There are a lot of things to take away from Project Hail Mary. The science? Sure. The end-of-the-world stakes? Obviously. Ryan Gosling floating through space in a knitted sweater that has already inspired a thousand Pinterest boards, or the inevitable return of the slutty little glasses? Also high on the list. But there are some details that you only notice if you’re paying attention. A greeting card tucked into the spacecraft that reads “Dhanyavaad”, for instance, which Indian audiences have very quickly clocked and claimed as their own. But even that is not the only reason to pay attention. Because behind one of the film’s most memorable elements is a voice that ends up doing a surprising amount of the heavy lifting. And that voice belongs to Priya Kansara, a British actor of Indian origin.
In the film, the 28-year-old voices Mary, the spaceship, who, for a crucial stretch of the film, is the only “presence” keeping Gosling’s Ryland Grace from completely losing it when he wakes up alone in space. Disoriented, confused, and increasingly irritated by the steady stream of instructions coming his way, Grace spends much of that time reacting to Mary besides relying on her. Kansara, as she puts it, was essentially there to get under his skin, something she admits she quite enjoyed.
When I speak to her over Zoom, it is immediately clear why the directors approached her for the role. Her voice is warm, quick, solid, and expressive at the same time. Mary is, technically, inanimate, but she is also the closest thing the film has to a companion in those early moments, cutting through the existential dread with dry, well-timed responses that double as comic relief. It is a performance that feels deceptively simple until you realise how much of it relies on instinct and timing. “Mary developed as we went along the process… We just worked on the first scene, and as we went on we kept working around what she might say in a situation... Having this voice to kind of react in time gives Gosling the opportunity to build that world and build who Grace Ryland is,” explains Kansara.
The film itself has already become summer’s obsession. It’s the kind of movie that has sci-fi nerds behaving like they’ve collectively discovered a new element, petitioning for more IMAX screenings across India and aggressively recommending it to anyone who will listen. The adaptation of Andy Weir’s book follows a lone astronaut trying to save Earth from a cosmic disaster. It all sounds serious until you factor in an unexpectedly charming alien named Rocky, who has now, quite firmly, become everyone’s favourite new fixation.
Interestingly, Kansara may also have been the only actor on set who probably had the background credentials to play not just Mary but Gosling’s role as well. Not many know that Kansara has a degree in Molecular Biology from University College London. Her story is, in many ways, the most Indian-kid origin story imaginable. Do the sensible degree, keep your options open, and then, somewhere along the way, end up doing something entirely different. “Grace Ryland in the film is a molecular biologist. I remember reading the book and nerding out about that and just being really excited. And what was really cool for me was seeing his lab in the spaceship in real life. Because when I was at university, we didn’t get to use that fancy equipment. It’s saved for the Master’s students or the PhD students. I was like, oh, my God, I finally might be able to touch this equipment.”
Like many brown kids living in the UK, Kansara grew up on a steady, slightly chaotic mix of Bollywood, British television, and Hollywood, the kind that leaves you equally invested in drama, comedy, and a bit of escapism. At some point, films like Bunty Aur Babli stopped being just entertainment and started feeling aspirational—the idea of leaving home, reinventing yourself, becoming someone else entirely. Add to that the influence of icons like Aishwarya Rai and the anything-can-happen humour of Jim Carrey, and the shift feels almost inevitable. She started doing school plays, squeezing rehearsals between classes, not quite realising she was laying the groundwork for a career.
Since then, she has continued to build a filmography that resists easy categorisation. She appeared as Miss Eaton in the second season of Bridgerton in 2022. The season, notably, featured a strong presence of south Asian actors, adding a new layer to all that corseted drama and candlelit yearning. For Kansara, it meant stepping into a world of restraint and decorum, which makes what came next feel even more satisfying.
Her breakthrough role in 2023’s Polite Society was, um, anything but polite. Kansara plays a British-Pakistani stuntwoman trying to save her sister from the clutches of an arranged marriage, and she does so with flying fists, sharp comebacks, and absolutely no interest in playing nice. In the process, she tears straight through every tired south Asian trope. “I think the thing that felt the most serendipitous to me was playing Ria Khan in Polite Society. That definitely felt the most like this is meant to be. And she is very similar to me. In fact, a lot of people ask me, did you help write that? Because she is really close to you. I was like, no,” Kansara admits.
Next up for Kansara is Star City, slated for a May release, a spin-off of Apple TV’s For All Mankind. Clearly, Kansara isn’t done with space just yet. After Project Hail Mary, she returns to another high-stakes sci-fi world, this time as Lakshmi, a scientist navigating an alternate space race. It is a role that, once again, brings together her dual affinities for science and performance. It also turns out she has very specific plans for the future.
Kansara mentions, almost offhandedly, that she has “always wanted to play a villain”. A Bond villain, specifically. When I suggest she could easily star opposite Riz Ahmed, who has everyone and their mother in a chokehold with his recent release Bait, where he plays a struggling south Asian actor trying to land the role of a lifetime as James Bond, she lights up immediately. “Oh my gosh. Somebody tell somebody to get me on this project. I would totally do that,” she laughs. And if we are being honest, she already has the voice for it.
Clearly Kansara refuses to be boxed in. For an actor who moves between genres, accents, and even disciplines with ease, her choices already push against the kind of narrow roles south Asian actors have historically been slotted into. A Regency-era society member one moment, an action-comedy lead the next, and now a voice in a sprawling sci-fi universe, she is building a career that does not hinge on stereotype. “I don’t think one person can represent an entire community,” she says. “There are so many different stories, so many different experiences, and I think the more we see that variety on screen, the better it is for everyone.”
