The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig

Podcast Script

ALEX IN CAPS MOVIES - , Kingdom of Heaven, Lawrence After Arabia, Hamburg Cell, The Dangerous Man, Cairo Time, Deep Space Nine, SKYLINES, PEAKY BLINDERS, DA VINCI’S DEMONS, , , THE SPY AND DEEP STATE NOE TAG

MOVIE CLIP/S Great scenes from career

ALEX INTRO Intro Summary of career with some audio clips

ACTING DYNASTIES ARE AS MUCH A PART OF THE CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL LEXICON AS POLITICAL ONES. IT’S RARE, HOWEVER, THAT A SINGLE PERSON ENCOMPASSES BOTH CAMPS. ACTOR ALEXANDER SIDDIG, BORN OF A SUDANESE FATHER AND BRITISH MOTHER, IS THAT RAREST OF BIRDS, HOWEVER. BORN NOVEMBER 21, 1965 IN OMDURMAN, AS SIDDIG EL TAHIR EL FADIL EL SIDDIG ABDURRAHMAN MOHAMMED AHMED ABDEL KARIM EL MAHDI,/ SIDDIG INITIALLY SHORTENED HIS PROFESSIONAL NAME TO SIDDIG EL FADIL, AND THEN TO ALEXANDER SIDDIG, AS A TIP OF THE HAT TO HIS MATERNAL UNCLE, MALCOLM MCDOWELL’S MOST ICONIC ROLE: RUTHLESS TEENAGE GANG LEADER ALEX IN STANLEY KUBRICK’S A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. SIDDIG'S PARENTS MET IN THE 1960S WHEN HIS MOTHER TRAVELLED TO SUDAN WITH A FRIEND WHO INTRODUCED HER TO SIDDIG'S FATHER, A MEMBER OF SUDAN'S RULING FAMILY AT THE TIME. SIDDIG'S FATHER WAS A STUDENT AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY IN THE 1950S AND WAS PROFICIENT IN ENGLISH. SIDDIG'S UNCLE SADIQ AL-MAHDI WAS PRIME MINISTER OF SUDAN FROM 1966–1967 AND AGAIN FROM 1986–1989. //SIDDIG IS ALSO THE GREAT-GREAT-GRANDSON OF , A NUBIAN RELIGIOUS LEADER WHO WAS PROCLAIMED THE MAHDI BY HIS DISCIPLES. SIDDIG MOVED WITH HIS PARENTS TO

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig1 ​ ​ LONDON AT AGE TWO, WHERE HE SPENT THE REMAINDER OF HIS FORMATIVE YEARS. AFTER PREPARATORY SCHOOL, SIDDIG ATTENDED UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON FOR A YEAR, THEN ENROLLED AT THE VENERABLE LONDON ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART, AKA, LAMDA, FOCUSING ON ACTING AND DIRECTING FOR THE STAGE. HIS FIRST BREAK CAME PORTRAYING PRINCE FEISAL IN A DANGEROUS MAN: LAWRENCE AFTER ARABIA, OPPOSITE , WHO ALSO MADE HIS DEBUT IN THE TITULAR ROLE. /SIDDIG HASN’T STOPPED WORKING SINCE, FINDING MOST OF HIS SUCCESS ON TELEVISION, PARTICULARLY IN THE ROLE OF DOCTOR BASHIR IN : DEEP SPACE NINE, FOREVER CEMENTING THE YOUNG ACTOR IN THE SORT OF ICONIC STATUS RESERVED ONLY FOR THOSE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BECOME PART OF POP CULTURE HISTORY. /SIDDIG HAS OTHER NOTABLE APPEARANCES IN FEATURE FILMS SUCH AS SYRIANA, OPPOSITE AND , KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, DIRECTED BY , ’S CAIRO TIME, OPPOSITE AND ’S . SOME OF THE HIGH-PROFILE TELEVISION THAT HAVE FEATURED HIS TALENTS INCLUDE PEAKY BLINDERS, DA VINCI’S DEMONS, GAME OF THRONES, GOTHAM, THE SPY AND DEEP STATE. ALEXANDER SIDDIG’S LATEST EFFORT IS A FUN, CAMPY SCIENCE FICTION FLICK ENTITLED SKYLINES, ABOUT A VIRUS THREATENING TO TURN EARTH-DWELLING FRIENDLY ALIEN HYBRIDS AGAINST HUMANS. CAPTAIN ROSE CORLEY, PLAYED BY LINDSEY MORGAN, MUST LEAD A TEAM OF ELITE MERCENARIES ON A MISSION TO THE ALIEN WORLD IN ORDER TO SAVE WHAT'S LEFT OF HUMANITY. SIDDIG PORTRAYS HER COMMANDING OFFICER, GENERAL RADFORD, AND SEEMS TO BE HAVING A BALL IN THIS ROGER CORMAN-INSPIRED ROMP. /DISTRIBUTED BY VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT, SKYLINES IS AVAILABLE IN THEATERS, ON DEMAND AND DIGITAL DECEMBER 18TH.

