What Jameela Jamil Really Thinks Of Tahani On The Good Place

NBC's "The Good Place" is a surprisingly deep and philosophical look at the concepts of good and evil, delivered in the form of a punchy 22-minute comedy with a stellar cast and plot. If you haven't seen its first season yet, spoilers follow: It initially seems that the slice of Heaven that is the titular Good Place is a wondrous place for the most saintly portion of humanity, and the considerably less pious Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) has been sent there by a bureaucratic accident. However, it soon transpires that the place is actually an experiment of the hellish Bad Place, run by the secretly demonic Michael (Ted Danson) — and like Eleanor, main characters Chidi (William Jackson Harper), Jason (Manny Jacinto), and Tahani (Jameela Jamil) are all much worse than they initially seem, and serve as unwitting guinea pigs for this new method of wicked torture.

The petty nature of the characters means that some of the actors had to portray characters they were somewhat conflicted about. Jamil, in particular, has revealed what she really thinks of Tahani in "The Good Place" — and her feelings are just as complicated as the show's plot itself. 

Jameela Jamil didn't particularly care for Tahani at first. In an interview with Vulture, she revealed that Tahani's glitzy inauthenticity is meant to reflect the ways of a true London socialite, and that she personally she considers the character's constant name-dropping and narcissism outright awful. Regardless, she pointed out that trying to understand an unlikable character eventually became incredibly rewarding.

"She's a nightmare," Jamil said of her character. "I could never be friends with someone like Tahani, but that makes her all the more fun to try and love. I've grown to love her over season two. I couldn't stand her in season one — I love playing her, but couldn't stand her."

That being said, Jamil also recognized that Tahani does eventually learn to become a better person — or, at least, to avoid being the worst version of herself. She also pointed out that insufferable though she may occasionally be, Tahani isn't really Bad Place material. "She probably deserves a Middle Place where all of the Tahanis of the world should go!" Jamil said. "Or maybe a Passive Aggressive Narcissistic Place."