Alexander Siddig — Discovering the Uncommon Hero

E. Nina Rothe with The Huffington Post has a new(ish) interview with Sid in support of his role in Miral, coming to US theaters in March. It’s a beautiful piece, another example of Sid charming his interviewer with effortless ease.

We agree to have a glass of wine together at the beachside bar of the Four Seasons Hotel, which is all done up for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in red and purple lights, almost like it’s Christmas, making this warm late afternoon appear even more surreal. While he lights up a cigarette, I think of what I’d really like to ask him. Is the real life Siddig the romantic ideal he has introduced us to in Cairo Time or, he gently cuts me off while I try to get the question out, “the kid in their mother’s bedroom, opening the closet, finding all the fancy clothes and playing games with the other kids” that he describes himself to be? “I know that girlfriends and lovers in my life are still scratching their heads and looking at me like “I have no idea who you are!” Something most people don’t know about me is that I never grew up. I appear to… People think I’m really mature but I’m really not. I’m kind of stupid.”

Alexander Siddig is definitely not stupid. During our conversation — over a glass of Pinot Gris from British Columbia, of all places — he talks about the future of Arab cinema, something on everyone’s mind at Doha TFF 2010, “The future of Arab films is absolutely up to Arabs and no one else. They’ve got the equipment, they’ve got the will, they’ve got the talent, now they just need a little bit of history behind them and a bit of cultural relaxation. Sex is a difficult issue, and marrying movies and Islam is going to be very complicated. But give it a couple of years, I have hope.”

(read the full interview here…)