Sayed Badreya plays
his role in T for Terrorist |
The Terrors of Typecasting
By: Firas Al-Atraqchi
Sayed Badreya has played the Arab bad guy many
times. Can his new docu-comedy, T for Terrorist, change
all that?
They blow up innocent people, hate America and Jews, are dirty,
vicious and vindictive. They, of course, are the Hollywood version
of Arabs and Muslims, the proverbial enemy.
Former CBS news consultant and film critic Jack Shaheen examined
Hollywood’s obsession with denigrating the Arab character
in his 2001 book 'Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a
People'. From racial slurs and epithets to portrayals of
evil, anti-women, anti-freedom and anti-civilization propagandists,
the Tinseltown Arab has become the modern bad guy, the enemy out
there trying to kill us all.
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Just ask filmmaker and actor Sayed Badreya who has been typecast
as the ghoulish, murderous Arab in one movie after another. Donning
a beard and looking stalwart and robust, Badreya fits in neatly
to Hollywood’s perception of the Arab; in Executive
Decision (1996) he played a Palestinian hijacker. In The
Three Kings (1999), a movie about Saddam’s hidden gold
cache, he plays an Iraqi tank major who fires on his own people
while in The Insider (1999), he is a Hezbollah military
commander being interviewed by the film’s star Al Pacino.
“When I came to Los Angeles in 1979, it was a honeymoon
between Egypt and America. After 9-11 it has become a challenge
to get the Arab-American voice heard,” says Port Said native
Badreya. “But we are here to stay”.
It’s no surprise then that acclaimed director Hesham Issawi,
whose film The Interrogation won Best Creative Short
Film at the 2002 New York International Independent Film and Video
Festival, is taking a comedic swipe at Arab stereotyping and typecasting.
His 28-minute T for Terrorist, starring Tony Shalhoub
(Arab-American Emmy and Golden Globe winner for the TV series
Monk) and Badreya, recently won the Best Narrative Short
category at the Boston International Film Festival.
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Hesham Issawi, the director,
on the set of T for Terrorist |
Teigen Fraker breaks the
stereo-typecasting in T for Terrorist
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The plot is a
case of art imitating life, mimicking the frustrations Arab-American
actors face when auditioning for movie roles. Badreya, plays an
Arab American looking in vain for roles beyond that of terrorist.
When a young dictatorial director harasses and abuses Badreya in
his typecast role, a mysterious man in a white suit (Shalhoub) encourages
Badreya to rebel, take over the production set and force the director
to play the bad guy instead. Badreya then transforms himself into
the good guy.
The film leaves open the question whether Hollywood can live with
Arab Americans in more positive cinematic roles. It also ponders
whether Hollywood itself helps perpetuate the negative stereotyping
of Arabs by restricting the roles they play (and portray) in film.
Although the film is satirical and a black comedy, it is intertwined
in political commentary; the title itself is reminiscent of the
‘branding’ of an ethnicity. In the wake of the 9-11
tragedy, editorials in North America and Israel demanded that Arabs
and Palestinians, respectively, be branded with a yellow ‘T’
armband. |
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Shalhoub was so moved by the script that he signed on for no acting
fee. “Arab-Americans have no voice in Hollywood,”
says Shalhoub. “I took on this project because it makes
no judgments. It is simple and has heart…it speaks with
an American heart.”
Although T for Terrorist has been banned in Egypt for inexplicable
reasons, it will be screened at the California Independent Film
Festival November 2nd, and at the New York Arab-American Comedy
Festival on November 17.
The number of festivals asking for the film to be screened prompted
Badreya and Issawi to begin work on two new projects. In their
upcoming The Report, a psychologist writes a book about an Arab-American
who has suffered from racial profiling. In Mostafa’s World
(working title) the viewer is witness to the everyday life of
an Egyptian family of restaurateurs in the post-9-11 atmosphere.
“Our nature as Egyptians and Arabs is to survive; from the
[political] wreckage of 9-11 we are building something for the
Arab-American community,” says Badreya.
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Tony Shalhoub
Emmy & Golden Globe winner
stars in T for Terrorist |
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