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig2 ​ ​ /ALEXANDER SIDDIG JOINED US remotely FROM HIS HOME ON THE EAST COAST TO DISCUSS HIS REMARKABLE LIFE AND CAREER. HERE’S WHAT TRANSPIRED:

INTERVIEW

ALEX 0:40 SO LET'S START WITH WITH SKYLINES SKYLINES REMINDED ME OF THE BEST KIND OF ROGER CORMAN MOVIE. SO MUCH FUN.

Siddig 1:09 So really glad you got that. It's it's one of those things that I think because it hasn't been done for such a long time. People aren't making these kind of movies. I mean, not since Yeah. You know, Roger Corman? I mean, Neil Marshall has a go with these kind of ideas. Sometimes. And then there was john waters. I mean, there's a whole bunch of people who make what are called movies before they've even started. And it obviously is going to have some things about it that people are going to be like, well, it's not that I don't have I'm not geared up to know this kind of film. I don't know, I can't invest three quarters of an hour in the build up. And but my God, when you push that button, and that movie kind of explodes. It does it so well. So tongue in cheek, and there's such a great sense of humor about it. And I wasn't just wasn't sure when I first started it. And when I read it, whether the director and I would be on the same page. And that was just such a blessing when he said, You know what, you're right. This is one of those movies. And we're gonna have fun here.

ALEX AND WHAT MADE IT WORK FOR ME IS THAT THE WHOLE CAST WERE IN ON THE JOKE, AND THE WAY IT WAS PLAYED, IT WAS REALLY PITCH PERFECT. DURING THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES, I WAS LIKE, OH, BOY, WHAT AM UP FOR HERE? AND THEN I GOT INTO THE SPIRIT OF IT, AND I REALIZE WHAT YOU GUYS WERE DOING. IT WAS REALLY A LOT OF FUN.

Siddig 2.40 For that, for that reason Putney to reintroduce people to this sort of thing. I mean, again, you mentioned Malcolm, my uncle is his, his muse is directing Muse was a guy called Lindsay Anderson. Oh, he made some phenomenal films with him. Absolutely. And and Lindsey Spitz specialized in this in this sort of this sort of satire, this kind of movie. I didn't do sci fi while he did a kind of sci fi would pretend

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig3 ​ ​ 3.09 It's a genre mashup. And then you've got that, you know, thrumming thrash metal coming in the soundtrack every now and then, which is very Neil Marshall. And it just, I'm really happy. You're the first person who's just got it without me having to say to you, so

ALEX 3.28 LOOKING AT YOUR FILMOGRAPHY, ONE IS STRUCK BY SUCH A PREPONDERANCE OF SCI FI AND FANTASY. SO THE OBVIOUS QUESTION IS, WERE YOU ALWAYS A SCI FI AND FANTASY FAN, EVEN AS A KID?

Siddig 3.49 Yeah, yeah, I was. I was reading HTML. In my bedroom, my stepfather's as a as I was kind of, we're learning to get to know each other would read to me at night as I fell asleep. And he would read HG Wells. And he read it. He had the whole complete set, and he'd read it from the beginning. And he would with his mellifluous voice, and I would then he had asked him off in the bookshelves, you know, he had saw, I want to say Sargon. But that, you know, I mean, Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan in the Bookshare. And we it, but it was it was all heavy, you know, hardcore sci fi was none of this was I mean, he was possibly more populist, but the other stuff asked him off, boy. It's tough, tough stuff. So yeah, I think I did, although I didn't really know it. I didn't, I wouldn't have said I was a sci fi geek. I didn't go out of my way. I loved fantasy books. I read those two. But that was much when I was much older in my late teens. And then, you know, Star Trek came along.

5.12 And Star Wars blew my socks off when I saw that in the movies. And I just loved it. And I yeah, I would never have plus myself as a sci fi fantasy kind of person. But actually, I think I am now you mentioned

ALEX YOUR BACKGROUND IS FASCINATING. YOUR MOTHER WAS ENGLISH, THE SISTER OF MALCOLM MCDOWELL, YOUR FATHER WAS SUDANESE, WHICH IS A COMBINATION YOU DON'T HEAR ABOUT VERY OFTEN. HOW DID THEY MEET?

