Twenty-one years after going to the US, Shohreh Aghdashloo has her first leading role in an American movie.
She left Tehran before the 1979 revolution, studied international relations in England, went to the US to tour with a political play and has remained in Los Angeles for 21 years, doing bit parts in movies and sitcoms and hitting the big time as Ben Kingsley's wife in House of Sand and Fog, which won her an Oscar nomination in 2004 and a spot on the TV series 24 as a wealthy housewife who is also a terrorist.
In the intense, electrifying The Stoning of Soraya M., which opened on Friday in the US and is based on a true story, the husky-voiced Aghdashloo plays an Iranian villager who stands up for her niece, who is accused of adultery and sentenced to death.
This is the second movie of yours that has made me weep. Would you like to apologise for that?
I would love to apologise for that! But let me tell you something: This is a good cry. This is a cry for humanity. This is a cry for all those people who tried not to remain silent and tell the world what happened in that village.
You've done some lighter roles, but you seem to specialise in intensity.
It's my forte. But I love to do comedies... On the other hand, the way I have lived and worked and the nature of my being has turned me into an actress with a mission, and I'm looking for subject matters that would shed light on injustices.
How are you perceived in Iran?
Up until the Oscar nomination, my name was banned. Nobody mentioned my name. They knew what I was doing but never mentioned it officially. But I'll never forget: My mother called and said, "Your name is in the newspapers." And this time it was "OUR Shohreh Aghdashloo has been nominated."
What are you recognised for on the streets?
It is 24. And it's usually my voice that gives me away. The moment I open my mouth. Usually my friends tell me, "Just shut up, let's go have lunch and don't say anything; we'll order food for you."
We were sitting at this restaurant and they ordered for me, the waiter came back and looked at me and said, "How would you like your food, hot or mild?" And I said, "Hot". And he said, "Are you the woman on 24?"
What's it like for Soraya M. director Cyrus Nowrasteh to have written a major part specifically for you?
It feels like home. This is what used to happen to me in Iran when I started my first feature with Abbas Kiarostami (1977's The Report).
Tell me about the stoning sequence. Was it as agonising to act as it is to watch?
Something happened to me that gave me a great lesson. I think it was on the fourth or fifth day of shooting the scene. I opened my eyes and, as usual, I see dust, I see angry feet pounding the ground and angry faces in the air, angry shouts asking for revenge, and stoning, stoning, stoning.
At that point I had a hard time to tell the difference between reality and cinema. And I thought, what a great acting experience this is. I'm a method actress, and I'd give an arm and a leg for a situation like that. It was just - the feeling was incredible.
I would think the people who practice, witness or believe in honour killings wouldn't have an opportunity to see this film, though.
That's a question for me, too. I'm hoping for it, I'm praying for it - that it would not only be shown in those countries, in those capitals, but also in the villages, the villages that cars cannot go to.
And I'm hoping they will put this film on the back of a donkey or camel or something and send it up to the village and show the film on a piece of white material to the people who have not seen television yet.
