If you know the name Sam Asghari at all it’s probably as the jacked longtime boyfriend of Britney Spears. But in an interview with Variety, the Instagram star and trainer says that after landing gigs on HBO Max series Hacks and a recurring role on Showtime Wall Street comedy Black Monday, he’s got big screen aspirations.
“Action is something that I want to do — action, drama, thriller — that’s a genre that I want to really get into. But if you can do comedy, you can do anything,” the 27-year-old fitness fanatic said about his role in four of the 10 episodes on the new season of Monday, which stars Don Cheadle, Regina Hall and Andrew Rannells. Asghari plays Giancarlo on the show, a boy toy for Tiffany (Casey Wilson), who models for her vanity fashion label, Pfaffashions.
He told the magazine that the Monday audition was “quick,” just a couple of lines and then a call that he got the part a few weeks later. “I watched a couple of episodes when I auditioned, and then when I really got the job, I started really watching it and, I found it extremely funny,” he said, noting that he got encouraging feedback from the show’s producers about his “great comedic timing, and great improvisation.”
And while his retro-80s curly hair on the show is pretty funny, Asghari got an even bigger laugh out of his role as “Sexy Santa” on Hacks, which stars comedy genius Jean Smart as an aging, angry stand-up comedian. “Everybody that looks like a model or a good-looking person is usually not a good actor. That’s just the perception,” he said.
“But the truth is, I’ve been acting since back in high school — I was doing theater and arts. I was doing Shakespeare, you know, Macbeth, Hamlet. And right now, I’m getting the opportunity to finally do it as a profession, rather than a hobby. I never wanted to do something that was sexy, but at the same time, but you can’t help it when it’s the guys from Broad City — the production team are so phenomenal, and they’re so talented.”
Though his Hacks role is pretty brief, Sam said it’s a “strong few seconds” that have blown up on Twitter. Asghari hopes to build on his TV work and get into blockbuster movies — he’s been doing MMA training, as well as gun and stunt training — in the hopes of becoming an action star on par with Tom Cruise and Jason Statham.
Asghari, of course, came into our world after appearing in Britney’s “Slumber Party” video, which is where the couple met in 2016, after he swore off doing music video work after landing a gig in a Fifth Harmony clip. “No more music videos, just move on to TV and film,” he told himself at the time.
“Then a good friend of mine called me and said, ‘Listen, I’m working on this job as a makeup artist and the director was looking for this person for this lead. Can you be in it?’ I said, ‘You’re the one that told me I shouldn’t do more music videos, why are you calling me?,'” The friend re-assured him that the artist specifically chose him out of a stack of headshots, begging him to take the gig.
“That was at midnight, and the shoot was the next day, so I said, ‘Yes, let’s do it,'” he recalled. “Everything happens for a reason. Even when I migrated here, I’m we migrated by chance, my dad went through so much. And little things happen here and there that form a life. “
Check out Asghari with his Monday crew below.
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