5.44 An archaeologist called Robert askin took my mom to the Sudan, to show her the ruins in Libya, the very north of Sudan. And they came back down on the Nile. And I think he was sort of trying to show off to her and he said, Well, listen, I'll introduce you to the, the kind of ruling family here. And so she said, Sure. And she got off the boat in Khartoum, the capital there. And this man in flowing white robes came walking down the jetty to meet

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig4 ​ ​ her, and that was going to be my father. Wow. And that was a she was an extremely glamorous lady. My mom, she was a model and she was a PR public relations person for theater. She, you know, did the first pub, she was the PR person for the Rocky Horror Show and bunch of different things. But the royal court primarily Theatre in London. So she knew a lot of fascinating people. And I got to know them as I was growing up and what an interesting mixed up bunch. They were a lot of them and it closet, queers as they were called back then. Now thankfully, they just queer. Great. And so I had a whole bunch of fascinating kind of people around me in my life as a young up beyond boy. So yeah, she met this guy, she moved out to the Sudan for three years, she learned Arabic. She insisted on some things being changed for her. So that, for example, she was permitted to eat with her husband, she that was not permitted in the in the culture up until then, and she absolutely refused point blank to not let that happen.=

DID SHE CONVERT TO ISLAM?

7.30 She wouldn't do it. The only thing she would do is she'd named named Misa big, which they insisted on. And I mean, it's a negotiation.

SINCE YOU BROUGHT IT UP, YOU HAVE THE MOST REMARKABLE REAL NAME OF ANY ACTOR I'VE EVER SEEN, WHO'S CHANGED HIS NAME. AND IF I COUNTED IT CORRECTLY, YOU HAVE TEN NAMES

7.40 I have at least 10. They're just the ones that we use. And that is basically a genealogy. And that's why we use those names

COULD YOU TELL US YOUR FULL NAME?

8.03 I don't even remember it fully. I mean, I'm, I'll tell you some of it. I mean, the thing is me as a healer is my father. The father is his father . And I'm the man and abdulkareem. And I'm a dad med. And then we go to deal Sharif, depending on where you want to go next. But these are just key people, men primarily, well, exclusively, not primarily in my family. So Abdullah, man was great grandfather led the Sudan.

YOU HAVE ANOTHER PROMINENT UNCLE, WHO WAS A TWO TIME PRIME MINISTER OF SUDAN, IS THAT CORRECT?

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig5 ​ ​ 8.42 Yeah, he was the youngest ever Prime Minister in Sudan at the in his early 20s. twice, was Prime Minister both times democratically elected, unlike any other ruler in Sudan since and so yeah, with the Sudan misses him.

I KNOW YOU MOVED TO ENGLAND, WHEN YOU WERE ABOUT TWO OR THREE? DID YOU DEVELOP ANY SORT OF AFFINITY FOR SUDANESE CULTURE, THE ARAB WORLD AS YOU WERE GROWING UP?

9.23 That's a really good question. I think probably the best answer is no. Although I did have an interest. I mean, I when you're a young kid, coming in from some other part of the world where everybody is not white, and you arrive in England, and you're with just white kids, really, there was I don't think I ever met any others. I mean, until I was about eight. It's interesting. Before I was eight, the kids didn't just treated me as me. They didn't really have a sense of color. But when I hit eight and went to school at in a private school, There was one other black kid and suddenly race became a big, big issue. And so I was assimilating so fast, so hard trying to become like them become normal become invisible, but I couldn't stand being spotted from 100 feet away being different, and England in the 70s. And this was very much a racially divided country. And not not conspicuously like it isn't this was in the states where, you know, you had to, you know, wash in different washrooms and people were regularly tortured and beaten up. But it was definitely a two tier citizenry. And we were in the second tier. So school was my big learning curve. So I I kind of tried to avoid all things Sudanese, and because they just weren't good for me as a self self defense protocol as a child. But I kind of took an interest later. But I sadly forgot the language because I knew it. And it atrophied. And once it had gone, I lost my real connection to it, to be honest,

/AFTER 911, YOU BECAME SORT OF RE POLITICIZED, BEING AWARE OF WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE ARAB WORLD VERSUS THE WESTERN WORLD. AND YOU ACCEPTED A LOT OF PARTS AND MOVIES BASED ON THAT PARTICULARLY I IMAGINED SYRIANA WAS

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig6 ​ ​ PATCHY FOR THAT REASON.

11.32 Yeah, I mean, a Kingdom of Heaven was really the first one and Well, actually, the first one was … Lawrence after Arabia. It's a pretty decent film, isn't it? Yeah.

THAT WAS GREAT!

11.41 It's a pretty decent film, isn't it?

//YOU WERE FALLOWING IN ALEC. GUINNESS'S FOOTSTEPS.

