Egypt Today, Egypt
Feb 10 2008
An Arab Rendition
Egyptian-American actor Omar Metwally shares his thoughts on theater,
torture and the Cairo Film Festival as he rides to new success on the
strength of the critically acclaimed Rendition
By Sherif Awad
In the mid-1990s, the Clinton administration introduced a procedure
known as `extraordinary rendition,’ ostensibly to help CIA officials
hunt and dismantle militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East
– Al-Qaeda in particular. Under this practice, suspected terrorists
were often transferred to countries other than the United States
where, without legal restraint, they were allegedly tortured.
The movie Rendition, which recently screened at the Toronto and Rome
film festivals, was the first Hollywood movie to tackle this
controversial subject. It focuses on Egyptian-American chemical
engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi, played by Omar Metwally, who is
apprehended at the Chicago airport on his way home from a business
trip. El-Ibrahimi is secretly shuttled to an unnamed North African
country, where the local police chief (Yigal Naor) subjects him to
psychological and physical torture.
Rendition marks the first starring role for Omar Metwally, who was
born in New York to an Egyptian businessman and a Dutch
schoolteacher. Raised in southern California, Metwally began his
career in San Francisco, where he trained at the American
Conservatory Theater. He then moved to New York where he spent the
next seven years in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Metwally
was lauded for his portrayal of Aram, an emotionally scarred survivor
of the Armenian genocide, in the off-Broadway play Beast on the Moon
(2005), directed by Larry Moss. In 2004, he was nominated for
Broadway’s Tony Award as Best Actor for his role in Sixteen Wounded,
where he played a Palestinian who befriends a Jewish baker, played by
Judd Hirsch, famous for his role in the sitcom Taxi.
Theatrical success helped Metwally make the move to cinema, and his
breakthrough role came in Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005). Metwally
played Ali, a Palestinian militant who engages Mossad agent Avner
(Eric Bana) in a political and philosophical debate in the stairwell
of an abandoned safe house. A few TV guest roles followed, including
spots on Grey’s Anatomy and The Unit. He is currently wrapping up
another lead role opposite Anthony Hopkins in James Ivory’s new drama
City of Your Final Destination (2008).
Metwally was on hand to present Rendition at the 2007 Cairo
International Film Festival; he took a few minutes away from the red
carpet to speak about the challenges of his role and the changing
portrayals of Arabs on the silver screen.
First, I want to ask about the theater and film scene in the United
States. According to your experience, is it easy to make a move from
one field to the other?
Transition from theater into film can be very difficult, although
most of the best actors have theatrical backgrounds. It is even
difficult to become an actor of any kind because it is a very
competitive field that needs perseverance and dedication. But I would
say that film is the most competitive field because you will be
subject to the greatest media exposure and you will be seduced by the
amount of money, which attracts a lot of people. It is really a
crowded field.
There is an interesting story about you getting cast in Rendition
When I received the script in New York, where I used to reside, Gavin
Hood, the director of Rendition, was doing the auditions in Los
Angeles. I asked a friend of mine to put me on camera while I was
doing my own take on the role of Anwar. Then I sent the tape to Hood,
who had also seen me in Munich. He obviously liked my performances
and asked to me to fly to meet him in LA.
When we heard that the movie was starting to shoot last year, the
setting of the story was to be Egypt. In the final cut, it was
changed to an abstract Middle Eastern country. Do you think this
could make the film lose creditability?
Of course if the filmmakers were more specific about the story’s
setting it could have given more resonance to the final outcome. But
I guess the viewer of the film can move beyond that because the
country’s name is not that crucial to the story we are trying to
tell. I think the film is trying to present arguments and, moreover,
the impact of these policies on real humans, which usually have an
abstract feel when you read about them in the news.
In Rendition, Anwar El-Ibrahimi, your character, faces all different
kinds of torture and abuse. Can you tell us how you rehearse for such
intense and violent scenes?
Each day before shooting, I, [Jake] Gyllenhaal and [Yigal] Naor had
to come together to discuss the scene with the director moment by
moment, so that when we moved to the set, we knew exactly what to do.
These scenes included physical work and needed to be carefully
approached and performed so that nobody got hurt – especially me –
while trying to make them credible and efficient. Working on the
script before [the] camera rolls is important because this allows us
to give our emotions and our passion to those scenes. It was
challenging and demanding to get inside the core of this intensity to
reflect a man who was being physically and spiritually pushed to the
limit.
In those scenes, you were blindfolded or you were thrown in the
shadows of a dark cell. How did your theatrical experience help you
use certain parts of your body to perform?
I guess the best training for any actor is the theater, where he can
learn the most fundamental parts of the craft. The role of Anwar was
very challenging for me as an actor because I tried to focus on the
intensity of the situation and to communicate with my eyes or my
gestures in the scenes that featured no dialogue.
How did your parents react to your role in Rendition?
