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Since waving a gun in George Clooney’s face in Syriana, Amr Waked is fast living up to his billing as the next Omar Sharif
Issue: Jun, 2009
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Is he a household name yet?

His 2005 role in the movie Syriana, in which he played a terrorist recruiter, brought some attention to his previous works – especially the acclaimed Lilly, which also deals with extremism versus secularism. He always carefully selects his TV dramas, and has also won awards for some ambitious cinematic projects, all of which has cemented his reputation. “I apply the same high standards in choosing my projects whether they are in local or international productions,” he said.

 
So, he’s riding the terrorism wave, then...
Not quite. As he said himself, “I have refused more than 20 major Hollywood roles because 
they portrayed Arabs as imbecile, idiotic terrorists. I am most interested in participating in projects that have a humanitarian message, touch the audience and deal with issues that concern the people.” His latest international role, for instance, is in The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, as the British activist’s Palestinian friend.
 
Of course, making it in Hollywood these days means rubbing a few Zionist shoulders, right?
“I am not concerned about normalisation accusations,” was Amr Waked statement when he was falsely accused of filming some scenes for the aforementioned film in Israel. He was earlier questioned by the Egyptian Actors Union for appearing next to an Israeli actor in the House of Saddam. Amr did not even bother answering the accusations. “It got excellent reviews,” he argued, “and the Hollywood Reporter described me as a professional actor able to deal with different filming techniques.” And that really ought to be enough.
 
Amr Waked’s latest film, Ibrahim al-Abyad, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14th. The action thriller is directed by Marwan Waheed Hamed (Yacobian Building) and stars Ahmad Saqqa, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz and Hind Sabri.