INTERVIEW: Avan Jogia on All Things ‘Twisted,’ His Character, and More

Avan Jogia can be seen this summer playing the lead role of Danny Desai on Twisted.

Danny is a sixteen-year-old charismatic teen with a mysterious past who comes home after spending time in juvie for “allegedly” killing his aunt five years prior. After he comes home, another murder occurs and Danny is suspected of murder yet again. This time, Danny will stop at nothing to clear his name and mend his friendships with Lacey and Joe. Twisted sounds like that edge of our seat type of show we love. We can safely say that his new ABC Family series will be on our must-watch list and it should be on yours as well.

GLITTER: Tell us about your new ABC Family show, Twisted.
AVAN: It centers on a young man who is sent to juvenile detention for the murder of his aunt when he was11-years-old. He’s released five years later on good behavior and comes back to his community to try to put together the pieces of his life. As you can imagine, he doesn’t have a lot of friends. He really would like to mend his relationships with his previous best friends, Lacey and Joe, who were at his aunt’s house when the murder took place and were understandably traumatized. Lacey and Joe’s relationship is very strained as well and they have grown apart. Of course, to top it off, there’s been another murder at the school and Danny is the obvious suspect.

GLITTER: What can fans expect in the first season?
AVAN: So far, what I can tell you about the first season is that you’re going to be introduced to a lot of plots concerning a certain necklace that makes its appearance in the pilot, as well as a lot of the difficulties Danny, Joe, and Lacey, have trying to find their friendship again. Obviously, trust is their biggest issue.

Another issue is trying to make sense of Danny’s rea-son behind murdering his aunt and why he is not talking about the issues surrounding that. Of course, there’s also solving the murder of who killed Regina.

GLITTER: What’s your character like? Are you able to relate to him?
AVAN: I think juvenile detention changed Danny a lot and one of his characteristics is using charm and sarcastic humor as a defense mechanism. I feel he understands distinctly how to treat people in different positions of authority. Maybe it’s called manipulation, but I think we all have different faces for different situations.

I think that his ability to relate comes from the fact that we’ve all done something seemingly out of character that we are probably not proud of, and at some point in time you have to face the music. You have to mend your bridges, take responsibility for what you did, and try to move on.

GLITTER: What was the auditioning process for the show? How did you find out you got the role of Danny?
AVAN: It was a pretty thorough audition process. I went in to test for it twice. From a casting point of view, I think it was a difficult role to fill as the character needs to be charming and dark at the same time. Like most actors, I found out over the phone from my manager.

GLITTER: How does this role differ from other roles you have played in the past?
AVAN: I’ve been lucky enough to work in both comedy and drama. The dramatic roles have generally centered on a character with some similar characteristics, al-though, those characters were only just conflicted, not necessarily charismatic. It’s great to be able to bring in some of my comedy background for the times that Danny uses sarcastic humor as a diffuser.

GLITTER: Victorious recently just ended its final season. How different is it filming a drama/mystery series compared to filming a comedy?
AVAN: Well, a lot of it is in the technical aspect—multi-camera drama versus single-camera comedy. Television comedy is much more technical; it doesn’t entirely rely on how your character feels when hearing some information.

GLITTER: When you’re not acting, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy doing?
AVAN: I enjoy creating songs and learning new instruments. I find it to be a great outlet for personal pleasure.

GLITTER: What can fans expect from you in the upcoming year?
AVAN: I have some personal projects I’ve put on the back burner, so I’d like to be able to spend some time on those. I will just see what the year brings. Things change very quickly—you just have to take it as it comes.