We’ve seen quite a few actors make a big impression via a first feature, but Priya Kansara does it in spectacular fashion in Polite Society. Kansara does it all in the film.

She leads as Ria, a young woman who dreams of becoming a stunt performer when she grows up. Her parents may not be wholeheartedly behind the idea, but that’s not stopping Ria. She’s determined to achieve her dream, and she’s equally determined to help her sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), achieve her dream of becoming an artist. Trouble is, Lena’s lost faith in herself. Soon after dropping out of art school, Lena finds herself on what some might consider a more traditional path, and Ria isn’t having it. Lena falls for a guy who ticks all the boxes and then some, and the two quickly become engaged. Convinced something isn’t quite right with Lena’s new beau, Ria sets out to expose him, end their relationship, and nudge Lena back on the path of putting herself first and becoming an artist.
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Polite Society has a little of everything. It’s a moving coming-of-age story, a charming comedy, an electric action film, and also an emotional story of two sisters who grow apart and must find their way back to one another — and Kansara nails it all. Her energy is unmatched, her comedic timing and delivery are spot-on, she’s an ace with the stunts, and effortlessly pivots into hugely emotional beats that pack a punch. For any casting director out there, Kansara’s work in Polite Society is essentially an entire acting resume in one film. It’s a piece that shows off her boundless range and ability to tackle any challenge a production throws at her from nailing a choreographed dance to complicated fight sequences.

With Polite Society now playing in theaters nationwide, Kansara took the time to join me for a Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party interview to revisit how she scored her first lead role in a feature film.

Image via Focus Features.

While Kansara always had the ambition to act, she found herself pulled toward a career that offered more stability, one in the healthcare industry. She explained:

“I enjoyed science. I will admit to being a bit of a nerd and loving math and science, and them being some of my favorite subjects at school. My love for drama and performance is one of the most constant things I’ve had in my life. But I think as I grew older, you end up settling in kind of what feels normal in society, which is going for something that feels stable or secure.”

The other thing that pushed Kansara away from pursuing a career as an actor initially? “I didn’t see people that looked like me on screen or in this space.” She added, “I don’t think I thought it was accessible to me.” However, Kansara did notice more and more change as she got older, and that change inspired her to fully embrace her greatest passion.

“When I was studying through university, during those years of my life, I started to see how the industry was starting to open its doors more. And also kind of instilling that discipline in me about, ‘No, I love this, and this is what I want to do.’ And I think it’s important that people step into the industry regardless of the fear surrounding it because that’s the only way we’re gonna push things forward and make those films and create those spaces.”

Image via Focus Features

For a period of time, Kansara attempted to do both and balance her healthcare career and her acting auditions. She laughed and recalled, “I literally remember pretending that I was in meetings and doing auditions. I broke out a bit of my diary and [would] be like, ‘I’m really sorry, I have a really important meeting,’ but actually, I was doing a Zoom audition with someone.”

While squeezing in auditions via open casting calls, that’s when Kansara encountered someone who’d change everything for her and prove to be an ideal source of guidance and support, her agent. She continued, “I would go for open cast auditions and do things like that, and eventually I was signed. Actually, around the time that I left my job, I signed with my current agent who actually was the person that I got this role because of.”

Kansara’s agent proved to be the perfect fit for a multitude of reasons, a big one being the emphasis he put on only taking fulfilling roles. She explained, “It didn’t matter if I got one job in a year, but was that one job fulfilling?” She added, “You don’t have to say yes to everything. Somebody that was really encouraging of me being empowered in my decisions.”

Choosing to say no to acting opportunities, especially at the beginning of one’s career, can be a scary choice to make, so I asked Kansara for an example of one such situation. Here’s what she said:

“I remember one time being asked to audition for the part of a hijabi girl, so somebody who presents as being Muslim by wearing the headscarf. The role didn’t look like she takes it off at any point and her faith was really important in the story, but [I] also couldn’t tell if the writers were Muslim, and I was conscious about taking space and taking somebody else’s space in this industry. I think it’s so important that we allow new talent to come in and give space to other people, and I remember feeling awkward about it. You know, to be able to talk to somebody and just have a really one-on-one human discussion about it and be like, ‘This is how I feel. Do you understand where I’m coming from? Is this right to feel strange about it? How do we deal with that? Is it okay for me to back out of it?’ And having had that discussion with him and being able to have those discussions with your agents and the people that you work with is so important, and feeling comfortable in what we work on is so important.”

Image via Focus Features

Kansara went on to find a role that proved to be a perfect fit, Polite Society’s Ria. However, when she was first approached to audition for the movie, it was for a different part. “I actually auditioned for a different character first. I did a character who comes in for a couple of scenes in the film.” Kansara continued, “I got a call again to be like, ‘Actually, can you come in and read for Ria? [Director] Nida [Manzoor] would like to see you.’”

How exactly does one audition for a role that demands an actor deliver a little of everything from comedy to stunts, deep emotion, and then some? Kansara explained:

“We did one scene with the sister, one scene with the friends, and one scene with the teacher so that Nida could kind of see my range because all of those three scenes were very different and they required — I guess they were almost like slightly different genres within themselves. They were very different relationships that were being explored, and really key parts of the story as well to explore Ria’s journey. So that’s kind of what we did, and we went through those scenes and Nida sat there and was like, ‘Oh, why don’t we try playing it this way?’ Or, ‘Could you do it more crazy?’ Or, ‘Could you do it more natural?’ Things like that. ‘Could you do it as if you think you’re in a movie scene and you think you’re Clint Eastwood?’ [Laughs] And we tried it in all of these different ways, and actually, I just had so much fun in the audition because I felt like I was just playing around. And, you know, when it’s like, ‘Oh, this is such a fun experience to work with Nida,’ even within that half an hour slot that we had. So yeah, I guess that was a sign of a good start.”

Image via Focus Features

A good start indeed, but headlining your first film is still an intimidating task, so Kansara turned to a co-star for help, the star of the Netflix series, The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, Nadia Parkes.

“I remember asking her at the time, I was like, ‘Is there any advice that you could give?’ I don’t even know if she remembers this conversation. I don’t even know if she remembers me. [Laughs] But you just really treasure those moments to have been able to pick a piece of their mind, and I asked her and she was just like, ‘You know, the most important thing you could do is look after yourself because you need to show up on set on their schedule and deliver what they need that day, and it doesn’t matter if you are tired. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel sad and you need to then cry in the scene. You still need to do that shot that day, right? That needs to happen. So what you need to figure out is that, is there anything that you can do every day that makes you feel like you’ve had a moment of peace, that makes you feel grounded, that makes you feel taken care of?’ And she was like, ‘It can be as simple as making sure that every morning you have a cup of tea.’ And I was like, wow. Actually I just didn’t think about looking after myself in those ways, if you very intentionally say that every morning this cup of tea is my cup of tea and I get to have this every day and this is something that I do for me. And it’s like, even if the rest of the day is hectic, I got that five minutes peace by having that, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is actually genius! You should write a book!’ [Laughs] I swear to god, if she watches this I hope she knows that she helped me so much.”

Perhaps that advice did serve Kansara well on Polite Society, but it’s also abundantly clear that she’s brimming with an innate ability to tackle lead roles with fearlessness and maximum passion. You can catch Kansara commanding the screen as Ria in the film in theaters now, and if you’re looking for even more from Kansara on her journey to and the making of Polite Society be sure to watch her full Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party interview in the video at the top of this article or in podcast form below: