirty work for her."
With Ghai, she got that and something else she didn’t realize she wanted and needed.
Dean Buscher/THE CW
“There is a maternal feeling that she provided,” says Dries of Ghai’s performance.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What attracted you to the role of Safiyah?
SHIVAANI GHAI:Firstly, I love characters like this.
I love the bad ones.
I love getting to play around with that.
I’m not that cool.
I definitely don’t have that power.
I don’t have this evil streak running through me.
So that was definitely a big plus.
And, I really enjoy the show.
To be honest, I hadn’t really watched it before this came about.
Then I sat down with season 1, and I really liked it.
I was really invested in the characters and the dynamic.
I really wanted to know what was going to happen in season 2.
Everything just came together.
Safiyah is mentioned a few times in season 1.
But also, it helps so much to know the characters as well.
Did you feel pressure because Safiyah has been built up as this menacing unseen force?
I love that and it’s almost like, “Yes, bring that on!
I want to go there!”
Or is she a bit of both?"
To have an audience guessing is quite good, quite interesting.
When I spoke to Caroline, she said you brought this maternal aspect to the character that surprised her.
Was that intentional on your part?
If so, where did that come from?
I don’t know [laughs].
It wasn’t exactly something that I thought about when I did my audition.
Caroline mentioned that to me as well.
It’s always interesting to see what someone else is taking from what you’re bringing to the role.
When I was auditioning, I didn’t even have the real names of the characters.
That’s what I had in mind when I was doing the audition.
And at the same time still trying to keep my power and play someone who has the control.
Now that you’ve shot a few episodes.
How would you describe Safiyah’s dynamic with Alice?
It’s really interesting actually.
Sometimes you think it’s one thing, but it’s another thing.
I know that Alice had been very afraid of Safiyah whenever she’d been mentioned in season 1.
Coming into episode 3, that fear isn’t dictating her.
But I think it’s quite interesting when you do meet Safiyah.
She’s not Alice’s big enemy.
We’ll start to see that through what unravels on Coryana [in episode 3].
What has it been like working with Rachel?
When I watched season 1, and I said this to her, I was just gobsmacked.
She’s such a fantastic actress.
In terms of working with her, it’s been amazing.
She’s fantastic to work with.
I’m really looking forward to doing more and seeing where we go on the next episodes.
[They’re both] very convinced of their own power.
I think it’ll be interesting to see how it’ll play out.
I myself don’t know how those scenes are gonna come across.
I’m also interested to see what the end result is.
In the moment, how did those scenes feel?
In some ways, I suppose it’s almost like a game of chess.
Who ends up being the one who seems to be manipulating everything?
As Shivaani, I kind of feel like I know that.
I know how Safiyah is manipulating things.
Can we expect you to share scenes with any of the other characters?
Also, there’s a meeting with Sophie.
She’s getting to meet them all, and I think she’s very taken with them.
I think that’s quite, quite interesting.
Batwomanairs Sundays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
