Sarah Shahi on ‘Paradise’ Sterling K. Brown Twist and ‘Sex/Life’

[This story contains major spoilers from the sixth episode of Paradise, “You Asked for Miracles.”]

Sarah Shahi has been a big Dan Fogelman fan ever since This Is Us.

When Fogelman debuted his beloved NBC family drama back in 2016, he received an email from a fan. Shahi wrote the showrunner to say that she would do any role on the series, she’d even warm up coffee. She was later cast on his short-lived Fox baseball drama Pitch, but they never met. She would go on to other roles on Chicago Fire and The Rookie, lead Netflix’s Sex/Life, and star in films Black Adam and Red White & Royal Blue. It wasn’t until her audition for Paradise, Fogelman’s next mystery series, that they would finally meet.

“He took one look at me and he remembered. He said, ‘Sarah Shahi, you wrote me the kindest email and I’ve been wanting to meet you ever since,’” she recalls now to The Hollywood Reporter. “He brought that up instantly. He’s such a wonderful human in so many ways, that was reason No. 999 why he’s so awesome.”

Paradise is now airing its first season (Fogelman told THR he has a three-season plan), and Shahi is doing a lot more than pouring coffee.

Her character, psychotherapist and grief specialist Dr. Gabriela Torabi, was revealed to be the architect of the post-apocalyptic world where the show takes place. She’s the personal therapist to Julianne Nicholson‘s Sinatra, the billionaire creator of an underground bunker in the Colorado mountains that saved a small group of civilization from a near-extinction level event. Gabriela was tasked with building a sustainable community and hand-selecting its lucky 25,000 survivors.

Paradise has delivered twist after twist, and this week’s episode six, “You Asked for Miracles,” carried with it a monumental revelation for Sterling K. Brown‘s starring character, Secret Service Agent to the now-deceased president, Xavier Collins. Xavier’s wife who he had presumed was dead is actually alive. Sinatra tells him this in hopes of bringing him onto her side when he stages a rebellion after discovering that the world above is not as toxic as they were led to believe.

Below, in conversation with THR, Shahi talks about the appeal of playing god on a twisty Fogelman mystery series, breaks down Gabriela and Xavier (including that steamy shower scene and how Xavier’s wife being alive will impact their relationship), and teases a twisty season finale and idea for season two. She also puts out a call for her Sex/Life fanbase.

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Paradise is a mystery show. Once you got the role of Gabriela, what did Dan Fogelman tell you about her that made her so appealing?

I was waiting for the scene where she turned into the mustache-twirling villain, kills Sinatra and takes over. She was set up that way, because she’s so positive and bright in this world of darkness. I was like, “When is the other shoe going to drop?”

Dan and I spoke about that and he told me early on that she was the architect of the city, the builder. She cares a lot about the city. She cares about Sinatra; she sees a side in Sinatra that is very difficult for other people to see. She sees the humanity in her because of their history and, if anything, she’s a very typical therapist in that she sees the good in everyone and encourages everyone to be at their best. So while everyone else is caught up in the trauma and secrecy of this underground world, she is someone who truly remains in the light. You have to have a character who maintains that sort of optimism, otherwise every character is so dark all the time. So those were the extents of our conversation for season one.

We did get a Gabriela backstory when we learned that she was the architect, but there are still questions. She carries a lot of guilt about the decisions she had to make. Have you given her more of a backstory to fill in the blanks, like how easy or difficult it was for her to become such a big part of Sinatra’s Paradise world?

Yes. You learn a little about how she’s an orphan, and that’s how she got into palliative care. Both her parents died when she was fairly young. And she also had a gambling habit. So I’ve painted this picture of a young woman, who is now a woman, who maybe didn’t always make the best choices as a teen and young adult, but eventually got on the straight and narrow.

