Interesting article in The LA Times about how playing a terrorist os "the new Arab acting ghetto."
The undisputed champion of the Arab terrorist role is Sayed Badreya. The burly, bearded Egyptian-born actor has played an array of menacing characters in a 20-year Hollywood career. He'll appear with Robert Downey Jr. in next year's "Iron Man" as an Arab arms dealer who kidnaps the hero. In 2003, he and Issawi made a short film called "T for Terrorist" in which an Arab actor, frustrated with endless terrorist roles, takes over a movie set at gunpoint.
Badreya recalls when he first arrived in Hollywood in 1986. "I couldn't work. I was too handsome," he laughs. "So I put on some weight and grew a beard, and suddenly I was working every day and playing the angry Arab."
Many, apparently, are hiding their heritage or changing their name to avoid being typecast. It may result in less easy work, but at least it ensures that the work that does come will be varied. On the other hand, the article doesn't much mention this, but some Arab actors are getting broader roles. My old neighbor Omid Abtahi, for instance, has "Sleeper Cell" and "24" on his resume, but is now playing Mohammed in the screen adaptation of Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and doing voices for the awesomely titled "Space Chimp." But that may just be because people who grew up on Tamarack Street are awesome.