11.51 Yeah. And I got a postcard from Antigone. Oh, thing. He did a much better job than me. Thank you very much. And I was that was one of the happiest moments of my young life to get a postcard from LA Guinness. And it was a terrific piece of it was David Puttnam, who produced it, I believe, and for those people who don't know David Puttnam, they should watch you know, The Killing Fields, or one of the movies that he made back in the 70s and 80s. What he's a finest British producer, really. And still is, except he kind of gave up and went into politics, which is great for politics, because he's a sane human being in the political world. But we had the privilege of being in his last film. The dangerous man Lawrence after Arabia with then the nascent Ray finds who was...

THAT WAS HIS FIRST FILM AS WELL WASN'T IT?

<12.38 It was Yeah. So it was quite a thing. And then I did Hamburg Cell immediately after 911, which was a kind of study of the kids who blew up the planes. And to be honest, it was a little early for the world to see that and they were not happy with the depiction the humanization of those children, those are calling them children. They're not children. They had free minds that adults but that there were young people. I have a horrible tendency to patronize anyone under 26 by calling them child, which is okay. It's what happens. Because my kids 24 and he's never going to be anything but a kid as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, it was a little early for that movie. And but then, yeah, did a kingdom of heaven with which

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig7 ​ ​ was a brilliant film by Ridley Scott. And if you ever watch it, please don't watch the studio version. Watch the director's cut

I WATCHED THE DIRECTOR'S CUT. I'M A HUGE RIDLEY SCOTT FAN. DID YOU HAVE A GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH HIM?

13.44 I had a wonderful experience with him. He is every bit that the guy you wanted him to be, you know, he's a shy wallflower. You probably talk to him, but he's a shy wallflower when he's chatting, you know, in a social setting, he doesn't really extend himself, but on set my god he comes alive and everything's an effing see. And, you know, and but it not no heads roll. He's just that way. He just sounds that way, because he's so desperately trying to get the shot, right. And we will wait days for the smoke. I mean, there's one scene we shot at the same time every day for three days because the sun was perfect. And we just picked it up every single day for 45 minutes and then dropped it and went back to it again the next day. So that kind of meticulous filmmaking is is it's kind of it's kind of over to be honest. Well, you know, few but no one has that kind of money or privilege anymore.

LET'S GO BACK A BIT. WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE AN ACTOR? WAS THERE ONE EPIPHANOUS MOMENT OR WAS IT A GRADUAL PROGRESSION FOR YOU?

15.01 The moment I realized I was an actor is quite surprisingly about in my about my 40th year, I just released Syriana. And the I think that was the first time I've got some sort of like, Oh my goodness, that guy can do this. And up until then I'd been fighting it because I wanted to direct. And I'd wanted to be wanting to direct so badly since I was 15. That everything my life was focused on directing. And I finally relaxed and when you know what, you are an actor, and you'd be okay with it. And that was pretty much after the the almost universal praise for Syriana. And that wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for, you know, George Clooney, because no one would have seen it. So it's a it was a very lucky coincidence.

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig8 ​ ​ And also the fact that the film was had to be edited drastically, and storylines cut, and I became suddenly my character became not just a supporting role, but the kind of focal soul of the movie, which changed a lot of things for me.

/WELL, I KNOW YOU, YOU WENT TO UNIVERSITY FOR DRAMA, YOU STUDIED AT LAMBDA IN LONDON HOW DID YOUR FAMILY REACT ON YOUR MOTHER'S SIDE? WAS IT “OH, GOD, THERE'S ANOTHER PERFORMER IN THE FAMILY?”

16.19 Everyone's surprisingly lovely about it. My mom, my grandma, and all the all the white folk. Were just really encouraging about it. And they were terrific. It was the Sidney's that didn't like it. My father said, you make sure he doesn't, he can do anything. But he becomes an actor Over my dead body. And everybody was like, you cannot let him become an actor because it's Nina. I mean, back in those days in this in the late early 80s. It was tantamount to late mid 80s, late 80s. It was tantamount to prostitution. Yeah. Yeah, take money for sex, basically. And it's Haram.

DID UNCLE MALCOLM OFFER YOU ANY ADVICE IN THE BEGINNING?

17.03 Not that I remember. No, I don't think we even talked about it ever. I mean, I think eventually, when I was on, I got a movie, The Dangerous Man, he picked up the phone and said, What a great job he thought I'd done. And from time to time, we've noticed each other's roles. But because we both act so, so much, we don't really go out of our way to watch each other's projects and work together

YOU DID WORK TOGETHER ONCE. YOU DID DOOMSDAY TOGETHER.

