"I was working on my own film, too, but it never worked out," he says sheepishly. But Abdi wasn't a complete newcomer to the film-making process, previously jobbing as a director on Somali hip-hop videos. Much has been made of Somali-born Abdi's previous life as a limousine driver in Minneapolis, where his family settled when he was a teenager his story touted as that of the most unlikely zero-to-hero American dreamer. We loved acting and we really wanted to get this." "We auditioned together, we went home and we practised. Three of his friends were cast as his cronies. "They asked me easy questions – 'What's your name? 'Where were you born?' – and they assigned me to a character and gave me a script." After the open audition, targeted at Minneapolis's sizeable Somali community, Abdi's quietly authoritative presence won him the role of Muse, the pirate ringleader who wrangles with Tom Hanks's Phillips for control over the hefty American cargo ship. He's managing to look only vaguely weary despite recounting the inauspicious beginnings to his success story for what must be the millionth time. I guess that’s a little something to hang our hat on."There was an open casting call on TV and I went," says Abdi. On a side note, it looks like Barkhad Abdi who plays the lead Somali pirate, Muse, in the film may in fact have a shot at a nomination. However, it’s a performance worth noting in what is most certainly one of the most powerful scenes in the entire film and of this year. Of course, realistically, no, Albert won’t be nominated as it would already mean edging out the likes of Lupita Nyong’o ( 12 Years a Slave), Oprah Winfrey ( Lee Daniels’ The Butler), June Squibb ( Nebraska), Julia Roberts ( August: Osage County), Octavia Spencer ( Fruitvale Station) and/or Margo Martindale ( August: Osage County) with plenty more beyond that. I don’t see it as any different than Glenn Close getting a nomination for Albert Nobbs, a character she’d played on the stage and won an Obie in 1982 or Cate Blanchett who was nominated for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a role she’d been nominated for prior. She was simply an actor, in that case, with the proper training to play a specific role. When I hear she froze in the first scene, crying and not sure she could continue, only to find her nerve shortly thereafter, I think it’s hard to argue it isn’t a performance. Albert saying, “Tom Hanks acted like a real patient,” only speaks to how good his performance is as well.Īs to whether or not she’s acting or just playing a part she’s played in real life time and time again, well that’s up to you. Yes, her part in the film is small, but I’d argue without her performance, for as good as he is, Hanks’ performance wouldn’t be nearly as powerful, though if you watch the video below it’s clear it took two people to make the scene work as well as it did. She’s hardly in the movie! She’s not even acting! Blah, blah, blah is all I hear. Andrew Biehn, more of his crew would be integrated into the film to add to the sense of realism, the main reason he had reworked the scene now featuring Albert after a Navy commander told him it wasn’t realistic.įor those of you that have put two-and-two together and realize I’m going to make a case for a potential Oscar nomination for Albert, I can already hear the pushback. Three more takes and they had the scene and it worked so well Greengrass told the Tuxton’s executive officer, Cmdr. I just want you to react to how I’m acting. “We all go through moments like this at one time or another in our acting careers. This isn’t working.”Īs Albert tells it to Hampton Roads, “Look, it’s OK,” she recalls Hanks saying. It was terrible and I broke out in hives, and it was bad.”Īlbert recalls Hanks sitting with her after she turned away crying, telling the director, “I can’t do this, guys. “Tom Hanks came around the corner and I froze. “My first take was terrible!” she told WTKR. She soon found herself opposite Hanks.Īfter makeup and hair did their work, the lights flicked on and director Paul Greengrass calls action. The Corpsman is played by Danielle Albert who tells Hampton Roads she wasn’t even aware of the story when she and the rest of the medical staff of the guided missile destroyer Truxtun were asked to come in on their days off as filming was to be taking place on the ship and some dangerous stunts were involved. It’s the scene the entire two hours before it have led to and if it doesn’t work, the film doesn’t work. She begins asking him questions about how he feels, whether he knows his name and if the blood of the Somali pirates splattered all over his shirt is his. He’s in complete and utter shock and is soon attended to by a Naval Hospital Corpsman. The scene I’m referencing arrives as a bloodied Captain Phillips boards one of the Navy ships trailing the scene.
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