By Arsalan Iftikhar
Date Posted: March 28, 2008
Hollywood has always had to have a bad guy, and a racial stereotype frequently fit the bill–whether it was the Native American in an old Western or a drug dealer in a Blaxploitation film. In the new millennium, a gun-toting angry Muslim male seems to be the villain of choice.
Because of Hollywood’s checkered history with racist stereotypes, I decided to see firsthand its casting and portrayal of Muslims by becoming an extra for a multimillion-dollar Hollywood blockbuster.
Warner Brothers’ “Body of Lies” is a political espionage thriller starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. Like many CIA thrillers made by Hollywood today, this movie follows mysterious Brown men through the back streets of Amman, Munich and Dubai in the perpetual search for terrorist threats to our American national security.
In this case, the back streets of Baltimore stood in for Munich, and Washington, D.C., substituted for Amman. Of course, Warner Brothers needed local “Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern” residents to fill certain background roles.
That’s where I came into the picture—every pun intended.
After receiving an open casting call from Warner Brothers, I figured that, being the somewhat rare 6-foot-4-inch Muslim male with on-camera experience; I might be just what they were looking for. I e-mailed some YouTube video clips from my television appearances and was called by casting agents the next day.
Thus my Hollywood experiment began.
Along with other olive-skinned extras, I was cast for two full days in two different scenes of the movie. Our first scene, which took place at a Turkish ghetto hookah café in Munich, Germany, was filmed on a dilapidated city block in Baltimore. My role was a Turkish vagabond. Out of the nearly 20 ‘”Turks” cast for the scene, not a single one of us was actually Turkish. Instead, in addition to me, our ‘”Turkish” crew consisted of several Iranians, Arabs, Armenians, four whites, a Bosnian and a Mexican.
The second scene, an executive airport lounge at Amman International Airport in Jordan, was filmed at a private hangar at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, D.C. At the other end of the stereotypical casting spectrum, my role on the second day of filming was of a jet-setting young Saudi billionaire in an upscale executive airport lounge at Amman airport.
The people in wardrobe today had me sporting a power DKNY suit along with the signature pink tie and appropriate billionaire “bling,” a far cry from my Turkish vagabond costume of the day before.
In the Amman airport-terminal scene, there were about 10 other “Arab” people, including two prototypical Saudi “sheikhs” (one played by a very nice white-haired Italian gentleman named Gus) and several burqa-clad “Arab Muslim” women (all of different olive-skinned ethnicities, from Filipinas to Latinas, some of whom popped into their Arab dresses from their miniskirts in the costume tent).
All of the people in the film crew were incredibly nice and many had traveled extensively to the Middle East to make sure details such as the women’s hijabs, or head coverings, were authentic. For many of them, it had been their first trip to the Muslim world and they all remarked how much they loved the Middle East and how the people were so different from the negative portrayals often seen in Western media.
During the airport scene, one of the production assistants even asked me whether a Paris Hilton–type purse dog would be acceptable inside an airport lounge in a Muslim country, in an effort to avoid offending Muslim sensibilities. The meticulous attention to detail by Academy Award–nominated film director Sir Ridley Scott was another surprise.
Finally, after two grueling 11-hour days of work, my Hollywood experiment was over. Alas, the final product will be a two-second blip on the big screen as a Turkish vagabond or a jet-setting young Saudi billionaire. On the other hand, I might end up on Warner Brothers’ cutting-room floor.
Honestly, a large part of me is hoping for the cutting-room floor.
So, what did I learn from my little experiment? First, making Hollywood movies is not as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be, despite our collective idolization of film celebrities. Ninety percent of being in a movie involves waiting around for hours, often in uncomfortable circumstances (for example, wearing full winter costume in 92-degree heat) for three minutes of time in front of the camera while the film rolls.
Second, Hollywood has come a long way from the infamous days of using white actors in makeup to portray everything from Native Americans to Asians. Now, Hollywood takes some pains to use appropriate ethnic or racial actors to play ethnic or racial roles. Still, the roles themselves often fall into easy stereotypes.
But alas, in fairness, playing either the hookah-smoking Turkish vagabond or the jet-setting Saudi billionaire with a briefcase full of bling was still preferable to being the Crimson Jihad terrorist.
So while Hollywood has made some progress, it seems like Tinseltown still has a ways to go. As for me, the silver lining to this experiment is now I can say I’ve been in a Hollywood movie. I can cross that off of my “Life To-Do List.”
And thankfully, I feel no need to do it again anytime soon.
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Arsalan Iftikhar is a contributing writer for DiversityInc Magazine in Washington DC. www.diversityinc.com/public/3317.cfm
