NBC’s popular crime series The Blacklist is well into its ninth season and fans are finally gaining insight into what their favourite characters were up to during the two-year time jump. Actor Amir Arison opened up about his audition and revealed the key moment he became the fav-favourite Aram Mojtabai.
Arison made his first appearance as Aram in the third-ever episode of the show, which aired in 2013, titled ‘Wujing’.
As the FBI cyber expert, he used his skill to hide Liz Keen’s (played by Megan Boone) identity as an FBI agent whenever she went undercover.
Originally, Arison was only cast as a guest actor scheduled to appear in one episode, however, the actor possessed a certain skill which impressed bosses.
They kept him in the role eight years later and Aram became the Special Agent Strategic and Tactical Technician.
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The actor impressed the showrunners during his first episode in a scene where Aram gave Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) and Meera Malik (Parminder Nagra), the location of a person of interest.
When the two agents left the scene, Aram sarcastically said to himself: “Thank you, Aram. You’re welcome. Go get them.”
It was later revealed the remark Aram made was completely improvised and bosses were so pleased with his skill, they kept it in.
Arison shared the producers felt as though his ability to improvise would work on the show, so they extended his scheduling from the one episode.
Arison explained: “They did not yell ‘cut’ once, I remember. Parminder and Diego had to run out of the room, I gave them a location, and they didn’t yell ‘cut.’”
Speaking on the moment the actor detailed: “I knew that they could cut right there at any moment they wanted, so I kept going. And I started improv-ing. I even made myself laugh.
“And then, when the episode came out, they kept it. The writers were like, ‘Oh, this guy can be funny. We can write to that.’ Then, all of a sudden, I started coming back.
“I started saying jokes in my most natural rhythm and humour. I was like, ‘This is the miracle people talk about.’”
With over eight years on The Blacklist, fans recently questioned if the actor would leave the show.
The speculation began in season nine when viewers saw Aram struggle to decide whether or not he would rejoin the task force after they had split and began their own ventures during the time jump.
Away from his role in law enforcement, Aram ventured into tech and founded a cyber security start-up which was a huge success, however after much deliberation he returned to his role in the FBI.
Furthermore, Arison landed a new role away from NBC and in an upcoming Hulu miniseries titled ‘The Dropout,’ which furthered rumours about his potential exit from The Blacklist.
The Blacklist season nine continues Thursdays on NBC.