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Jan.2, 2005 - Jan.9, 2005 |
A legend is back and reborn
Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif returns to cinema in Francois Dupeyron's Monsieur Ibrahim
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2004-03-14
It's hard to believe that I'm sitting across from Doctor Zhivago. At 71, Egyptian-born Omar Sharif still has those dark, penetrating eyes and the Valentino sex-appeal that he displayed in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. His calming demeanour is indicative of a master actor with nothing left to prove and plenty to teach. I'm deeply awed.
Absent from the limelight for nearly 40 years - he quit movies after Hollywood cast him in laughable fare Che! and McKenna's Gold - the handsome actor is back in a small but endearing French movie titled Monsieur Ibrahim where he plays a grizzled Muslim shopkeeper named Abraham who tutors and eventually adopts an orphaned Jewish boy (Pierre Boulanger) in 60s Paris. (Coincidentally, he's also starring opposite Viggo Mortensen in Hidalgo, where he plays an Arab sheik.)
Tandem talked to Omar Sharif when he was in Toronto.
It's so great to see you in a movie again. Why did you stop, and why this, now?
"The reason is very simple. I have had trouble for 25 years now in finding parts, ever since I stopped being a big star in the box office. When I was, they used to write parts for me, or adapt parts to fit me. But when you get older and you are not a box office star, you have to find parts yourself, parts that fit you. They won't ask me to play, for instance, an old American, because they have old American actors who can play those parts. An old Englishman, or an old Italian. They have actors... So why should they ask me? It would be wrong casting. It's the right casting to ask me to play an old Arab, but there are not so many. I did some, but there are lousy films. So I have been doing rubbish for 25 years, and I lost my self-respect, my self-esteem. Even my grandchildren make fun of me. So I decided that I'd better keep some dignity, and wait. If something good happens, I will do it, and if something good doesn't happen, I should spend my time with my grandchildren and my son. I'm very happy living just like that, because I didn't give enough time to my family, I was always busy and travelling. So now, this film came, and I loved it. I loved the script, I loved the idea of it, I loved the message of it. And I put my heart in it. And I'm willing to do as much as I can to sell it, so that people see it, enjoy its gentleness. I hope that some people see it and come out a little bit happy."
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