Amir Talai cried several times at his ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Broadway debut

CC: One aspect of Alastor is that (as said by Medrano) he’s ace. Rosie (another demon character) calls him “an ace in the hole.” I'm on the asexual spectrum [points pen to myself]. It's interesting for me to see Alastor be a bit of an ace icon, too.
AT: It's pretty great. I didn't know what it meant to be ace before I did this show. I learned a lot about it, and it's really been cool to see how much he means to ace people. I have people who come to my table at conventions all the time telling me that they're ace, that they're aro-ace, and how much it means to have an ace character who is so riveting. It's not necessarily the focus of his character and his personality, but it's one element of him. Growing up in the Bay Area as a minority, being an actor of color (of Iranian descent), I relate to wanting to see myself reflected in the media that I watch—that I take part in—and so I definitely can relate to people being grateful for this character's existence.

CC: This season, Alastor had his ego and body battered. He laughs at Vox for asking him to join his team, and yet, Alastor is tied to a proverbial leash himself. How do you channel all that anger?
AT: I often get asked about how I prepare and how I channel. I don't really know how to answer that because I just dive in. I imagine that the work that I've done as an actor over the last 20 years has made it so that whatever I'm doing emotionally or physically, it now comes fairly easily to me, and I don't need to muscle it. I don't need to figure it out. I just jump in, and it's just there. The great news is that Viv, Sam, and Andrew (the songwriting team Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg) have created such rich material. I don't need to mine this material for more. It's all mined. It's right there.

Alastor (Amir Talai) and Rosie (another demon overlord voiced by Leslie Kritzer).

Courtesy of Prime Video

CC: What was your reaction to seeing Alastor’s (pre-Hell damnation) mortal human form and New Orleans backstory at last?
AT: It's great! Viv drew his human form in some streams early on, and so fans took that and ran with it and did their own fan versions of it. So I had seen it and I loved his human form. I think he's obviously so dapper and so handsome and so—

CC: Naughty (as another demon says in the series).
AT: Yeah, naughty, full of life. There's something interesting about how vivacious he is as a human. His smile in his demon form is obviously a mask that he wears, so it hides whatever he's feeling. (Alastor) says, “Just because you see a smile, don't think you know what's going on underneath,” (in season one). I think you see him a lot more in his human form. What he's really thinking and feeling is more present on his body and his face. That's really appealing.

CC: I see social media discourse now around his human form and his backstory, down to the haircut, melanin, and the racial subtext of his struggle, such as when the rich white guy spills wine on him.
AT: I haven't seen (those conversations) because it's only been a day (since the episode’s release, at the time of this interview), but yeah. That's sort of inescapable in that scene, that he's a little darker skinned and these richer people are clearly white. That's an interesting element visually. It's a neat thing for people watching to read into and take what they want to take from it, even though that (racial aspect) is not talked about (explicitly) in the show. Like, “You can see it, right?” It’s interesting.

Alastor (Amir Talai) in his pre-demon human life as a hustling and rising radio star.

Courtesy of Prime Video

CC: I had the greatest of luck to see your Broadway debut at the concert. What was your reaction to learning that you were going to be a part of that?
AT: It's something that has been talked about since the beginning, right? But there's so many moving parts to a show. I just felt like I don't know if it's ever going to happen, and certainly, as the season two premiere got closer, it was something that was talked about over the summer, but we’ve had some near misses over the last year. I don't know if it was venue issues or money issues or production issues, but there's always these fits and starts in Hollywood that you think something's gonna happen and it doesn't. And so when it suddenly came together in September and we all finally signed on the dotted line, it was pretty surreal and exciting. Getting to do it was a dream come true, and then an honor to be able to do it with all these ridiculously talented people I love spending time with.

CC: What was it like being in that dressing room on Broadway? I saw the Instagram Story with you and co-star Blake Roman (the voice of Angel Dust).
AT: I cried about eight or nine times that day, and two of them were in the dressing room with Blake. One was as soon as I walked into the dressing room and I saw that Blake and I were sharing a dressing room. I started crying because Blake and I have gotten to be really good friends over the last year and a half. We’ve been through a lot together, and to share that space with him literally meant a lot.

From left, Amir Talai, Blake Roman, and Richard Horvitz.

Courtesy of Prime Video

CC: After that Broadway debut, what is your dream role in a play or musical someday?
AT: My biggest dream part is one that doesn’t exist yet. I want to play Harry in the musical of When Harry Met Sally. I think I would do Billy Crystal proud.