We spoke to Vahid Gold for his upcoming UKTV pilot 'The Other Half'

Vahid Gold (Newark, Newark) stars as closeted, mixed heritage Navid who trades his small Welsh town for buzzing Bristol when he snaps up an internship. He moves in with his privileged best friend, Scarlette, and her accepting family, a strong contrast to his home life in Wales. We were lucky enough to chat to Gold and we even learned the song that would save him from Vecna...

17/08/2022

The Other Half is a pilot made for TV from the UKTV Writer Slam competition, and is being executive produced by Romesh Ranganathan, but I won't keep going on with myself. Check out what the star of the pilot had to say in our exclusive interview!

In your own words, tell us about the The Other Half Pilot

"The show is about Navid (Vahid Gold), a half Iranian, half Welsh gay kid whose still in the closet, lives with his father and sister and wants a bit more from his life. Obviously, he wants to be able to live his authentic self, but he can’t do that while living at home, so he bites the bullet and makes the big move from Wales to Bristol, a big old city where he moves in with his University friend, Scarlette. She grew up privileged and Navid came from humble beginnings, so there is a culture difference there. He follows his dream of working in an art gallery."

Zak Ghazi-Torbati and Kate Reid wrote and created the episode after winning the WriterSlam competition hosted by UKTV. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of holding competitions like this?

"With competitions generally you write it, you win and you meet people, but a lot of the time that’s where it ends. But the good thing about Writer Slam is that these particular submissions were allowed to be materialised, and become a pilot that is actually going to be on Television. And I feel like with a show like The Other Half, that has so much representation in it, I don’t know if it would necessarily make it to air at the moment without something like this, so that’s why I think it’s very important."

What was the process of being cast as Navid?

"The process was pretty regular. My agent sent me a script, I read it and then wanted to audition, so I did a self-tape, sent that off, and then got to recall, which was a zoom call with the director who was lovely, and I also realised as I was auditioning that I knew the producer because I’d previously worked with him and had a blast, so I was very excited about that and the prospect of getting to work with him again. As the process went on, I wanted it more and more and more, so I was very happy when I got cast."

How important is the character to you?

"I think the character is important to me because I haven’t seen it before. I mean, it’s pretty specific: a half Iranian, half Welsh gay person. But for that character to be the protagonist of the show and not be a character that is only a fleeting visit is super unique and I hadn’t come across it before, so I was very excited."

I was getting strong 90s music video flashbacks when you switched to those ‘All By Myself’ scenes – do you know much about what sparked this idea, or perhaps how you tackled these particular scenes from an actor’s perspective?

"I had to just go for it. The All By Myself scenes we shot in March, the rain was a freezing cold hose, the leaves were just from a bag, and it was the end of a shoot day. It had just been the longest day, so it was one of those where I knew I only had two takes to actually nail it, because we had to wrap up for the day. But they got me a wetsuit which I had on under all of my clothes, because I can’t tell you how cold it was! There was a tent that had three heaters in it, so the minute I was done filming that scene I was straight in there."

Are you a Celine Dion fan yourself?

"Who isn’t a Celine Dion fan? Come on! I was listening to it all the time because we shot it at half speed, which meant I had to listen to it and learn all the words at double speed. So on the train on the way to this job, I had Celine just playing away in my headphones at double speed so I was being like [insert supersonic impression from Vahid!] lip syncing it, rehearsing it, I got a couple of weird looks I’m not gonna’ lie. I will never forget the words to that song."

I don’t know if you watch Stranger Things but -

"Of course I watch Stranger Things!"

That’s the song that will save you from Vecna.

"Can you imagine I’m levitating in the air, ‘All by myself’ [laughter] But honestly it was a blast. We shot the whole episode in a week, so there really wasn’t any time for me to second guess anything, or not know every word to a Celine song. I had to just be on it."

Fashion is a focal point in the pilot. Can you speak on the importance of this aspect in the show, and how the contrast between Bristol and Wales is evident through this medium?

"Fashion plays a major part in all pilots, to be honest. I could be speaking out of term but it feels more important in the pilot than the series because you really only get 20-30 minutes to introduce a whole handful of characters, so one of the ways in which you can do that is through fashion and costume and makeup. And I think it’s done really well. From my family’s side of things in Wales the colours are a bit more pulled out a little bit under saturated, and then you go to Bristol, where Scarlette’s family are, and everything is so bright, and Scarlette shows up in this bright yellow dungarees and her makeup is almost Euphoria like, and it immediately shows what kind of character Scarlette is. I think they do that really well in this pilot. Especially in my music video scenes, I don’t know if you noticed my jumper changing – that tells a story. It shows what Navid sees himself like. Within the first ten seconds you have an idea of who this person is, and there’s no dialogue in those scenes so a lot of that is down to the fashion."

It's difficult for Navid to be honest with his father, but that doesn’t make Navid love him any less. Can you speak upon the importance of showing these types of relationships on the screen?

"I think for a lot of people it’s quite real and something they can relate to and see themselves going through. But I think by the end of the episode you’re completely aware that all Navid’s father wants is for him to be happy, and that’s it. I have a sneaking suspicion that Navid’s sister knows what’s going on and they have a different kind of relationship. But with Navid and his father, yes, they do have this barrier where they can’t share everything, but with time, who knows what could happen? What brings them back together is the love they have for each other, both sides."

The episode ends with a gag that just works. while throughout the episode we saw contrasts in both parenting styles, the ending highlights their similarities, which is a heartwarming touch. Can you speak about showing these two contrasting lifestyles in one show, and how they overlap?

"A lot of the time when you watch different cultures depicted on television it’s not in a way where you can say I think I can relate to that. It’s never fleshed out enough for you to be able to do that. What I think this show does very well, is it shows the two different parenting styles, the two different universes in which they live in, that right at the end makes you realise that there is so much crossover, and it’s just parents parenting their children and wanting them to succeed, and saying things at the wrong time but ultimately just wanting the best for them."

Obviously we’d love to see more of this, but understand this is part of a series of pilots. If this were to be made into a full series, what would you like to see happen for Navid?

"Not really, from what I've heard, just little droplets of information over dinner or after a shoot day, so I don’t really know where it’s going to go. But I know they know (Zak and Kate), I know they have a clear idea of where they want to take each character which is so exciting. I would really love to see a scene where my character can come out to his dad. I think that’s going to be lovely, and from the work that those guys do I just know it’s going to be written beautifully and I just would really love to see that. I’d also love to see what happens with Scarlette and her job venture too, and how I’m going to do in the art gallery. You know how silly it’s going to be, the mess I'm going to find myself in, that’s exciting. It’s comedy and it’s meant to be a little bit silly. What I will say is it does catch you off guard. There are moments which you didn’t expect to feel something and all of a sudden you’re like 'oh'.

Finally, do you have anything else you’re working on?