Australian actor Fayssal Bazzi talked to Entertainmblakent Weekly and mentioned his ‘Stateless’ experience openly.
The series, ‘Stateless,’ directed by Emma Freeman, and Jocelyn Moorhouse, focuses on an immigration detention center story. Bazzi, who represents ‘Ameer’ in the series, at the start of the interview, stated that he had learned Dari, just in order to portray the role in proper:
“At first, when I was approached to do it, I was a little bit hesitant only because a lot of the dialogue was in Dari and I’m not a native Dari speaker. I was hesitant, but was assured that I’d have everything in place to learn and to be able to speak it fluently by the time we started filming.”
Bazzi, as an immigrant to Australia, also spoke over refugees during the interview and brought his own experience to light with the following words:
“I can’t speak to any other country, but Australia has a checkered history in how we deal with refugees. We try to sweep them under the rug and politicians use them as ammunition against each other. It’s very easy sometimes to forget that we’re talking about refugees, we’re talking about human beings.”
The ‘Stateless’ actor regarding the Cate Blanchett-produced, 6-part series, expressed his satisfaction at helping many by telling their stories and grabbing attention to the issue:
“Thankfully, with Netflix picking it up, it’s getting the global recognition that it deserves. I’ve been getting so many messages from people around the world who have connected with the story and want to learn more and asking how they can help — and it’s beautiful.”
The AACTA Award-winning actor highlighted that the series reflects the real-life and real challenges, because of that, added he felt a little bit pressure on him.
“There wasn’t a scene I finished where one of the extras didn’t run up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, this happened to me, this happened to my friend’ and would just be so open about the trauma that they’d been through. It does highlight how it’s important to let this story get out there so that people do know that we’re talking about real things here, it isn’t just make-believe. All this drama is pulled from real life. I did feel a bit of pressure to just get it right.”
The mentioned series is available on Netflix.
In order to reach out to the full text of the interview, click here.
