She pauses. “You know, unfortunately, people can weaponise what you’re representing because you’re a bit of a ‘token’. Look, we’re all used to it. I’m a smart girl, and I can sense it. So, yes, in those moments, it can get tiresome. But I’m working with people who celebrate rather than take advantage, and I’m working on projects that I feel have an urgency to be told.”
Her self-assurance came at a young age. Born Simone Ashwini Pillai, she grew up in Camberley, Surrey, with her older brother and parents who had emigrated from southern India. Unlike her academic parents, Simone always knew she wanted a career in performing arts. “I did musical theatre, opera, all different kinds of singing – my mum really supported me and drove me to all my singing lessons. I do a lot of what I do now for my mum,” she says. At the age of 16, Simone decided to move to Los Angeles by herself to pursue acting. “I was super young, but I’ve always been very ambitious,” she says. “I came from a family who didn’t have a drop of knowledge or connection in this industry, so I thought, ‘If I don’t do this now, I never will.’”
She says it was something her parents didn’t have much control over; she was going to do it regardless. I point out that it’s a rather fearless thing for a young girl to do. “Looking back, I think I was a bit naive to how hyper-independent I became. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of my dream. I knew I wasn’t a standard candidate because of the way that I looked and where I came from, so I knew it was going to be a slightly different path for me.”
A harder path? “I don’t know if I would say harder,” Simone muses. “I just knew it was going to be different to my other peers who didn’t look like me and maybe got different opportunities. I never saw it as hard.”
I ask if there were any times she felt othered. “Yes, 100%,” she answers without hesitation. “Maybe in 50 years’ time, I’ll be very specific on when I felt that way, but for now, I won’t say. But yes, there have been times where I’ve felt like I really stuck out or I didn’t fit in, and it just makes you feel…” She lowers her gaze, sighing deeply. “Like you don’t belong there, I guess. But that’s changing now.”
