Take Five: 'Mysteries of Laura' Star Janina Gavankar

04.18.2016

You may know her as Shiva in The League. Or from Arrow. Or as Luna Garza on . Or from her numerous other recurring roles on TV. You might not know her at all.

And that's okay with actress Janina Gavankar (The Mysteries of Laura), who doesn't care if you know her name. In fact, she loves it.

At this past WonderCon, we met to talk about the success of streaming shows. So naturally, we talked about spirit animals, fame and fandom along the way. And just for the record, she's savvy.

We're here for "Streaming Success," whatever that means…

Yes. Because internet.

How have streaming shows changed you as an actress?

I've always been kind of savvy. Ugh, I hate that word. Pretend like I never fucking called myself savvy. I don't think you can call yourself savvy. I think someone else has to call you savvy. So I retract my statement. But I've always said I don't care what you watch it on, I just want to have an incredible artistic experience.

My first gig that I booked when I first moved to LA from Chicago was this thing called Ms. Dewey. It was this interactive search engine and you can ask her questions. It was the coolest project I've been a part of, and this was 10 years ago now. That was online. She was this smarter-than-you lady who knew about everything.

She was savvy.

SHE WAS SAVVY. Now that was a savvy lady. We shot over 700 clips and you could type anything in the search engine and she would say something that applied to what you said. It was crazy and it went super viral. It was an entertaining experience. It didn't have a narrative over episodes or anything like that, but I had such a great time. I don't care. My interests are a complicated character, and a project that's filled with brilliant artists so I can just come play. Those are the things that attract me. They've always been off kilter. I've done plenty of web series. I'm developing one right now.

What are you developing?

Right now, it's called "As Seen on TV." I'm developing it with my writing partner Russo Schelling. Max Jenkins, who's in The Mysteries of Laura with me, we're very close and constantly looking for other things to do together. It's basically the two of us running around and being assholes together. We're former child stars. That's the idea. I'm also developing a really complicated one hour drama. But I'm just as interested in making something that's seven and a half minutes long that makes you laugh your ass off than I am with taking three years to develop a huge big thing.

I think that's why it's so great to work in TV right now. It can be anything you want.

Yes. Everybody has always said quality is king. Now you can see the proof. All the awards have gone to streaming shows. You can't half ass anything anymore, otherwise people won't watch. They just won't. And that's great.

It's stressful to choose a show to watch.

Yeah, there are so many. I'm on hiatus right now and I just finished House of Cards and I'm going to start Bloodline next I think. I'm catching up on Billions, watching Ru-Paul's Drag Race, but everything is a binge watch for me. But I've always done that.

So you invented binge watching? Yes. I think somebody else has to say that. Can we get that on the record? Andy just said that I invented binge watching. I would like to add that to my Wiki later.

Mostly it's because I've always been late to the punch, because I'm busy or some BS, all the reasons we don't watch things. But I said many years ago that I'd rather wait for a show to be in its fourth season so I can watch the whole thing.

Do you live in LA?

Yeah.

In my head, people only talk about TV. Even outside LA-

Everyone's doing that all the time. The craziest thing that ever happened to me, I had just joined True Blood and when I joined True Blood, it was season 4. It was already the biggest show on television. On its own. I had nothing to do with that. I was just so happy to be there. I was flying somewhere and two people sat down in front of me, total strangers. The first episode of season 4 had aired the night before. One stranger said to the other, 'Did you watch True Blood last night?' The other guy had. I watched two strangers talk about the season premiere of the show that I was on.

Did you talk to them?

Certainly not. I was so nervous and enthralled to be seeing it happen. When you get to be part of a show that is in the zeitgeist, it's just…a dream. We all work as hard as we can to try and be a part of something like that.

What show that you've been on has the craziest fans?

Well no one recognizes me.

Really?

Yeah. It's great. It's like the best magic trick.

So you're a magician, you're also saying that?

What you just said is that I'm a magician. Right? Andy just said I'm a magician.

If I wanted to be famous, I would've figured out how to be famous by now. Anybody whose reading this is going to go, 'Who?' They don't actually know my name. I'm just the girl that's on those shows. Maybe you saw a show that I was on. But I'm not doing it for everybody else. I'm doing it for the artistic experience. That doesn't necessarily correlate to fame. And I'm absolutely okay with that.

What's your sign?

My sign is Sagittarius. Don't really know what it means.

I'm Taurus. Me neither. We probably hate each other.

We're warring. I could smell it on you. F***ing Taurus, I could tell.

What's your spirit animal?

My spirit animal…

You thought of something.

I was thinking of people.

You're spirit animal is a person?

There's this little girl on Vine. Speaking of fame. This little girl is my spirit animal. She speaks to me on a level…

I thought you said you don't want to be famous.

Watch it. Please watch.

Those eyebrows.

That's how I feel about fame. That's me in seven seconds.

If you want more than seven seconds of Janina, she's everywhere: True Blood's on HBO Go. Arrow's on Hulu. The League's on FXNow. Pee-wee's Big Holiday's on Netflix. Her current show, The Mysteries of Laura, streams on Hulu.

[Cube image courtesy of HBO via io9; Ms Dewey courtesy of Marketing Land; Mysteries of Laura image courtesy of NBC]