You May Know Me from Such Roles as Terrorist #4
July 28, 2015 2:07 AM Subscribe
As Sayed and Waleed and the others describe their various demises, it strikes me that the key to making a living in Hollywood if you're Muslim is to be good at dying. If you're a Middle Eastern actor and you can die with charisma, there is no shortage of work for you. Jon Ronson in GQ on the Muslim-American actors who earn virtually their entire livings pretending to hijack planes and slaughter infidels. [Via.]
Who should know better, right?
Who played Majeed in Dead Air, Armin Chorekian in The Shield, and "Assad's Man" in 24.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:09 AM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
"If we don't play those roles, the character becomes a caricature. [The producers] might get some actor from a different background who looks Middle Eastern." Herzl nods, adding, "The writer is sitting here in America, writing about a world he's completely unfamiliar with. So of course he won't be able to write it with the full depth and sensuality that comes with that world. It's up to us to bring that depth."Herzl Tobey. Herzl Tobey. Herzl? No: הרצל טובי.
Who played Majeed in Dead Air, Armin Chorekian in The Shield, and "Assad's Man" in 24.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:09 AM on July 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
Great article.
American conservatives (of the Rush Limbaugh variety) love to paint Hollywood as a bastion of unrestrained liberalism, but it's actually quite regressive in many ways. Or, perhaps it'd be more accurate to say that it's a mirror of broader American culture, and so never comes very near to the leading edge of progressivism.
I guess that what you see in that mirror depends on where you're coming from. If you're a Limbaugh-loving reactionary, whose daily interactions are with others of your kind, then Hollywood looks like a crazy riot of gay sex, miscegenation, and scary foreigners, far out on the radical edge. And if you're a Marx-quoting MetaFilter user, then that same Hollywood looks backward, sexist, racist, homophobic, and blatantly, unapologetically illiberal.
Tangentially: there's this unwritten rule that, the more prominent and heroic a role, the more likely that it will be played by a white actor (even if the character is non-white). Black and Asian characters seem to be exempt from this rule (which is probably for the best...), but it applies to characters who are Native American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern (if Hollywood even bothers to put a Middle Eastern character in a heroic role), etc.
Is there a name for that phenomenon? Something like "the Depp-Tonto effect"?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:55 AM on July 28, 2015 [5 favorites]
American conservatives (of the Rush Limbaugh variety) love to paint Hollywood as a bastion of unrestrained liberalism, but it's actually quite regressive in many ways. Or, perhaps it'd be more accurate to say that it's a mirror of broader American culture, and so never comes very near to the leading edge of progressivism.
I guess that what you see in that mirror depends on where you're coming from. If you're a Limbaugh-loving reactionary, whose daily interactions are with others of your kind, then Hollywood looks like a crazy riot of gay sex, miscegenation, and scary foreigners, far out on the radical edge. And if you're a Marx-quoting MetaFilter user, then that same Hollywood looks backward, sexist, racist, homophobic, and blatantly, unapologetically illiberal.
Tangentially: there's this unwritten rule that, the more prominent and heroic a role, the more likely that it will be played by a white actor (even if the character is non-white). Black and Asian characters seem to be exempt from this rule (which is probably for the best...), but it applies to characters who are Native American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern (if Hollywood even bothers to put a Middle Eastern character in a heroic role), etc.
Is there a name for that phenomenon? Something like "the Depp-Tonto effect"?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:55 AM on July 28, 2015 [5 favorites]
There's probably always some British bugger off of Eastenders trying to nab all the speaking roles as well.
posted by Artw at 6:04 AM on July 28, 2015
posted by Artw at 6:04 AM on July 28, 2015
I remember watching Faran Tahir in Iron Man and thinking, “he’s so amazing. I want him to have a career where he gets to play ALL the roles.”
I was relieved when he showed up as a heroic spaceship captain in the Star Trek reboot, but it isn’t enough. I want him to star in romantic comedies, and awkward high school dramedies where he plays the gym coach obsessed with calligraphy, and technodramas where he is a high powered executive, and Nicholas Sparks weepies where he runs off to a North Carolina town and learns a Terrible Secret but Love Triumphs After All.
I mean, I want this for all actors stuck playing Terrorist #18, but he is the specific actor who made me think “come on, Hollywood, give these talented dudes ANYTHING ELSE TO DO.”
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:31 AM on July 28, 2015 [11 favorites]
I was relieved when he showed up as a heroic spaceship captain in the Star Trek reboot, but it isn’t enough. I want him to star in romantic comedies, and awkward high school dramedies where he plays the gym coach obsessed with calligraphy, and technodramas where he is a high powered executive, and Nicholas Sparks weepies where he runs off to a North Carolina town and learns a Terrible Secret but Love Triumphs After All.
I mean, I want this for all actors stuck playing Terrorist #18, but he is the specific actor who made me think “come on, Hollywood, give these talented dudes ANYTHING ELSE TO DO.”
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:31 AM on July 28, 2015 [11 favorites]
And I thought, ‘Wow! A nuance!'
posted by 256 at 7:34 AM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by 256 at 7:34 AM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
Now that I've finished reading the article, I just want to say that the accompanying photos are fantastic.
posted by 256 at 7:48 AM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by 256 at 7:48 AM on July 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: ‘Wow! A nuance!'
posted by Sangermaine at 10:54 AM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sangermaine at 10:54 AM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
This article is hilarious... no wonder so many of the guys in it turned to stand up. Just gut-wrenching quotable and funny.
posted by subdee at 4:20 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by subdee at 4:20 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Omar Sharif was Middle Eastern,Egyptian, Arab and Christian.
That was the ONE inacuracy I found.
The training for the terrorist rôles begins early. My son looks fairly Middle Eastern due to having a South Asian father. When hey did improve in his Drama class, he got cast as a hijacker. WELL befor 9/11.
The instructor he had also had Kyle McLaughlin as a student...(Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper). My son's instructor actually encouraged him to try his luck in Hollywood. The terrorist parts were mentioned as an option.
He chose a different path. Now I'm glad he did. The money is simply not enough.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:58 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
That was the ONE inacuracy I found.
The training for the terrorist rôles begins early. My son looks fairly Middle Eastern due to having a South Asian father. When hey did improve in his Drama class, he got cast as a hijacker. WELL befor 9/11.
The instructor he had also had Kyle McLaughlin as a student...(Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper). My son's instructor actually encouraged him to try his luck in Hollywood. The terrorist parts were mentioned as an option.
He chose a different path. Now I'm glad he did. The money is simply not enough.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 4:58 PM on July 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
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This.
I suspect the current period won't be looked at favourably in the future; either as a dark, unenlightened and shameful episode, or as an obvious-in-hindsight foreshadowing of the much worse events that followed, sort of like the 1930s.
posted by acb at 3:05 AM on July 28, 2015 [6 favorites]