Loading ...Iranian-American comedian talks race in Hollywood
Iranian-American actor, comedian and author Maz Jobrani came to the university to discuss a Middle-Easterner’s experience of race in the U.S. and why he won’t play a terrorist anymore.
It is great that National Agenda is including that race is not just black and white, but there are all shades of brown in the middle, Jobrani said.
“I’m happy to be one of those shades,” he said.
Jobrani first came to the U.S. as a young child from Iran during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. It was his upbringing here that inspired his comedic and acting career, Lindsay Hoffman, the director of the National Agenda Series, said.
While growing up here, Jobrani said he never felt “white.” Despite most of his friends being white, he said he associated himself more with African-American culture than the white culture.
“When they came over it was just different, our smells in our house were different, the food was different, my parents sounded different, so I never felt fully American in that way,” Jobrani said.
Jobrani said learning how to fuse stressful or confrontational situations with comedy was how he coped with this. Jobrani has now been doing stand-up comedy and acting for 17 years.
His humor focuses on race and the misunderstanding of Middle Easterners by Americans, Hoffman said. His perspectives gives insight to the race discussion and how humor can be used to talk about race in a non-confrontational way, she said.
After starring in two roles as a terrorist, Jobrani decided they would be his last, because the image Americans have of Middle Easterners is a “terrorist” image. There are people who are scared of Iranians, Arabs and Muslims, and there’s a misunderstanding of who’s who and the fact that there are people who are different, Jobrani said.
“All you have to do is watch one of Trump’s rallies and you can see,” he said.
Jobrani said it can often be difficult finding roles in Hollywood for Middle Eastern actors that don’t typecast because Hollywood is a risk-averse business. The film business won’t create content that doesn’t sell.
If a movie was pitched in Hollywood with an Arab-American lead, they would ask if Tom Cruise could play the part instead, because that is a movie people will see and will get funded, he said.
Despite this, Jobrani has been a steady presence in American film and television, with over 50 guest-star appearances including “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “True Blood” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” Hoffman said.
The way to change these stereotypes is to have more people from Middle Eastern backgrounds work behind the scenes, whether they’re writing, producing or directing, Jobrani said. This way, he said, more stories will be told from a diverse perspective.
This is exactly what Jobrani said he is trying to do with his movie “Jimmy Vestvood, Amerikan Hero,” which he co-wrote, produced, and stars in. The movie, which will hopefully come out next year, is about an Iranian immigrant who hopes to become the next great “American Hero.” It’s the Persian “Pink Panther” meets “Borat,” he said.
Ideally if movies like this are successful, and other movies are made with people from Middle Eastern backgrounds, our people will begin to be normalized, Jobrani said.
“That’s the bigger, bigger goal,” Jobrani said.
Source: udreview.com