Actor returned to Afghanistan for role of his life: a translator for US Marines
As Hollywood beckoned, Fahim Fazli became a US military translator as a way of giving back
Fahim Fazli's screen career was beginning to take off, with roles in blockbusters like Iron Man, when the Afghan-born actor decided it was time to give back to the United States, the country that had taken him in after he fled Russian occupation a quarter of a century earlier.
Staring at his US passport, he wondered: "Do I earn this?"
Fazli, in New Hampshire last week for a book signing for Fahim Speaks: A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back, went to work as a translator for the US Marines in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
If they don’t understand each other … they’re going to kill each other
His wife, his agent and his manager asked him: "What are you doing?" He was established in Hollywood. Besides playing roles on screen, he had advised a team of Hollywood heavyweights including Mike Nichols and Tom Hanks on the film Charlie Wilson's War. Hanks starred in the film as a Texas congressman who partnered with a CIA agent to launch a covert programme to support Afghans fighting against the Soviet occupation.
Afghanistan was one of the most dangerous places in the world.
"I say, 'I would like to pay my dues for this country,"' Fazli said.
So in 2009, Fazli returned to the streets of his childhood.