Fahim Fazli’s Odyssey

This picture was taken just as Fahim Fazli's screen career was beginning to take off.

COURTESY PHOTO/NAVYTIMES.COM

Fahim Fazli’s Odyssey

A Hollywood Actor's Journey to Fame

Sarah Liebowitz

A&E Editor

svl1010@plymouth.edu

On Nov. 12, Fahim Fazli, a Hollywood actor, author and former U.S. marine, spoke at Plymouth State. Fazli talked about his recent film “Rock the Kasbah” and his book “Fahim Speaks: A WarriorActor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back”, which he coauthored with PSU alumni Michael Moffett (‘78).

Fazli and Moffett presented at 7 p.m. in Boyd 144 in front of an audience of 15 or 20 people, including members of PSU’s Model UN Club. Model UN sponsored the event with the Social Science Department and the Alumni Relations Office.

Fazli’s story began in Kabul, Afghanistan where he was born. In 1979, when he was 12 years old, Soviets invaded his country. His mother wanted to leave, but his father wanted to stay. Their family split up, and Fazli watched his mother, brother, and sister leave in a yellow taxi.

Fazli stayed in Afghanistan with his father and brother, where he skipped school to avoid communist brainwashing. Instead, he started a small business trading American jeans and T-shirts for weapons. His father didn’t know. “I was an actor when I started lying to my dad,” said Fazli.

Three and a half or four years later, Fazli woke up one morning at 5 AM. Without warning, his father said they were leaving. They rode a jingle truck towards Pakistan when KGB soldiers pulled them over, and one looked into the car window. It was Fazli’s first cousin. He didn’t say a word, and they drove on.

Fazli and his family walked for seven days and seven nights, until they arrived in Pakistan. They saw a camp with five million Afghan refugees where they signed their names and got ID passes.

Fazli’s found a U.S. embassy, because they thought Fazli’s mother was in the U.S. The man at the embassy took her name, and told them to come back in two weeks.

Two weeks later, they returned to find out Fazli’s mother was in Virginia.

Fazli’s family borrowed coins from the other refugees to make a phone call. Fazli said he will never forget that phone number.

“Good morning, mom,” he said. She didn’t recognize his voice. Someone had told her that he and his brother were dead.

Fazli gave the phone to his father and his mother started yelling.

Someone had told her he was remarried.

Fazli spent two years in Pakistan filing the necessary paperwork to move to the U.S. Their family was separated for five years. “I’ll never forget that pain,” Fazli said.

They arrived in New York and went to Virginia to reunite with the family. From there, they moved to California.

Fazli remembers passing the Hollywood sign. “I want to be a part of that mountain,” he said.

“First we have to learn English,” said his brother.

Fazli did learn English. He started out as an extra, and moved on to speaking parts before joining a union.

Fazli showed clips from a few of his 56 movies, including “Fort Bliss”, “Iron Man”, “Argo”, “The Unit”, “Hired Gun”, and “American Sniper”.

In the clip from “Fort Bliss”, Fazli’s character can’t speak English. He tries to communicate with the American soldiers, but they don’t understand each other. The clip ends with his car blowing up.

Fazli asks the audience what was missing in that scene. No one answers.

“A translator,” Fazli said. If a translator were present, no one would have died.

Fazli said he joined the marines in order to pay back the country that made his dream come true. He served as an interpreter in Afghanistan for the U.S. marines from 2009-2010.

“Do you know how many villages I saved?” Fazli said. He estimates six or seven villages.  “Learn languages,” he said. “Languages are important.”

In Fazli’s recent film, “Rock the Kasbah”, Fazli plays the “good guy”. He’s normally typecast as a terrorist. Fazli said he doesn’t mind.

“Every country has a bad apple,” he said, but people understand that a percentage of bad people don’t represent the population. “Americans aren’t stupid,” he said. “I’m not trying to give anyone a bad example.”

“Rock the Kasbah” was released last month. Now, Fazli and Moffett are continuing to sell their book. They hope to make into a film in the future.