Ernest: Hello Arash and congratulations on making a debut in films. Tell us a little about your background in performing arts.
Arash: Hello Ernest and thanks for the opportunity! I started theatre when I was 15 years old—by participating in weekly lessons of the local theatre union, locally called anjomane namayesh, in my native city Gorgan, in northern Iran. At the very beginning, I didn’t have any clear idea of theatre, performing arts, and cinema. I just wanted to be an actor, or like a superstar. You know it’s a dream of many young people when they first think about a career. After two years, when I was following the lessons and had also started acting and reading books, plays, and history of theatre, as well as participating in some workshops of some of the best theatre teachers and directors in Iran, who visited my city to hold workshops, I got more knowledge about this field, though I was still so young.
Ernest: Were you encouraged in your pursuit your interest in acting and theater? Tell us briefly about your journey uphill.
Arash: When I was 18, I went to Tehran, the capital of Iran, and called a friend of my father’s, who was helping me to start theatre. He was also a director and producer in TV and I asked him for a chance to play on TV. He asked me if I liked to play in films or theatre; which one I liked more; and suddenly, I said “cinema”. To this he responded, “All of you are the same; all of you want to be a star, and .......” He said to me some words in a few minutes that struck me like a big shock. After that conversation, I kept thinking for an hour, standing in same place in a street in Tehran, and I asked myself what I really wanted to do; because all my hopes stood on that guy and he didn’t even speak to me nicely. Then I thought that I really liked theatre; it gave me something that other things in my life didn’t. So after that, I started studying and working harder in theater, both theatrically and practically. Also, I was reading many books about different types of acting and the difference between acting at theatre, cinema, and TV. I participated in many workshops; then in Tehran, after I learned English well, I started working with many theatre groups and companies from Europe and other places, working as an interpreter or assistant and that experience for me was like learning at the biggest university. I also started working with some of the best theatre groups in Iran, which had very high quality of experience and knowledge and talent in theatre. It was a great opportunity for me and I learned many valuable things from them.
Ernest: Right. So tell us about your arrival in Greece and how you got into acting in a film?
Arash: I got a scholarship from the National University of Athens to study theatre. In this development, the Embassy of Greece in Iran supported me as well. I didn’t have any idea of the situation in Greece and before my arrival here, I was told that everything will be great and I was goanna have a relaxed time to do my projects here. But unfortunately, Greece went through a difficult times since 2010, just when I made my arrival there, and many things changed. I didn’t expect that much difficulties, particularly of financial nature in a troubled economy. Other problems still exist but I am confident that I will handle them.
Then I started learning the language coz it was my primary instrument to communicate and also my base for working in theatre. After a few months, I went to the Drama school and the dance school, and it helped me a lot in learning Greek. Many new friends, talking daily in Greek and adding to my vocabulary, also helped me to learn Greek faster than usual. In 2011, I started giving performances in Greek, and in one of them, I had two monologs in Greek. There, my director Antonie Tolakis talked to me about some idea to make a movie and I told him about immigration and political refugees that I saw every day. Since it’s a comparatively new phenomenon in Greece, and people haven’t got used to it, it has worried them. My idea, in cinematic terms, was so expensive that he told me to come up with something else. However, this created the base idea of the movie Voiceless.
Ernest: What is the film Voiceless about and what character do you play?
Arash: Voiceless shows the story of Arian, a thirty year old Iranian immigrant, residing for the past two years in Athens, Greece. He is neither an economic migrant nor a refugee. He’s left his country with practically nothing—just a visa and a dream i.e., studying theatre to become an actor. But how can anyone make his dream come true living in the midst of a foreign land?
In this movie, I play a role which was so difficult because some part of the movie is so close to me; I mean me as Arash. The guy Arian in the movie faces many problems during his travel in new place and coz he is an actor, they give him many chances to play the same role; and he is searching for this role, believing he can play it well and that it will lead him to many people like the creators of his role. So he starts looking for them everywhere. Many people in his new society look at him as if don’t have any idea of what foreigners are, and see all foreigners as the same. But he also has a few friends who are more open- minded and they encourage him to follow his passion.
Ernest: That sounds interesting! Now let me ask whether it was difficult for you to act in a film in a foreign language.
Arash: Voiceless is in Greek. But I didn’t have many difficulties in doing it as by now, I have learned Greek enough to let me play a character in it. Also, I have my own way of working with the language. For example, last year when I was acting in Dirt, by Robert Schneider, I had two fairly lengthy monologs, and I asked the director to read the text very clearly. I recorded his voice and then, at home, listened to and repeatedly practiced the lines many times myself. So now I can say that I don’t feel the difficulties communicating in the language like I had two years ago.
Ernest: So how do you find acting in a film in comparison with performing on stage?
Arash: Acting in movies for me is very enjoyable. It was not my first experience. Before this, in 2006, I played a small role in the movie The Road to Guantanamo, directed by Michael Winterbottom. I feel that playing on stage and playing in front of the camera have many differences. The whole atmosphere of theatre is different from that of the cinema. So if you know both of them and can communicate with people in both places, can understand what they want, what they ask you, and do your job right and well, then working with professional people will be really enjoyable even if the process is difficult.
Ernest: Did you find any notable difference in acting in Iran and in Greece?
Arash: In general, acting in Iran has many limitations because of the law. There, male can’t touch female on stage or in movie; dance, sex, and some kinds of music are forbidden; plus a lot of censorship. But all these restrictions didn’t stop Iranians from working in theatre or cinema; instead, it made them much more creative to show all the concepts in other ways. When some performances from Iran are played in other countries, people say, “Wow, I didn’t know that you have theatre in Iran!” For acting in Greece, you don’t face any limitations if you are Greek. But as a foreigner, it has, and it comes from many things, which I prefer not to talk about.
Ernest: Arash, tell us what kind of changes would you like to see in popular cinema, in Hollywood or other big film industries?
Arash: Haha, I think I am not in a position to be able to make any change in Hollywood or other cinema industries at this moment. But I say that the first duty of cinema is to be interesting for people, to make them happy, and fill their time with joy when they go to have fun. After this, independent cinema, which works on other issues with the support of mainstream cinema, which has the money, should work on other stuff. I say this and I know many people may not agree with me on it; but it’s the truth as I feel. Cinema will continue its life with its first duty and big industries know it, and are doing it to date. Abusing cinema by twisting issues and projecting them on screen to serve personal or political interests is something that I don’t like at all.
Ernest: What is your big dream for the future?
Arash: Actually this was my dream a few years ago, and now I am living my dream while it has become my life’s goal. When I complete studying at the university in Greece, which won’t take long, then I will be ready to accept foreigners with few problems and will be in better situation in both work and life in general. There are many directors with whom I will be excited to work; but I’d love to experience working with some directors from Iran and also I’d love to work with Michael Mann, James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg. Who knows? Let’s see.
Ernest: I second that. Thank you Arash for telling us about your work!
Arash: Thank you and your journal for this conversation me. Wish you all the best!