Elnaaz Norouzi is all set to make her Hollywood debut with Kandahar, starring alongside Gerard Butler. In an exclusive chat with The Pioneer, the Sacred Fame actress discusses her experience working in Hollywood, never forgetting her roots, and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
The world of Hollywood cinema is witnessing stellar actress Elnaaz Norouzi make her mark with a highly anticipated project next to Gerard Butler. The project, titled Kandahar, seems like the most exciting project for her of all time. This is how the lines are blurring; she is exploring, and even Hollywood is getting to witness this creative genius.
While talking about her experience, Elnaaz said, “Being at the right place at the right time is very important for us actors. In fact, even the right representation is important! I knew deep within that if I had to make my Hollywood debut, I should be really ready. I didn’t want any outsider to come and comment that she is not good enough for Hollywood.”
Sharing screen space across the oceans, we dug deep into the conversation with Elnaaz and found out that even her journey in Bollywood was really tough. She revealed it took a lot of time for her to imprint her feet in B-town specifically.
And then she says, “The working nature of Hollywood is very different from the other industries. Like they are poles apart! It’s an old, professional industry. I worked with an Iranian director, a Bollywood director, and a German director, but the Hollywood director was extremely different from all of these.”
Hollywood, as we know it today, started its life in the second decade of the 20th century with the rise of production facilities in South California. As the production capabilities of filmmakers grew, the California movie industry focused on the city of Los Angeles! The popularity of movies promptly gave birth to a new kind of movie entity: the movie studios. The actress hadn’t definitively decided to be a part of the cinematic industry, a vivid dream of sleeping in a German hotel made her try out acting. Interesting on its own! Her entry into Bollywood was celebrated across the whole generations of her family — that was such a big thing for the Iranian actress’ family.
Going further she continues, “I like the idea of mystery around me. Not everyone is supposed to know everything about me, even if I am a public figure now! Something that’s known to the world is that I love languages and have learned so many of them. This is the reason I am more intrigued to work either in a Telugu, Parsi, or Punjabi film.”
Spreading her charm in Hollywood now, her acting spectacle is supposed to call for more global recognition. In addition, “Gerard was super fun on the sets. You will never have a dull day with him. He was able to crack jokes out of anything on the sets of Kandahar! He is not too serious in life, apart from his craft. If you take my example, if someone finds me synonymous with being “bold” back in the country, I still haven’t understood the correct definition of it. My decision to come to India without any cash was rather bold! What others find to be intrepid is way too normal for me.”
With our chests bursting with pride for the Sacred Games’ fame, we move ahead in the conversation, and something else we found out was how the death of Mahsa Amini changed Elnaaz’s being a fellow Iranian. “I wouldn’t have ever wished to be taken like this by the moral police. She was beaten to death! This is something that made me furious when the news came out. There’s no end to the oppression. As soon as they shut down the internet in my country, I had the urge to ask everyone outside to help my country’s women.
There are so many similarities between the cases of George Floyd and Mahsa Amini. I saw how Elon Musk set up some help for us and saw some celebrities raising their voices for us, but that was just not enough. I was really taken aback when my country’s president was invited to the United Nations — he’s a killer, for what are you inviting him to? I so wanted to go to New York and protest with my people, but my shooting schedules were way too hectic for me to take a single flight. But I am totally against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
What else is there about this courageous woman? “I try really hard not to forget where I am from, not to forget my roots. This reminds me of those people who used to pester me to tell everybody around me that my ancestors are from India and that my name should sound more Indian. And I’m the kind of person who, even when I was in Germany, persisted in asking my mother to still let me learn the Iranian language. I didn’t want to be among those people who leave the country and then say, “Oh, I am from Europe, but I do not know the language because we left it long ago!” I am not an Indian, but I live here; this is my habitat now. I integrated myself into this show business; that’s more than enough.”
Also, she commits to the fact that emotionally she is more Iranian, but she is way too straightforward when it comes to her craft. She doesn’t joke around! “When I did Sacred Games, I didn’t realise their popularity. It’s more popular than some of the movies today! Even when I did Jugjugg Jeeyo, people came up to me and told me how hot I was looking in the song, but just after that, they also told me about what I did with Anil Kapoor. So even if it was a cameo, at least it’s talked about, and that’s what I want. We do not have to be on screen for consecutively two hours to let people know that, oh, those two scenes were perfectly done.”
So all set to take over the west once again, expanding her horizons, is Elnaaz Norouzi.
