MP: It was good.
MB: But let's see… you were also in a pilot called Dash 4 Cash That was a case where your character's name did get changed to match your ethnicity, right? Because originally it was Pablo.
MP: Yeah, it was. It was. I believe the character was originally written...well, it was Pablo. So...of Hispanic descent. And I think he was supposed to be overweight, because the breakdown described him as a little bit like Hurley from Lost. And I actually went in for another character, but then they decided to change what the Pablo character was like. So I came in for the newly revised Pablo. And they did change it to Iqbal. And that was...a choice. Which was fine. It didn't really affect the character, because no matter his descent, he was an American kid. I'm not even sure if Iqbal was Pakistani or Indian or what.
MB: And now we may never know.
MP: And now we may never know, because it's not going forward. But it was fun. Betty Thomas directed, and it was this fun ensemble cast. It was a faux-reality show that was like The Amazing Race. We were all on a race. The "dash for cash."
MB: Wow. That's so meta.
MP: So meta. It was sort of like we all played the worst examples of reality show contestants. Me and this guy Kevin Christy played "the nerdy guys." Our characters had never left their home state of Washington, except to go to a Comic-Con convention. And suddenly they were going across the country trying to win money. And Iqbal meets this girl on the show that he has a total crush on, and he has no idea how to deal with it. It was fun because we mainly shot outside, so there was a lot of hanging out. But...it's not going forward.
MB: So it goes.
MP: That's the second pilot I've done that has not gone forward, but that's just par for the course. They make so many.
MB: And with that, we've covered all the topics on my little notepad. Thanks so much for sitting down with me!