With Sinatra, I think it was a rather difficult choice because essentially, Sinatra asked her to give up her entire life and come and work for only her. That’s it: You have no more autonomy, you are mine. Obviously, Sinatra made Gabriela a deal she couldn’t refuse. Sinatra then letting Gabriela in on the state of the world and what was to come, I think made her realize this really was her only chance to escape.

Also as a therapist, she’s people-pleasing. You’re listening to people and trying to help them find solutions. You have to keep your own opinions out of things, right? So I think she’s the kind of person who, behind closed doors and if ever given the opportunity to let her guard down or to tap into what she feels, there is a well of stuff inside. But given what she does and how she has to serve other people, that’s not something she allows herself to tap into too much.

She tells Xavier that he was her wild-card pick for Paradise. Have you imagined what her criteria was for hand-selecting the 25,000 survivors?

It was definitely people who were able to contribute, and not everyone is able to perform at that level. Seeing that we live in a cave, everyone grows their own produce and there are no animals down here. You had to have been able to farm or sew or make things. You have to be affluent in some kind of skill. I don’t think the ones who were weak or old or sick would have been able to have lasted very long down there.

You also had this steamy shower sex scene with Sterling K. Brown.

Everyone’s gotta take a shower!

Gabriela and Xavier have this immediate connection. But there was also a reason she got him into the shower — to make sure no one could be listening when she shared a warning from the dead president (James Marsden) about the (now-deceased) Agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers). What’s your interpretation of Gabriela and Xavier’s relationship?

There’s a couple things at play. They have those wristbands [which are GPS trackers]. We start off in the bathroom and then I start going down — you assume it’s one thing, but then you see I’m actually searching for a wire. I’m searching for something. I look at his wristband and the shower was the place where we could muffle the sounds. What I’m revealing to him is major. It’s something that could get me in trouble. No one knows this besides myself, not even Sinatra. So It was a piece of information that had to be delivered in the utmost of secrecy, and that’s where the shower came in.

So, was her goal of the day to get him into the shower to share this warning, and sex was just a bonus?

That’s pretty funny. No I don’t think so. I think because of the way the day transpired, where he does end up telling her what happened between him and his father, she was able to get that peek into the man behind the file. And then, like you said, when the two characters come on screen there is chemistry. It could be love, it could be hate. You don’t know what it is. But there’s something electric there. And they are underground and no one has been intimate with another person in three years now. So I think all of that played into the perfect storm of what ended up happening in the shower.

Then there’s this huge revelation this week that Xavier’s wife (Enuka Okuma) is among the living up above. We see Gabriela put in between Sinatra and Xavier: She’s coaching Sinatra, while meeting with Xavier. Her allegiance with Sinatra runs so deep, is there a world where she would pick Xavier over Sinatra if it came to that?

I don’t think so. From what I know about her, and of course Dan could always turn this around, she’s a pretty loyal person. But I do think these secrets that Sinatra reveals, even in subsequent episodes, could have Gabriela question her loyalty. The most important thing, as she says in episode six, is, “We built this city form the ground up. The city has to last. There’s nothing else other than this. There is no world anymore. This is it.” I think it’s in her best interest, and it’s really for the greater good, to get these two determined and very powerful people, Sinatra and Xavier, to find common ground to work it out for the well being of everyone involved.

What do you think Gabriela knows about survivors or the world above?

She doesn’t know. Gabriela doesn’t know there are survivors. She doesn’t know what Sinatra has done. I think she has taken Sinatra at face value and has believed everything she has told her and is going with that. Things may change coming up. But I think she has accepted what she’s been told at face value and there was enough proof to support that.

Xavier’s wife being alive certainly puts a pin in Xavier and Gabriela’s relationship.

I have to start taking showers alone!

Where do Gabriela and Xavier go from here?

That’s something we did talk about. We talked about the potential of exploring what a love triangle of some sort would look like next season. At the end of this episode, Xavier is not happy with Gabriela because she tipped Sinatra off. She’s not high up on Xavier’s list at the moment, especially since Sinatra is enemy No. 1 for him. So that might have done it right there. But I definitely thing there’s some good story there to explore.

