Haven't seen the movie, but your review got me thinking about Arab-American actors.
In The Siege, a 1998 movie where Middle Eastern terrorists are trying to take over Manhattan, Tony Shalhoub (Lebanese) played an Arab-American FBI agent who finds himself suddenly mistrusted and abused.
Jamie Farr played Corporal Klinger on MASH (the old TV show), but I don't think his ethnicity came into play there.
This page (http://www.aaiusa.org/arab-americans/23/famous-arab-americans) has a few paragraphs about Arab-American actors/actresses (scroll down.) What I see here is that actors of Arab descent *sometimes* play ethnic roles (like Shalhoub in The Siege), but often they seem to play "generic" roles (i.e. "white people.")
Could it be that if a director wants someone who will "look ethnic" (i.e. the audience can "see" his or her ethnicity), the director will pick someone "obviously" ethnic, i.e. darker - like Naveen Andrews?
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In The Siege, a 1998 movie where Middle Eastern terrorists are trying to take over Manhattan, Tony Shalhoub (Lebanese) played an Arab-American FBI agent who finds himself suddenly mistrusted and abused.
Jamie Farr played Corporal Klinger on MASH (the old TV show), but I don't think his ethnicity came into play there.
This page (http://www.aaiusa.org/arab-americans/23/famous-arab-americans) has a few paragraphs about Arab-American actors/actresses (scroll down.) What I see here is that actors of Arab descent *sometimes* play ethnic roles (like Shalhoub in The Siege), but often they seem to play "generic" roles (i.e. "white people.")
Could it be that if a director wants someone who will "look ethnic" (i.e. the audience can "see" his or her ethnicity), the director will pick someone "obviously" ethnic, i.e. darker - like Naveen Andrews?