Interview: Actor ‘Jack Topalian’ Talks Season Three Of Euphoria

Tweet
By James Lindorf

Listen to the interview.

Jack Topalian is the kind of actor Hollywood runs on but rarely celebrates. Originally from Armenia, he made a bold and unconventional choice, leaving a career in business behind in his forties to pursue the thing that had captivated him since he first watched Star Wars as a kid. He trained at the American Conservatory Theater and spent the next seventeen years building a
career one role at a time. "Southland," "True Detective," "Bosch," "Ray Donovan," "SEAL Team," and "The Blacklist" are just a few stops along the way, along with film work that includes "Argo," "Emily the Criminal," and "The Little Things" opposite three Oscar winners. He has warm personality, is passionate about his craft, and is exactly the kind of person you root for when the big moment finally arrives. That moment may just be here. Topalian is currently appearing in two of the most talked about shows on television nearly simultaneously.

In HBO's "Euphoria" season three, he plays Naz, a ruthless and calculating gangster and shady businessman to whom Nate Jacobs owes a debt. It is not a role that forgives subtlety. Naz is the kind of threat that takes fingers and toes as payment before graduating to burying people alive, and Topalian brings a cold, measured menace to a show that has never been short on intensity.On Apple TV's "Sugar" season two, he plays boxing coach Teddy Garnikian, sharing scenes with Colin Farrell in the neo-noir mystery that quietly became one of the more underrated shows on the platform. Two shows, two completely different worlds, and by all accounts an impactful presence in both. You can hear more about his time on these shows, the start of his career and what his future holds here.