The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Forces with
Hazbin Hotel
star Amir Talai.
During his Collider Forces chat with Perri Nemiroff, Talai recaps his journey from voicing Sims to voicing an Overlord of Hell in the hit Prime Video series.
Talai also answers a number of your burning Alastor questions, including if the character is redeemable.

There’s no doubt that every single main character in Hazbin Hotel is a fan favorite. They’re all voiced by hugely talented individuals, rock wildly creative designs and personalities, and also well reflect a variety of shockingly relatable ideas and experiences. But, there’s no denying that there might be a little extra love out there for Amir Talai’s Alastor. It’s simply too much fun watching, and often rooting for, such a dangerous character, especially when that character is powered by such a deliciously sinister voice performance.

For those out there who’ve yet to watch Hazbin Hotel Season 1 on Prime Video, what are you waiting for? It rocks an 80% on the Tomatometer and an 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it was the largest global debut for a new animated series on Prime Video, and trust me when I tell you, once you hear the show’s original music, you’ll be eager to take Hazbin with you everywhere you go. The show comes from the mind of one of the most exciting voices in animation right now — Vivienne Medrano. After developing certain characters, including Alastor, for much of her life, Medrano independently produced a Hazbin Hotel pilot that currently has 112 million views on YouTube. From there, A24 swooped in and teamed with Prime Video to turn the YouTube hit into a full-fledged series. Now, not only is Hazbin Hotel Season 2 in the works, but Prime Video has also ordered Seasons 3 and 4 as well.

The animated musical takes place in Hell where Erika Henningsen’s Charlie Morningstar is determined to help sinners earn forgiveness and gain access to Heaven. How does she go about doing that? By creating a hotel for rehabilitation called the Hazbin Hotel. The trouble is, very few believe in her idea. The hotel has a mere seven residents – Charlie, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), Husk (Keith David), Niffty (Kimiko Glenn), Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman), Angel Dust (Blake Roman) and Talai’s Alastor. But can Alastor be trusted? While he seems loyal to Charlie and her cause, Alastor is an Overlord of Hell who’s in the midst of a power struggle. That begs the question, are his intentions pure or is he scheming behind the scenes?

During his Collider Forces interview, Talai recapped his journey in the industry thus far from his earliest acting inspirations to appearing on popular shows like American Horror Story and Ghosts, and ultimately scoring the role of a lifetime with Hazbin Hotel.

Doors Aren’t Bursting Open for Talai, But They Are Swinging Open More Frequently
Image via Prime Video

We began our conversation by revisiting some of Talai’s earliest acting influences and one, in particular, makes all the sense in the world given his success as a versatile voice actor. Talai recalled:

“One that stuck with me, weirdly, is Michael Winslow in
Police Academy
. None of my
Hazbin
folks are gonna know this at all. He was the one who did all of the sound effects … and I just remember being entranced by that.
I remember thinking, ‘This is magic.’
I didn’t have any sense that
I
could do that, but I just went, ‘I wanna be a part of this world. I wanna be a part of a world where that’s what you’re good at, and they just let you be in movies.’ [Laughs]”

Talai ultimately opted to pursue a “real degree” and study Mass Communications at UC Berkeley with the expectation of going into advertising. But, the itch to act was always there, so when he realized pursuing a career in advertising would mean little to no time to act on the side, he immediately veered off that path. However, his degree did still serve great purpose, just not in the way Talai originally expected. His experience studying Mass Communications inspired him to examine the media that he was participating in as an actor.

“I think the first five years I was sort of saying yes to everything, auditioning for absolutely everything, just trying to get people to know who I am and hire me, and I reached a place where I was like, ‘Oh, pretty much everyone knows me, and yet there are a lot of barriers for me.’ So once I had reached the stage where I was like, ‘Oh,
I’m doing about as well as a Persian guy in his mid-twenties can do, and yet there are so many doors that are closed to me,’ and I started to examine those doors
, right? Because the first five years was like, ‘Just get as much as you can.’ And then I did, and I was like, ‘And yet there’s this gulf.’ So that’s what it was. It was me stepping back and going, ‘Oh, okay.’”

Given the success of Hazbin and how impressive Talai’s filmography is to date, one might think he hit a point where doors to big opportunities burst open. But, Talai insists that wasn’t, and still isn’t, quite the case. Here’s how he put it:

“
I don’t have the experience of doors bursting open. If I were to describe it, doors peek open briefly
, and you slide through if you can, but they don’t stay open. And I’m talking about opportunities for Persian guys, for trans kids, for fat people — anyone who is not the typical. How many times have we heard at the Oscars, ‘This is the year of the woman,’ right? It’s happened so many times and
yet
. Same thing in politics, and the same thing when it has to do with race at the Oscars. I remember not too long ago there were more green leads on Broadway than there were Black leads. I have hope for the future because I see that door swinging open more frequently, but I wouldn’t say it’s been burst open in any way.”

‘Hazbin Hotel’s Alastor Is Bert Healy + Amir Talai’s Sassiness

Doors may not be bursting open (even though they should), but there’s still no denying that Talai’s star is currently soaring in a very special way, and he’s making the most of the opportunity. With the success of Hazbin Hotel, not only is Talai’s top-tier talent in the spotlight like never before, but he’s also become a standout member of the fan convention community. And even better? All signs are pointing toward that influence and success continuing to grow via Hazbin.

