THE IRRATIONAL Post-Mortem: Arash DeMaxi on Rizwan Finding a New RA for the Team

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, October 15 episode of THE IRRATIONAL.]

Alec’s (Jesse L. Martin) team on THE IRRATIONAL has officially expanded: After still-new head RA Rizwan (Arash DeMaxi) was given the task of filling the team’s empty slot, he chose Simon (Max Lloyd-Jones)…who had a little bit of baggage.  

“I think it’s a daunting task for Rizwan to have to choose the next RA,” DeMaxi tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “That’s one of his first big responsibilities as the new head RA, so that’s kind of intimidating, right? I better choose someone good and not mess this up because it’s a big task.”

“Something Simon brings to the table is that his expertise is psychobiology, which is something new that I don’t think Rizwan or [previous Head RA] Phoebe necessarily brought to the table as much,” DeMaxi says. “So that’s the way in which Rizwan gets excited about Simon. But there’s also a bit of anxiety, because he’s Simon Wilton, and we’re at Wilton University—he comes from this long, wealthy line, and [Rizwan] doesn’t know if he should hire him because he’s a Wilton.”

“Should he not hire him because he’s a Wilton? Is that also messed up to not hire someone because they’re a Wilton?” he continues. “So it was really fun playing that kind of anxious [energy]. Like, ‘I feel like this is the right thing, but it also might not be.’ And we saw that in episode 2…we’ll continue to see how Simon does…and see if Rizwan made a good choice or not.”

Though there’s a new team member, DeMaxi still appreciates what Phoebe (Molly Kunz) helped Rizwan with during the latter’s early days working with Alec: “She kind of helped initiate me into…that whole world.”

“Molly Kunz has become a really good friend of mine,” DeMaxi says. (Kunz is still a part of the series, though Phoebe is currently working elsewhere.) “We hang out all the time, and it’s just been so fun to have that dynamic with each other on-screen and off-screen. We always say we’re so thankful that we like each other because otherwise we’d be stuck together for so much.”

“But, yeah, I think that she’s taught him, maybe more the theories and terms, the psychological theories…we always joke she’s Hermoine and I’m Ron [from HARRY POTTER],” he continues. “I think she educated me.”

Check out the video for more from DeMaxi, including his take on playing the pretend scenarios in Alec’s class, why he thinks Rizwan has found his stride now, and more…

THE IRRATIONAL, Tuesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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