17.30 We did work together on Doomsday. Yeah. Which was, it was fantastic. I mean, of course, I hardly saw him. You know. He, he's a, but he's a special of, I don't want to say old fashioned. He's an eccentric actor of a breed that really no longer. I've never met another like, and if I bought been around, you know, with some of the

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig9 ​ ​ greats, the British greats of the 70s I would have seen a lot more of them. But they're all gone away. These odd fast living. Burn the candle at both ends, rock and roll stars, which is basically what he was as a movie star. So

MIDROLL BREAK ALEX - TAKES A BREAK HERE AND PREVIEWS AFTER BREAK, Deep Space Nine, Politics, Culture

/WE WILL BE RIGHT BACK TO OUR INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER SIDDIG AND WILL DISCUSS DEEP SPACE NINE AND TOUCH ON POLITICS AND CULTURE IN TODAY’S WORLD.

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INTERVIEW CONT’D /LET’S TALK ABOUT STAR TREK. I REMEMBER WHEN DEEP SPACE NINE CAME ON. IT WAS AFTER NEXT GENERATION. I WAS LIKE, COME ON, REALLY ANOTHER ONE. AND I IMMEDIATELY GOT PULLED IN AND I THOUGHT YOUR CHARACTER WAS REALLY INTERESTING, ESPECIALLY THE WAY HE WAS WRITTEN BECAUSE YOU WERE FOLLOWING IN BIG SHOES BEING PRECEDED BY DOCTORS MCCOY AND CRUSHER. SO THEY REALLY HAD TO TURN THIS GUY INTO UNIQUE CHARACTER AND/ HE WAS LIKE THIS NIETZSCHEAN MAN VERSUS SUPERMAN TYPE CHARACTER, YOU KNOW, WITH GENETIC ENGINEERING AND EVERYTHING, THE SUPERHERO ON THE MORTAL SIDE, IN A CONSTANT BATTLE. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE FOR YOU?

19.24 Well, I was 26. Yes. And as far as I was concerned, I didn't have any baggage of I didn't worry about the size shoes I was in. I didn't worry about anything but being as convincing as I could possibly be on my trailer door on the inside. So I before I went, I would leave to set every single time I was called. It just said one word voice exclamation point. And I was just going right, I've got to get my voice must be I must be grounded. It must be my voice work on my voice because it was really high pitched. And I just was concerned about that. And when it got to, as we filmed, of course, and the show wasn't doing very well, and I was, my character was really quite unpopular. And there was at least two times at the end of two

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig11 ​ ​ seasons that Rick Berman, the studio side, exec producer said, You know, I had to save your ass again this season because they wanted me to fire you. And he didn't say like that. He said it much more gently in the back and not he wasn't like, dude. I just want to know, I did save you this. And they did it twice, which is quite a lot for a series actor where the world is pretty ruthless. And, and I saw I was incredibly grateful, and just tried to do what I what I was told in the simplest way possible. But then it became complicated later to answer your question. I think in about the fourth season, where it turned out that out that I was genetically modified, and we had just adopted and I love Michael Dorn, and I'm really happy that he came on the show, by the way. And I don't want him to think if he ever hears this, that there was some sort of acrimony between us and there certainly wasn't, we were great friends, I came to dinner all the time. But I thought, well, that's a cynical move, we've got Worf because what they're doing is transferring some of the glamour from the next generation to Deep Space Nine because they think Deep Space Nine hasn't got got it, you know, they do not isn't good enough. And I was quietly although and vociferously kind of upset about that. And then when I after that, when it turned out that I was genetically modified. I went, wait a minute, they're turning me into data. They want another person from the next generation, but they can't get data. So they're going to turn me into it. And that was where my mind went, because I was already cynical about the Worf import. It turned out that wolf was great for the show. And it turned out the genetic modification was not what I was making a mountain out of a molehill. But maybe had I not made that mountain out of a molehill. It may have become more cynical, and a bit more data ask and I would have suddenly been doing sums that no one else could do, you know, incredibly fast to mirror the next generation because I think I was we were all resisting becoming the next generation. But of course, the studio wanted us to become the next generation because the show was doing so badly by comparison.

ONE THING I REALLY LIKED THAT THEY DID, THOUGH, ON DEEP SPACE NINE, THAT THEY DIDN'T DO SO MUCH ON NEXT GENERATION

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig12 ​ ​ WAS THEY GAVE VERY RESPECTFUL HAT TIPS TO THE BEST EPISODES OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES. IN FACT, I THINK MY FAVORITE EPISODE OF DEEP SPACE NINE IS THE ONE WHERE YOU GO TO THE MIRROR UNIVERSE. WHICH WHICH WAS THE TIP OF THE HAT TO MY VERY FAVORITE STAR TREK ORIGINAL EPISODE. MIRROR MIRROR. ?????? check the episode name versus DS9 episode, may need to remove seddig answer and rework the interview a little.