But before looking toward the show’s future, we revisited Talai’s early days of finding his version of Alastor. He began:

“I think that I had a really clear sense. I don’t think I was ever like, ‘I don’t know if I know this guy.’ Especially because I played Bert Healy and because Viv was like, ‘This guy is sort of inspired by Bert Healy’s song, You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,’ I had a sense of him very early on.
If there is one moment where I was like, ‘Oh,
here’s
a door,’ it was when we started to play around with his bitchy side.
That’s probably an angle that I hadn’t anticipated, and it’s so delicious.”

In addition to Alastor being sassy, he’s also evil. He’s in Hell after all! Not only did the character do things while living to warrant his place in Hell, but since hitting the Underworld, he’s emerged as one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in it. Given the show largely focuses on highlighting how the worst of the worst can turn things around, it begs the question, can Alastor be one of them? Here’s Talai’s take on the matter:

“I think that anyone is redeemable. I think that’s one of the beautiful things about this show. But they have to be willing to put in the work, and the more bad you’ve done, the more work you’re gonna have to do to redeem yourself. So, Alastor did some bad things in his life among living, he’s done some bad things down in hell, and
if he’s going to redeem himself, he has to work very hard. But he has to want it first.
I think there are a lot of people who don’t want to be redeemed in hell and on earth.”

Alastor’s Backstory Will Include a Big Surprise
Image via Prime Video

57:49 Related Melissa Barrera, Erika Henningsen & Katy O’Brian Bring the Real Talk About Acting You Need to Comic-Con The very first live Collider Ladies Night was a hit in Ballroom 20 at SDCC, and now you can enjoy the full conversation at home as well.

As Medrano revealed during our San Diego Comic-Con 2024 conversation, Season 2 will dig into Alastor’s backstory. While Talai was given the rundown on Alastor’s past while making Season 1, there was one particular detail that was left out of that description.

“
There’s a surprise about Alastor’s backstory.
I think it’d be boring if it were all expected, right? So there’s a surprise about his backstory, and I’m excited for fans to see that.”

There’s no doubt this information will see the character evolve considerably from a storytelling perspective, but Alastor is also poised to grow in another respect; get ready to hear Talai take his work as a voice actor to a new level next season.

“I think vocally, I’ve always been very, I would say, on the safe side. Like, ‘I want to do it
right
. I want to nail the notes and the rhythms.’ I think watching Season 1, and especially some of the stuff that Erika does, that Alex does, that Jeremy does, the wilder stuff they do in songs was very inspiring to me. So,
I took some more risks in Season 2 vocally that I haven’t really taken in my life before
. I remember going, ‘Let me try something, Sam [Haft],’ and doing it and him going, ‘Great. Great.’ I was not expecting that. And it was fun to push myself in that way because of being inspired by them.”

Related Will ‘Helluva Boss’ Characters Appear in ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Season 2? ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Season 2 is in production now.

How exactly will Talai push himself? While he wouldn’t reveal specifics, he did say it’s something he doesn’t even need to tease. “You’re gonna hear it and you’ll go, ‘Oh, that was it.’”

In fact, Talai’s ability to “let it rip” is one of the things he’s most proud of in Season 2.

“I’m really proud of what I did vocally in Season 2. I felt a lot of nervousness around the fact that everyone in this show but me has done Broadway and is a pretty accomplished musical theater performer. Obviously, I’ve done a fair amount of musicals as well, but they have a sort of pedigree in a different way than I do, and I think that sometimes that can make you shrink a little bit.
I’m proud that in Season 2, I didn’t shrink
and go, ‘Let me just play it safe because I’m doing a duet with this incredible person.
Let me let it rip. Let me show them what I got. Let me connect to the fact that I belong here.
’”

Amir Talai Finally Has the Confidence He Belongs in the ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Ensemble
Image via Prime Video

Further cementing the fact that Talai very much belongs here? His Hazbin Hotel co-stars.

“For the premiere in New York of Season 1, after the premiere we all went to this cabaret venue, and everyone sang a song. I was so nervous because I was like, ‘I’m the only person who’s never performed in New York in any kind of way. There are people who have performed on
Broadway
stages in New York for years, and here I am, this dude who does improv at the Groundlings, occasionally gets a chance to be in a cartoon, and now I’m singing.’ It was interesting because it was like, I had never met any of these people before and now I’m performing for them, and I was a little under the weather, and I was really, really nervous. So
I’m proud when I think of how far I’ve come confidence-wise
from seven months ago to about a month or two ago finishing Season 2 and knowing that, ‘I can do this vocally.’ And to be fair,
a part of that is my fellow cast members being like, ‘Bro, you belong here.’
”

Looking for even more on Talai’s journey in Hollywood thus far and his experience bringing Alastor to life in the Hazbin Hotel series? You can catch our full hour-long chat in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the conversation in podcast form below:

Hazbin Hotel In an attempt to find a non-violent alternative for reducing Hell’s overpopulation, the daughter of Lucifer opens a rehabilitation hotel that offers a group of misfit demons a chance at redemption.Release Date October 28, 2019 Creator Vivienne Medrano Seasons 2

Hazbin Hotel Season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video.

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