Forget Kirk vs. Picard . Faran Tahir is bridge player down the Best Starfleet Captain Ever for his role as Captain Robau in 2009 ’s Star Trek . This year , Mr. Tahir returns to the big screen with two science fable extravaganzae , Elysium and Escape Plan .
We caught up with Tahir and asked him a few questions .
io9 : According to your bio , you were bear in Los Angeles and grew up in Pakistan , returning to the United States at age 16 . That must have been an interesting ethnic passage .
When I was born my parents were at the field of operations school at UCLA , so it ’s something I raise up with . Moving was a cultural modulation because we did n’t have all the social media facilities that we have today , so it was a bit of an adjustment . And the other adjustment you make is you see all of a sudden that you are all by yourself . It ’s been a learning experience which I feel bless about . I would n’t exchange anything .
Completely by yourself ?
I came back because the political billet in Pakistan at the time was not contributive for me to be there . I locomote to a very low town in the middle of Maryland and did n’t have too many people around from my residential area or even very many friends at all . So it was a moment when you kind of reflect on yourself and where you ’re going . It was a bit of an adjustment .
Your parent have a background in field of operations , yet when you separate them you require to drop economic science and stage business and study do , they begged you to reconsider .
In retrospect , I really am beaming that they made me individual hunting . When I told them I want to be an actor , they necessitate why . They did n’t say no , they call for why . They wanted to make certain that regardless of how much or how little natural endowment I had , in the end , I would not be a busted person .
In this business concern you’re able to have great successes and you’re able to have great failures . The question is how you deal with either one of them and how that affects your marrow as a human being . I believe their dispute me made me take a look at it and ask “ how am I plump to work in this world ? ”
Because , of course , there are no guarantees . It ’s a playing field where merit has something to do with it and luck has something to do with it , as well as connections , all of that . So I ’m grateful that they put me through this exercise of adjudicate to figure out how I would handle either success or loser .
You ’ve talk extensively about the challenges actor of South Asiatic descent face with typecasting and stamp in American films . How has this affected your career ?
It ’s changing . I retrieve it ’s changing because we are raise in number and we are in every walk of life now , so there is more breadth to our bearing in this polish . That is having an essence .
Has there been stamp ? Yes , there has been pigeonhole , no doubt about that . But sometimes stereotype happens not because of any villainous ground but rather because mass do n’t know who you are or where you follow from so they go for the broad chance event about you , your culture , your religion , all that .
But I think you ’re seeing more and more nuanced characters coming out , greater frequence of characters come out in part because we do n’t just focus on domestic box power anymore . The box position has become globose . I cogitate that factors in to the question of how to portray different ethnicity and cultures . I think the next decade is go to be very interesting to watch out and be part of .
Speaking of the global box office , Escape Plan is an American celluloid starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone and was aim by Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström . That ’s quite an external production .
Globally I believe it will do well . The three of us endeavor to escape out of a prison , so you see someone of South Asian ethnicity in a enough role . The prison we interrupt out of is a kind of tail prison house where you see people of different ethnicities from all around the world , so you see all of that come into play .
You ’ve also done a good slew of workplace on television . What has your experience been like dealing with ethnic stereotypes in that sensitive ?
The affair I ’m seeing in telly that I ’m very happy about is that there ’s an openness to dialog , which is always supporting . you’re able to pursue masses and say “ you ’ve compose the fiber this way , but if we add this or take this out it will serve us advantageously . ” You do n’t have to come through every struggle , but you’re able to at least start a conversation or put that thought in the head teacher of someone so the next fourth dimension they write they ’ll have that in their thought unconscious process .
Elysium was direct by Neill Blomkamp who also directed District 9 . Both of these films touch on issues of race and class differences in society . How have your experiences with these issues in the material globe affected your approach to this labor ?
I think you could do science fiction , but you have to ground it in some realism . masses involve to distinguish with the characters , with their plights and their issues .
Elysium deals with elitism and immigration . People have ask me if my character is practiced or evil . That ’s not the way to approach it . We need to make the theatrical role credible and have them present their case and lease the audience adjudicate who ’s good and who ’s bad .
Neill is an astonishing manager and author . He does take hot button issues , like he did in District 9 , and fix them slenderly in a fancied geographical zone but not so far that you get detached from it . He does the same thing in Elysium .
Elysian Fields is a blank space Stations of the Cross where all unspoiled thing materialise and all the grease body of work happens on Earth . Naturally , all the people on Earth want to get up to Elysium and the people on Elysium do n’t desire people from Earth coming in , so there ’s this tangible tautness between the two .
My character is the Chief Executive of Elysium , so he address with all this with some shade and some sensitivity . His counterpart is the defense secretarial assistant , meet by Jodie Foster who has a whole other estimate of how to deal with this issue . So you have some really great layered characters that you ’ll be seeing on screen .
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