23.00 Yeah. Well, I'm often referred to mirror mirror because Mirror Mirror was one of the great racist treaties that have ever been made for television in a way that is so palatable and universally acceptable. That doesn't create division or make people are hostile. Right. And yet they understand the rabbit the ridiculousness of the which everyone's face is black and white, but one person has their face the other way black and white, the opposite is black to the and this is the this is a struggle today with racism. And it's hilarious. And that show just just nailed it in the most simple, fun, gorgeous way, which is what science fiction is born to do. I love that so much. Yeah. Thank you.

WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT A LOVELY FILM YOU DID CALLED CAIRO TIME. IT WAS JUST SO NICE TO SEE A MOVIE WITH TWO ADULTS TALKING AND RELATING AND JUST BEING ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS AND NOT EXPLOSIONS AND PEOPLE IN TIGHTS. I ASSUME YOU'VE BEEN TO EGYPT BEFORE, SINCE IT'S VERY CLOSE TO SUDAN. BUT WHAT WERE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF BEING IN EGYPT THAT WAS SO CLOSE TO ARAB SPRING?

24.34 You know, I would I was so shocked when the Arab Spring happened. I was as shocked as the rest of the world. We did not see it coming. No one saw it coming. And yes, it happened a year after we two years after we we filmed or at least at least after Kira time came out. And all I remember was this. This seat, this Nile, this river, this thing that had come up from the very dark As part of Africa, the very center of Africa. And looking at it

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig13 ​ ​ while we were filming, because we're filming on a bridge, overlooking it, and thinking about all the stories, this water, this swirling murky water held, and it was very romantic and moving to me, and the city was very, was teeming with life. And it wasn't at all. unpleasant it was, just like it had, I'm sure it had been 2000 years previously, apart from the colors have become more gaudy. And no one had been, you know, few people have been to school. But I think it was still it was I just, we loved it. I mean, a lot of people didn't like it. My wife was there we met on that film. We didn't get together for a subsequent seven years or something. But we met on that film, she was the lawyer. And she didn't like it at all because men intimidated her. So I think women's experience, a woman's experience is very different. Especially I'm a brown man. So I you know, I fit right in. And I'm actually yeah, and cousin, the best. So I loved it. I think the Arab Spring was such a pivotal moment for the Arab world such a pivotal turning point that could have really turned into something extraordinary. And unfortunately, it didn't, because and that's partly with it with do all due respect, the American and the English influence, mainly because there's a willingness in this part of the world, certainly to export democracy. And it's incredibly hard. So it's my doorbell, but it's just a ​ bird flying by the motion detector. It and so this ​ and this need to export our way of life is very attractive, because you know, along come with it all those chain stores and huge middle middle class wealth and colored flat screen TVs for everyone and all that. But it just doesn't work in some countries, and they're just still they're still vulnerable. And the Arab world in particular doesn't suit that without a note some organic predisposition, it needs to have some really slow burn to get to that point, because that's my very amateur opinion.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE POLITICALLY ORIENTED PROJECTS IN THE FUTURE?

27.28 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I love doing them. And I love just as much as I love doing the the the crazy stuff, the sci fi stuff, this as much as I love doing skylines, I will always make a skylines. If I get to, if I'm lucky enough to every few years, I

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig14 ​ ​ will always go back or I will do a children's show or something that connects everybody. And then I will try and do the other thing that cinema is good at. And that is soft diplomacy. And that is, you know, introducing them to people of color, Arab people during a time when people hate Muslims. And as long as I feel that as long as they get to meet one, they invite one into their living room, which they have to do, you know, you can't barge your way in there. And that they like you, on some level even either as a villain or as a good guy doesn't really matter, but that they respond, they will always have met their first Muslim. And that is the beginning of something. And it wasn't intimidating experience. And it wasn't an unpleasant experience. And they didn't shout and go allow a bar or anything terrible in their house or in their face. But they seemed like someone who their dad might know, or, you know, just someone who'd hang around, or a professor at school, or one of those guys. And that's that's kind of my kind of crusade to not to put too fine a point on it. The same word,

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR NEXT PROJET TO DIRECT WILL BE?

28.59 Well, I'm kind of obsessed about that. I'm also obsessed about the nature of identity in general. And I think it's very exciting what's going on with the people come deciding what kind of sex they want to be and all that sort of stuff. Normally, people find that derisive, I do have a derisory opinion of that and find that really kind of ridiculous. How dare you choose your sex? You know what? I am okay with it. It's taken me a while to because I've been like, wow, Do I really have to think of what to call them? You kind of can't i can't say he or she.

