Australian actor Aisha Dee shot to international fame when she starred as social media manager turned editor-in-chief in The Bold Type, but she’s returned to her roots starring in Stan’s new Australian psychological thriller Watching You.
While The Bold Type and Watching You couldn’t be more different, Aisha told Chattr how the iconic series helped me prepare for her latest venture.
“Honestly, The Bold Type was like a training ground for me in the professional sense, in that I just spent so long on set and kind of learning how to just do the everyday, the basic stuff,” she said.
“But I think the biggest takeaway that I have from that show is that I feel like it helped me through my 20s. I did all of my messy life stuff while on that show, and learned a lot, and hopefully grew a lot. I’m a lot less chaotic than I used to be. Keyword is less!
“But, I think it taught me a lot, but less the professional side and more just kind of helped me find myself as a human.”
Aisha plays Lina, who’s a paramedic, in Watching You, which is a far cry from her portrayal of Kat’s glamorous gig working in a New York magazine office. However, Aisha said there are a couple of things the two characters have in common.
“Kat and Lina. I don’t know how to draw a line between those two girls. I guess they’re both kind of messy. They’re both cheaters. Cat cheated. Lina cheated,” she laughed.
Why Aisha Dee wanted to play Lina in Watching You
Aisha told Chattr she was immediately drawn to Lina — a woman who cheats on her boyfriend and ends up caught in a toxic spiral with a psychopath — because she gravitates toward characters with layers and complexity.
“I always feel quite drawn to messy characters, specifically characters who make really questionable choices. Because it’s a challenge to try to find out why, and especially when I read it, I feel kind of almost defensive of them, like they’re a friend to me, then I know that it’s probably something that I should do,” she said.
Lina gets blackmailed into revealing her affair, and a string of deaths happens as a result. Aisha explained that the real challenge was finding a balance — allowing the audience to understand Lina’s choices without completely villainising her.
“There were a lot of challenging things about playing Lina. I feel very blessed that they even trusted me to do it, and also blessed that I was surrounded with so many people who were such wonderful scene partners and were able to, all of us, create the world together.”
Stream Watching You on Stan now.
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