'The Pitt' star Sepideh Moafi on being limitless

When Sepideh Moafi told a coach about her goals, she framed them with self-deprecation: "I know it's delusional and I know it's a bit grandiose." The coach pushed back: "What's delusional and grandiose about having an expanded imagination and knowing your word?" That exchange stuck with Moafi. It made her realize how people from marginalized communities — immigrants, refugees, people of color — are taught to downplay their dreams. Her answer to the question "What is the most unhinged thing you sincerely believe?" is simple: "There is no limit."

The opera foundation and the dial

Moafi trained as an opera singer starting at 15, and that training gave her something she still draws on as a screen actor. "What Opera taught me and gave me a foundation with is the size that's required, the lung capacity, the breath, the commitments, the follow-through of gesture, of emotion, of intention." The difference between opera and film acting, she explains, is a matter of dialing. In a two-thousand-seat house, everything must reach the back row. With a camera, the person is right in front of you. "It's about the intensity and the size of feeling. It's just you scale back and adjust to the size of the space." When she feels disconnected on set, she returns to Shakespeare monologues or vocal drills to get back in her body. "It's the same m