On working with co-star Zekeria Ebrahimi, who plays his character as a child: We didn’t do anything intentional, but obviously we were cast to have something similar in between us, and we do and we don’t. It’s as well the power of suggestion. It’s that experience that everyone has when you see a child, for example, and then you see their parents, and had they not had that child, you would never say to the two parents, “Wow, you two look really similar.” ... And I guess there’s enough in the power of suggestion that a lot of that happens. At the same time, there’s all this stuff that filters in helplessly when you’re with someone, when you’re working with someone, when you’re part of telling the same story, and you build a particular kind of relationship.
On preparing for the part: The most important thing, really, for me, in terms of the preparation, was the time that I spent in Afghanistan. I was born in Scotland, brought up in London; my parents are Egyptian, but my father happens to be born in Illinois. So I’m neither Afghan nor American, really. One of the huge journeys for me in terms of the film was learning about Afghanistan, going to Afghanistan and learning Dari, which is the language they speak there. I went to Afghanistan and spent a month there, and somehow in the course of that month, learned Dari. I was having four or five hours of Dari lessons a day. I completely banished English. I was in full immersion.
On the typecasting of actors of Middle Eastern descent: I think that issue in terms of representation exists across the board, and I think it is probably slightly different in the U.K. to how it is here, but not massively different. In this country, as well, there’s Tony Shalhoub, there’s the F. Murray Abrahams, there’s people who have managed to sort of wind their way through different directions, and I’m hoping to wind my way through different directions. That’s not to say that I think films about political violence or about terrorism or whatever aren’t important films to be made.