This episode ends on Sterling K. Brown’s reaction as he digests Sinatra telling him that Xavier’s wife is alive. As the resident psychologist on this show, can you imagine the psychological toll of that moment?

As an actor, I am an admirer of his work and have been for such a long time. To now be onscreen with him and play alongside that, I just feel so grateful. When I watch that, I also pictured myself doing the mental gymnastics — confusion, denial, acceptance. You go through it until you finally believe it. Your whole reality is turned inside out. Your brain essentially malfunctions. Just having your reality turned inside out and having so many emotions go through you, and not knowing which one of them to latch onto, was a brilliant writing and acting moment, and Sterling executed it so well.

In the background of all of this, there is this mystery whodunnit around who killed President Bradford (Marsden). How surprised were you by the killer reveal and how the mysterious cigarette /plane number plays into the ending?

I will say this: Dan is so good. He’s just so good. It was not anyone I had ever thought of.

Dan Fogelman has opened Paradise up to exploration around potential communities, and you just threw out this idea of a love triangle. Anything you can say about season two conversations at this point? [Note: Paradise has not yet been officially renewed.]

Well, now we know there is some kind of life out there. I don’t know what Dan has in mind, but I think there’s definitely going to be some exploration. It’s something that has to be done quietly. It can’t be done on this massive scale, otherwise it’s going to create huge hysteria. So, possibly exploration of the outside world, now that we know Xavier’s wife is alive. There are some adjustments that come to the story in the finale that will affect the direction of season two.

What do you think this show is tapping into right now for audiences as to why it’s resonating?

I’m very grateful for that response. What’s funny is that Dan came up with the idea for the show while he was on This Is Us. So by no means was this meant to be a comment on current events. But it has really taken on this other meaning because of where we’re at today. I love art and entertainment because I feel like its purpose is to make people think and, at the same time, provide escapism. I love when that’s done in a highly intelligent way. I think that’s why people respond to this. It’s not because there are throughlines about climate change. We’ve had tons of shows about that that haven’t really hit the zeitgeist the way this show has. I think Dan has created an incredibly juicy drama. It’s a political thriller, it’s a murder mystery and it’s just smart entertainment.

You have such a strong Sex/Life fanbase. Any talks for you to revive that series or bring it back in another place? [Note: Netflix canceled Sex/Life after two seasons in 2023.]

I would love to do that. Especially with the way season two ended where, in a way, they’re at the very beginning of the Brad and Billy story. So if anyone is out there listening and would love to take a stab at that, I would be more than willing.

With Sex/Life, the stars aligned in the right way for me to play Billy at that time. Personally, my life was falling apart; I had gotten a divorce. Once the show came out, I became the poster child for unhappily married women and the response was huge. It was not anything I could have ever pictured or even sought after, but it did so well. The crowd has followed me. Women are still so interested in topics like, how do you have the guts to start over? How do you have the courage to leave, to get a divorce, while having children? The response was so big that I got a book deal. My book, Life is Lifey, is the A to Zs of navigating life’s messy middle and it comes out later this year. I tackle everything. The Sex/Life crowd will be happy because I tap into the same themes the show covered and more because it’s from my personal life.

Do you and Adam Devos [who played Brad on Sex/Life and who dates Shahi in real life] talk about, if it’s not Brad and Billy, let’s do something else together?

Yeah, we’re open. We’ve definitely looked at other projects. Nothing has felt right so far, but what’s great about that is that we met as actors. So we have a really great working relationship with each other; obviously, we have great chemistry. And because we are in a relationship, it’s impossible to lie. I can’t look at him and fake a line. He can’t look at me and do the same. There’s no tolerance for any sort of bullshit. So I think we do work well with each other, and I would love to find something that he and I could do together.

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Paradise streams new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.