IT'S NOT WE'RE OPPOSED TO IT, BUT IT'S LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE.

30.02 Exactly. It's off pissing. It makes it go. I've just got that I've just got to grips with this, this damn language. Now I got to figure out more kind of pronouns.

//I HAVE TWO FRATERNITY BROTHERS FROM COLLEGE, WHO ARE NOW MY FRATERNITY

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig15 ​ ​ SISTERS. AND I HAD DINNER WITH THEM ABOUT A YEAR AGO. THEY'RE THE SAME PEOPLE.

30.22 hopefully that mean, if I'm listening to them, and I hopefully they're them now. And that's, that's been the problem, it must be pretty awful to grow up, not, you know, being in the wrong body. And I feel it some days myself, but in a totally different way, just because I get the blues. I know what it'd be like to be incarcerated there. And I think that that's been that's been a major advance. And I know, I too, was exactly the same. You know what the gate the women fought for 2000 years, blacks have fought for 400 years, gays have been fighting since the turn of the 20th century. And yet you guys want it today? You only we only just found out about you guys, and you want it now. We've only just arrived on the scene. And actually, I'm wrong. They absolutely deserve it all now. And I'm hoping that the solidarity between us, you know, might you know, Douglas, and was the great, the slaver who was an undergrad who's the Friedman, who was the Underground Railroad. And thank you, thank you that you had to rely on the feminist movement to get to get going, the feminist movement was picking up traction. And in order for him to get a voice, he went into the churches where the feminist movement were having discussions and talks. And he was invited to talk about the race issue. And that great gave enormous momentum, because it was a sympathetic crew who were listening people who wanted emancipation for women, were likely to want emancipation for black people. Now, I think that the gay community were very smart to get in to into bed metaphorically with the feminist community. And so let's let's let's make this all one argument. And I'm hoping the trans people get together with the blacks the case and everybody else. And and because it's it is most of the world against the the people who just refused the encounter trans people who refuse to move for .

/WELL, AND LET'S FACE IT, WE BOTH GREW UP IN COUNTRIES WHERE UNLESS YOU WERE A WHITE, ANGLO SAXON PROTESTANT MALE, WHO WAS BORN INTO A CERTAIN

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig16 ​ ​ SOCIAL CASTE, THE ODDS WERE AGAINST YOU, NO MATTER WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO. NO OTHER BUSINESS IS MORE INDICATIVE OF THAT THAN ALL THE ACTORS SORT OF PRE 1960S WITH THE ANGLOCISE THEIR NAMES. ALL THESE JEWS HId THEIR ACTUAL NAMES, ISSUR DANIELOVITCH ​ ​ HAD TO BECOME KIRK DOUGLAS.

32.51 And and Jewish people are part of this, this resistance movement. It's wonderful to see that casino synagogues are opening themselves to immigrants. And it, there is a movement happening. And it is pretty exciting to be here, even though we've I hope, hit some kind of apotheosis with the last president, the 45th. One. I mean, I love him or hate him. I thought he was terrific on TV. But he has done some pretty terrible things in terms of cohesion and love. And those seem like hippie words, because they are. But those hippie words are really powerful words. And we need, you know, I walked down the street here during the election, I live in a small town in western Massachusetts. And most of the signs of Biden are black lives matter. But then there are the Trump pence signs. And these guys hate each other, you know, they hate each other. And I don't think I've ever lived in a time when people didn't couldn't put aside their political differences.

/I'VE SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE IN THE US AND ACCORDING TO MY PARENTS AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO WERE ALIVE DURING 1968, WHICH PRIOR TO THIS YEAR, EVERYONE UNIVERSALLY AGREED WAS THE WORST YEAR IN AMERICAN HISTORY. THEY SAID THAT THIS YEAR, IN PARTICULAR, AND THE PAST FOUR YEARS IN GENERAL, MAKES 1968 LOOK LIKE A CAKEWALK.

34.17 Yeah, yeah. And you know, it's broke when you have a massive, massive pandemic that breaks out in the whole world. And that doesn't create unity. Something's wrong.

/WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR TIME DURING THE LOCKDOWN?

