It’s a Friday evening, and Enver Gjokaj (pronounced “Joke-Eye”) is having some trouble logging into Zoom from his L.A. home. Granted, there might have been an accidental password change that created the issue, but as he notes, it’s the COVID Zoom era— something was bound to be out of sorts. Then again, he’s used to being the person out of time… quite literally.
Casually sitting on the floor in a dark sweater and black-rimmed glasses, it’s no wonder why TV Marvel fans have a soft spot for the 40-year-old actor. He's appeared on shows like Dollhouse and Extant in the past, but Gjokaj is most recognizable for his role as Daniel Sousa on Marvel’s Agent Carter, the disabled World War II vet-turned-agent who defied all odds to become the leader of the West Coast Bureau of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR). Yes—the same covert agency Captain America once worked for.
Sure, he might not be Steve Rogers (a.k.a. the ultimate 1940s superhero), nor a typical man of the era, but fans were saddened to see his storyline tie up and possibly never see him on their screens again. Except, Marvel does have a habit of bringing back old favorites, as Gjokaj learned when he unexpectedly found himself once again donning Sousa’s suit and tie combo last year. He was about to be make a surprise return in the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., something the actor never dreamed would happen.
“I had no idea,” he says, reflecting on the moment he found out he’d be reprising his role. “There’d been loose talk about ‘wouldn’t it be cool if blank,’ and I said ‘that sounds great.’ When it actually came through, I was very surprised.”
Gjokaj then breaks down this new Sousa, whom fans get reacquainted with after the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents time jump to 1955. He’s become the top agent in the western United States, yet no longer partners with Carter. He’s seen things on missions, making him skeptical and less accepting of nonsense. The biggest kicker? He’s supposed to be dead, the result of what fans learn was an ordered hit by HYDRA.
But TV fans know that "dead" doesn't always really mean dead. The team fakes Sousa’s death, gets him back to their tricked-out plane, gifts him with a new prosthetic that lets him walk again, and he becomes the newest member of their time-jumping crew.
So he’s the same, and yet completely different. That’s alright with Gjokaj though, as he’s changed a lot personally since he last stepped into Sousa’s shoes back in 2016. “It helped that [the producers] wanted me to play Sousa as not picking up right where he left off,” he says. “They wanted to find him many years later, and it was many years for me too from having played that role. He’s not the same guy, and it was kind of helpful that I could bring Sousa closer to where I am now.”
That’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate Sousa’s more traditionally era-appropriate tics (think that nonsensical idiom you've only heard your grandparents say, or "casual" being a three-piece suit), which he loved bringing out around the range of characters now surrounding him.
“There’s something funny and square about him, being old school. In Agent Carter, it was within that time. But now you take the same guy out of time… he’s almost the comic relief, because everything he does is so square to all these people from the future.”
He then bursts out laughing. “You know—he’s kind of an antique!”
Fans could see Sousa’s old-school values come to life in the form of his budding romance with Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), which has been a slow-building storyline throughout the final season. While no one can deny the onscreen chemistry between the duo (affectionately called “Dousy” by fans), Gjokaj felt nervous about playing the love interest for a long-running character, and one who’d essentially gone without a significant other since the third season.
“I knew the producers had been trying to find a love interest for Chloe for a long time,” he says about the relationship. “Watching it with a bit of distance, I can actually see why it works so well. We felt like there was something happening, but then you see it on the screen... There’s something about it that I don’t know how, but it just works.”
It's been a tumultuous few months for everyone as the COVID-19 pandemic really set in, and Gjokaj knows the kind of toll 2020 has taken. He purposefully takes his time to properly articulate his thoughts when discussing the importance of mental health paired with acting, and, well, everything else going on.
“Whatever I’ve learned about mental health mostly comes from doing a lot of things wrong that I found didn’t serve me,” he says. “I kept falling on my face time after time, and I got to a point where it was not sustainable... That kind of insanity requires a little bit of an anchor, and it’s not because I’m a zen person. It’s because I didn’t have one for so many years and I felt like I was spinning out a little bit and getting frayed.”
He takes another beat before continuing. “I think after ten years in the industry, I was able to hold it together and then I just got really run out of gas.”
Gjokaj learned that the best way for him to manage his own mental health was to go back to basics. Along with some breathing techniques, he’s into writing morning gratitude lists, which he says help keep him grounded while the world is still battling the pandemic. He also has a very specific mantra an older actor/mentor once shared with him that he likes to recite when he gets stressed out about doing too many things at once.
“On Friday, we do Friday shit,” he laughs. “We don’t do Saturday shit, we don’t do Sunday shit, and we don’t do next week shit. On Friday, we just do Friday shit. That’s my mantra for life.”
Gjokaj also shared an insight into how he’s spending his free time since the lockdown began back in March. He recently finished reading—and recommends—Breath by James Nestor. He installed a pull-up bar in his home for some bodyweight calisthenics. And he’s doing workout videos he finds on YouTube or Reddit.
He’s also hopeful that fans see just how special the final episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are and the quiet impact the show made about people living with a physical disability.
“What I always loved about Sousa is he’s just a guy,” he says. “It was really important to see that this is just a guy who happens to have a disability, you know? He happens to have an injury, but doesn’t let it define him. He’s just Sousa, and I think he’s still sexy and an awesome super agent.”
While Gjokaj might be ready to bid adieu to Sousa, he’s grateful for the chance to come back into the world of Marvel and play a role he never thought he’d portray again.
“I never expected to get a second chance to play this guy,” he laughs. “I feel like I’ve won the lottery twice now. It would totally be unfair for me to expect any more.”
He pauses before finishing. “I’ve been very lucky in my life and my career. So I’m happy to say goodbye for now.”
The series finale of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' premieres August 12th at 9PM ET.
