A Call to Spy Star Radhika Apte Interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition

NPR’s Scott Simon, host of Weekend Edition, recently interviewed Radhika Apte, who starred as Noor in A Call to Spy (which is now playing in select theaters and streaming platforms).

The interview includes Apte’s reflections on gender and principled pacifism in a period of total war and genocide. Here is one memorable quote from the interview on this latter topic, looking at how the Apte imagined Noor’s private moral deliberation and rationale for aiding the Allied war effort:

[…] I’m a pacifist. I’m not going to do it. But when you see such massive destruction, there’s a purpose why I’m here. And if I just sit at home, do nothing, then I’m of absolutely no relevance. […] And she [fights in the war] her way, which is very different from some of the other people who fought in the war. And absolutely, I always believe that there’s something we all have to contribute.

National Public Radio
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/03/919831060/a-call-to-spy-tells-the-story-of-three-of-wwii-s-most-daring-women

Image of NPR Weekend Edition Host Scott Simon at NPR’s new headquarters in Washington, DC on April 9, 2013. Courtesy of Stephen Voss/NPR