34.35 Full disclosure, I've been playing a lot of Xbox. That basically keeps me sane.

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig17 ​ ​

34.48 I hook up with my friends because they're all playing it too. So my brother who's in England plays it. And another friend of mine in Birmingham in England plays it. So it keeps me in touch. But it's just an easy way to stay do it active and engaged with that and using my brain on some level. Otherwise, I could just sit in front of the TV and forget to think I, my wife's a lawyer so she spends most of her day downstairs and that gives me an excuse to go upstairs and play cheeky game of destiny. Then I, the thing I'm kind of most fascinated by and why I'm what I'm where I'm learning Am I kind of school is I somehow with Mel who's run a fan club for me for over two decades. We started a social club on zoom. And it was just a thing to go. Hey, guys, I hope you guys are okay. You can all meet up here, let's chat. And it was really me interviewing them. And rather than them interviewing me. So I interview people for about 15 to 20 minutes each. And from weirdly all over the world. Now. We just had someone from Nepal, who is actually a Sherpa. And I forgot that that was an ethnicity and tribe. I thought it was a job. But no, it's something more than that. And we've got people in Russia and China and all over the world, South America, Central America, hundreds from America and hundreds from England. And they meet every week, twice a week. And we we talk about their world and what's going on and makes them nervous or unhappy. And we have a huge community queer community. Because they were very, that they responded to Bashir. I've, for reasons I beginning to understand when I did Deep Space Nine, and we have a lot of uncomfortable people. And it's really good fun. ( It's really been exciting and interesting. And I'v​ e learned so much about these communities that I really had no idea of before. And we share recipes, and we share horror stories. And there are lots of children present. And you know, we keep tabs on each other. It's kind of fun. So that is probably what I've been doing. And we've started doing some fanfiction. I've got some of my friends to read. Andy Robinson has come and he's bred fan fiction version of garak. And I've been a fan fiction version of Bashir. We've had Armin shimerman. Come recently, and we're doing it now. In fact, you know, on a couple of days a week tomorrow we do it again, another

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig18 ​ ​ episode, and we just can't publish it until we negotiate a deal with the union. Because there is some bylaw, that we're transgressing, even though it's for for free. And for COVID. Really.) So ​ that's kind of what we're doing. It's a fascinating world where I have 100 to 300 people and middleboxes all over my television screen. And I'm chatting away.

I'D LIKE TO SEE YOUR STUFF WHEN YOU START DIRECTING AGAIN. I LIKE THE TWO EPISODES OF DEEP SPACE THAT YOU DIRECTED.

38.47 Thank you, thank you. I will get I have made a promise to myself that I just, if I'm going to direct I'm gonna have to write it. I may need help writing it but it's gonna have to come out of my my bet my head.

YOU MENTIONED A FAN CLUB, WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND IT?

39.18 I have no social media presence at all. But if if if you're if you think people might be interested, or people may not have got the message that the Syd city dotnet it's sad city. dotnet is my fan club. And it's usually about 14 people. But right now it's rather bigger. Because of all the social meetings we're having.

//WHAT CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION HAS A PLACE IN YOUR HEART? OR DO YOU FIND IMPORTANT THAT NEEDS OUR SUPPORT?

39.57 Doctors Without Frontiers every single day, every single day. I mean, right now, everything's important. Dogs are important, you know, but doctors without frontiers are as heroic as the people fighting COVID as heroic as any soldier because they are getting killed, even though they have no guns in hospitals on frontlines, and then making sure our enemies are getting the first the best medical care they can possibly get. And a country is treated, is justified is judged more by the way it treats his enemies than its friends.

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig19 ​ ​ ALEX OUTRO MY THANKS TO ALEXANDER SIDDIG FOR HIS TIME. IT WAS A PLEASURE AND AN HONOR. I LOOK FORWARD TO HIS FUTURE ACTING AND DIRECTING. THE MOVIE “SKYLINES” WILL BE IN THEATERS AND STREAMING ON DECEMBER 18TH, 2020. IT IS DISTRIBUTED BY VERTICAL ENTERTAINMENT. THANKS ALSO TO PRISCILLA RIOS OF KW-PR.

ALEX PROMO IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON THIS INTERVIEW COME ON OVER TO OUR FACEBOOK PAGE AND LET’S CHAT. /REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS PODCAST ON APPLE, GOOGLE, SPOTIFY AND ALL MAJOR PODCAST APPS.

/CAN YOU DO ME A QUICK FAVOUR? CAN YOU GO ONTO APPLE OF GOOGLE PODCASTS AND DO A QUICK REVIEW OF THE SHOW? CAN YOU THEN TELL THREE FRIENDS ABOUT THE SHOW? WE ARE BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF REAL MOVIE LOVERS AND WE WANT EVERYONE TO GET INVOLVED, FOR THE SAKE OF MOVIEMAKING AND THIS PODCAST. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE AND WE’LL SEE YOU IN HOLLYWOOD.

ALEX THE HOLLYWOOD INTERVIEW IS PRODUCED BY ME, ALEX SIMON, FOR WANDERER PRODUCTIONS. EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY CONAL O’HERLIHY FOR NO ONE ELSE MEDIA.

The Hollywood Interview - Alexander Siddig20 ​ ​