From Calgary to Queens: Malik Elassal on Playing Samir on Hulu’s Adults, Stand-Up Roots, and That Tony Soprano Impression

FARAH: Malik! Congratulations on Adults! It’s a major hit, it’s taking the world by storm, and especially Samir.

MALIK: Shukran! I’m just going to keep responding in Arabic.

FARAH: I mean, I’ll say it — because no one else will. We have to protect you. So, Mashallah!

MALIK: Thank you!

FARAH: Adults is set in Queens, New York, but it was filmed in Toronto. I know you’re from Winnipeg, but how was it to go back to Canada for your first big role?

MALIK: I was born in Winnipeg but raised in Calgary. Going back to Canada was so nice, because it’s nice to know you can just go to the doctor if you need to. It was nice being somewhere where you’re used to the surroundings. It helped me feel at home.

When you’re filming a show like this, you want to feel comfortable. That’s kind of the whole point. It was really nice to look outside and think, “I understand this place.” I know the restaurants. I know these places. I know Toronto pretty well, so it was nice to be there. I have a lot of friends there, so I got to hang out with them when I wasn’t filming. It all really helped me feel comfortable.

FARAH: I do want to ask about Samir. He’s such a sensitive character. What kind of prep did you do to get into his head? Were there any parts of his backstory that you developed for yourself that didn’t make it into the show?

MALIK: Yeah, there’s all kinds of stuff that you develop before filming and you know none of that stuff is going to be in there. It’s just kind of nice to do it and think about it.

When I was thinking of Samir, I kept thinking about that time in my life when I was basically just at my friend’s house all the time and that’s all we did. Nobody had their shit together, nobody knew what they were going to do, everyone was just trying to figure it out. That’s what I feel like Samir is going through.

I always think about that time really fondly, so when I think about Samir, I’m almost jealous because it’s the best time of his whole life, basically. To get ready for the character, I would just go back and look at old pictures from that time a lot, and I’d listen to a lot of the music that I listened to during that time. I’ve made a lot of playlists!

FARAH: That was actually one of my questions. I wanted to know what songs you think would be on Samir’s playlist.

MALIK: There’s literally a song by Lil Uzi Vert called I Gotta, because at some point he says, “My name is Symeer.” Samir would for sure hear that and lose his mind!

There’s a lot of sentimental music as well, but it’s funny to imagine that Samir would walk around listening to I Gotta.

FARAH: I like to imagine him listening to Lebanese music. I know he loves Fairuz.

MALIK: Oh yeah! He probably throws on Abdel Halim [Hafez] every once in a while. You know, his mom showed him that one song — Zay el Hawa!

FARAH: This is exactly what I wanted to know!

FARAH: Was there a particular line, whether yours or someone else’s, that made you break character or really stuck with you?

MALIK: During the bank scene, I just talked for such a long time. And then the part where Samir goes, “Now can you please say something?”. That’s how I feel so much in those moments. Like, “Okay, I did my part of talking until you realize I’m an idiot. Now can you start talking, please, so I feel like less of an idiot?”

FARAH: The first season had a lot of surprising cameos. If you could cast your dream cameo, who would it be?

MALIK: We gotta find a nice Arab actor to play my dad, don’t we? Who do you think?

FARAH: Well, I really love Laith Nakli!

MALIK: Laith is a good friend of mine. That would actually be hilarious!

FARAH: If the producers are watching this, you know what to do.

MALIK: I can text him right now and be like, “Hey, do you want to play my dad?” That’s amazing, because I did a short film with Laith that’s going to come out this year!

FARAH: We can’t wait to watch that.

FARAH: When it comes to the reception, I have to ask: have you seen any of the Samir fancams that are floating around?

MALIK: You know all of it.

FARAH: You are very online!

MALIK: [Laughing] Okay, yeah. Everybody wants to act like they’re cool and they don’t look at the internet.

FARAH: It’s fine. I am online, too!

MALIK: Can you imagine if somebody was putting little clips of your face and then they’re putting Mitski underneath it? It’s very weird for me to see.

FARAH: Sometimes when I do interviews, I come up on my own For You page and it freaks me out.

MALIK: Oh my God. You can’t imagine what it feels like to have, like, Adrienne Lenker playing a song that I already like, and then it’s just, like, my face. It’s insane. It’s definitely doing something to me psychologically that I won’t know what it is until later. But yeah, I want everybody to know that everybody in the cast is watching the edits.

FARAH: Speaking of which, have you gotten a wild fan reaction or a crazy DM?

MALIK: Yeah! I don’t want to single any one of them out, because then people are gonna start sending me more. It’s all been insane. But you know, something that is actually really funny that I keep getting is people being like, “You’re so funny, please don’t go bald.”

FARAH: Oh, I got that a few days ago and I was like, “What?” And then I saw it being commented on other people’s TikToks, so I think it’s just a TikTok brain rot thing that I’m too old for.

MALIK: Oh, it’s a trend? I thought they were just saying it to me because I’m Arab, like they’re worried about Arabs going bald or something, and I was like, “Okay, I’ll try!”

FARAH: You, obviously, have a stand-up comedy background. So what did you bring over from that to Adults?

MALIK: It all helps. There were certain scenes where there’d be a lot of extras around and we had a big crew, so doing stand-up helps you be like, “Oh well. I’m not worried about a big crowd of people.” Also, I was already pretty used to making an ass out of myself.

FARAH: Do you think Samir would try stand-up in his venture of trying to find a job? How do you think that would go?

MALIK: Samir would have a mental breakdown if he got on stage. I don’t think he’s cut out for it. I think he would get in a fight with the audience and he would not know how to hold it together. He’s too emotional to do stand-up.

FARAH: I thought about that scenario this morning and I was like, “This is something I need to see.”

MALIK: That’s actually a great question. I haven’t actually given it enough thought, but I think Samir gets into enough ridiculous situations that he’d have a lot of material to talk about. But I think he would end up bombing in some crazy way, or he’d ask a woman how old she was and she’d get pissed off and throw her drink at him, and it would blow up in his face somehow.

FARAH: Finally, I was trying to end this in a really Malik way. I’ve been seeing your impressions of Tony Soprano.

MALIK: I’m always doing that. Was that on Good Morning America?

FARAH: I think it was!

MALIK: Can I say something about that? Nobody told me that they were going to make me do that. I just showed up to Good Morning America and apparently Jack [Innanen] told them that I could do all these impressions, and I didn’t have anything to talk about. So I was like, “Okay, it’s five in the morning, I’ll do a Tony Soprano impression on Good Morning America.”

And then it’s like [one of those things that you do] and after that you go home and you go take a nap and you’re like, “Did that even happen?”

FARAH: That is everything, Malik. Thank you so much, and I do hope we get more of Adults.

MALIK: Inshallah!

FARAH: Inshallah!

The first season of Adults is now available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

IMAGE COURTESY of Emily Soto.