If you've got an ear for accents and are a Homeland fan, you may have been able to tell that actor Navid Negahban, who portrayed Pakistani terrorist Abu Nazir, wasn't actually Pakistani, but instead of Iranian descent. Unfortunately, the general rule in Hollywood seems to be that if you're a Middle Eastern actor, your nationality is interchangable with any other Middle Eastern nationality—and, usually, the only roles available are that of terrorists.
This in mind, Negahban just starred in this pretty genius new video for Funny or Die to poke fun at the trend, titled, How to Be a Terrorist... In Hollywood! The video is shot infomercial style, and focuses on Negahban teaching a whole class how to portray a terrorist by Hollywood standards.
"As Arab actors, we all know how hard it can be to live up to Hollywood's stereotypes," Negahban explains to his students in the video. "Being completely one-dimensional isn't easy." One student introduces himself as "Carl," and Negahban scoffs: "Kathryn Bigelow isn't going to torture a Carl!" Who'da thought Abu Nazir was this hilarious?
You can check out the video above.
[via Indiewire]