Before watching the movie, I had to warn my mother about the
intensity of my scenes. I sat down next to her, holding her hands so
that she could see I was there and ok, but she eventually cried. My
parents were very supportive of my career, although in the beginning
they had certain doubts about me turning into an actor, which is a
difficult profession to make a living.
Although the film featured big Hollywood names like Reese
Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Oscar winners like Meryl Streep and
Alan Arkin, it is obvious that your character was the centerpiece of
the story. Did you feel doubts or responsibility in carrying out this
movie?
I always feel a big responsibility in performing any role, especially
this one where I felt I had to honor the memory of people who were
subjected to this kind of humiliation. This responsibility also gives
freedom because it drives me away from focusing on the star caliber
of the people with whom I am working and makes me concentrate on my
own performance.
Do you think that the role of Anwar El-Ibrahimi is a
three-dimensional step away from the stereotyped Arab-American roles
usually portrayed in American cinema?
In Hollywood, once you’ve established yourself in a certain type of
role, there will be a tendency for filmmakers to cast you in similar
vehicles. It takes patience and a keen will to wait for the right
opportunity to do something completely different, which means you
have to sometimes turn down certain roles. I might have reached that
point, which means I had to stop just to find some new roles.
Rendition wouldn’t have been produced in Hollywood a few years ago.
But now, [times have] changed for the better. Arab characters have
more screen time, as they and the Americans become more and more
human and complex. We must not forget the influence of world cinema
[where] realistic Arab characters were portrayed in films like
Paradise Now (2005).
Your co-star Yigal Naor, who plays Abasi Fawal – the brutal police
officer torturing your character, has finished playing the role of
Saddam Hussein in the BBC mini series Between Two Rivers (2008). His
co-star, Egyptian actor Amr Waked, has been criticized by the
Egyptian Actors’ Union for co-starring with an Israeli. What are your
thoughts?
Actors are not politicians. They should be criticized for their
acting abilities, not judged by guilds for their artistic choices. To
treat an actor with the standards of a politician is not right at
all. Politics is politics and art is art. I think they meet, but in a
different way.
As a rising actor, what have you learned from the great filmmakers
you have been associated with?
They are completely different filmmakers and each one has his own
technique.
I remember that the first film that [inspired] me to become an actor
was Steven Spielberg’s E.T. Then a few years later, I find myself
getting directed by the master.
Having a crew of hundreds of people, Spielberg is like a conductor of
a big orchestra, who likes to balance the melody of the film as he
wants it to be. As an actor in Spielberg’s film, you feel like you
are an instrument performing your note, which gives you the freedom
to only worry about what you are doing, because he is in control of
the rest of the band. Gavin Hood, who directed Rendition, has a great
passion that is very contagious to all the cast and crew around him.
He is so excited and committed to the storytelling process, which
inspires you to rise to his level and to match him. An actor who
worked with James Ivory described him as a shepherd who is gently
nudging his sheep back to the path. I think that was a beautiful
description because, when I worked with him, I discovered the grace
and ease of his direction.
What can you tell us about your role in James Ivory’s City of Your
Final Destination?
I play an American-Iranian called Omar Razaghi who has won a grant to
write a biography of Jules Gund, a Latin-American writer who
committed suicide. My character travels to Uruguay to meet three
people who were close to Gund – his widow, his younger mistress and
his brother Adam, played by Anthony Hopkins.
Currently, there is an obsession over box-office receipts and film
reviews that affect filmgoers’ judgments. Although it was a good
quality film, Rendition wasn’t a big hit (earning only $17 million
worldwide). Do you think it was a victim of these influences?
History has shown that many interesting and great works of art were
ignored and even ridiculed in their own time and then rediscovered as
masterpieces. I think if we judge the quality of a work of art by the
amount of money it makes, that doesn’t make any sense. Money is
commerce and business while film is art. There are films made purely
for the purpose of making money. I consider these films
entertainment, not art.
How did you feel when you were invited to the Cairo Festival?
When I received the invitation I was very excited because it has been
a long time since I visited Cairo. I tried not to have great
expectations about the way the movie would be received, because that
could be a recipe for disappointment. That’s why I tried to come with
an open mind and open heart. The Egyptian people at the Cairo
Festival were very warm and they had a great sense of hospitality,
which balanced the looseness and confusion of the festival’s
organization. I was nervous watching Rendition with the Egyptian
audience because it was an American film about Arabs and the Arab
world. I was asking myself: Will the audience accept it and believe
it? Overall I think the audience positively responded to film, which
was very exciting for me.
A lot of stars and filmmakers are reluctant to come to the Cairo
Festival or visit Egypt because of bad publicity about the region.
Being of Egyptian origin and a festival guest, what would you like to
tell them about our country?
I think it so important for people to come here and see for
themselves how Egypt is an amazing country with a great history. Not
only that, but Egyptians are the most hospitable people on the planet
with their big smiles and warm welcomes. I would encourage everyone
to come to Egypt because it is a shame that some individuals are
using fear to manipulate us and keep us isolated from each other. We
must resist that and try to communicate with each with a
hear-to-heart dialogue. et
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