The Guardian: “Typecast as a terrorist”

Riz Ahmed, a Pakistani-British actor and rapper who struggled as a young actor to find work beyond two-dimensional stereotypical roles and who faced nearly constant interrogation and difficulty flying internationally after acting in such films as The Road to Guantanamo and Four Lions, says that airports and auditions are quite similar. In both, he is trying to play a fully realized three-dimensional character to an audience—producers and casting agents and immigration and security officers—who can’t get past the color of his skin and his “Muslim-sounding” name. Ahmed says:

You see, the pitfalls of the audition room and the airport interrogation room are the same. They are places where the threat of rejection is real. They are also places where you are reduced to your marketability or threat-level, where the length of your facial hair can be a deal-breaker, where you are seen, and hence see yourself, in reductive labels – never as “just a bloke called Dave”.  

Ahmed’s difficulty at airports—he was once illegally detained at Luton Airport where British intelligence officers insulted, threatened, and attacked him—echoes the treatment that many other Asians receive when traveling internationally, including actor Shah Rukh Khan, the “King of Bollywood,” who has been repeatedly detained at US immigration and who famously said: "Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom."

After Ahmed’s experience at Luton airport—where he was illegally detained after having just won a film award for a movie about illegal detention—he wrote a song called “Post 9/11 Blues,” which included lyrics such as: “We’re all suspects so watch your back / I farted and got arrested for a chemical attack.”

In an airport holding pen, Ahmed explains, with few exceptions there are twenty slight variations of his own face, “like a Bollywood remake of Being John Malkovich. It was a reminder: you are a type, whose face says things before your mouth opens; you are a signifier before you are a person; you are back at stage one.” He adds: 

The holding pen also had that familiar audition room fear. Everyone is nervous, but the prospect of solidarity is undercut by competition. In this situation, you’re all fighting to graduate out of a reductive purgatory and into some recognition of your unique personhood. In one way or another you are all saying: “I’m not like the rest of them.”

With his passport stamped with visas and entries to such countries as Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, Ahmed found himself being questioned again and again. These “airport auditions” included such questions as “Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?” and although so far they have always been successful in the end, “they involved the experience of being typecast, and when that happens enough, you internalize the role written for you by others. Now, like an over-eager method actor, I was struggling to break character.”

As he becomes better known (he has been featured recently in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, HBO’s The Night Of, and the latest Jason Bourne movie), his experience at US airports becomes smoother. Now he is often able to find the additional airport baggage search and questioning “hilarious rather than bruising.”  

“But this isn’t a success story,” he says. “I see most of my fellow Malkoviches still arched back, spines bent to snapping as they try to limbo under that rope. These days it’s likely that no one resembles me in the waiting room for an acting audition, and the same is true of everyone being waved through with me at US immigration. In both spaces, my exception proves the rule.”

O Visas for the Film and Television Industry: 10 Common Questions (and Answers)

So you’re a German production company looking to shoot a feature film in the United States, or an Australian actor who has been hired for a recurring role in an American television series. You’ve done a little research, possibly read our previous post on special considerations for film and television visas or common O-1 misconceptions, and now you realize that you and/or your production team are in need of O visas. (Almost any foreign national working on commercial or entertainment film or television projects in the US, for any length of time, will need an O-1 or O-2 visa.)

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VOX: “For years, TV has treated immigrants as punchlines. These shows are fighting back.”

The American television and film industry has an unfortunate long history of stereotypical and offensive portrayals of immigrants. These include Apu, the Indian convenience store clerk voiced by Greek-American Hank Azaria in The Simpsons, Ashton Kutcher’s absurdly racist portrayal in brown face of an Indian man looking for love in a pop chips commercial, Andy Kaufman’s generically-foreign character Latka on Taxi, and Wilmer Valderrama’s “lisping, perpetually horny immigrant whose origins were painted with such broad strokes that his very name was a play on an acronym for ‘Foreign Exchange Student.’”

Vox writer Caroline Framke, herself the daughter of an Iranian immigrant, looks at three current shows—CW’s Jane the Virgin, Netflix’s Master of None, and ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat—that refuse to play to these stereotypes and instead offer “empathetic, heartfelt, and genuinely funny portrayals of immigrants that make the clichés feel both outdated and unnecessary.”

Master of None

Aziz Ansari and fellow show creator Alan Yang have done an excellent job at portraying the experiences of minorities (Asian-Americans, in particular) trying to work in the film and television industry (more on that from Ansari in this excellent New York Times piece), but the show also details the widely varying experiences between first- and second-generation immigrants.

The second episode ("Parents") examines the childhood experiences of Dev’s father Ramesh (played charmingly by Ansari’s real father, Shoukath Ansari) in India and the racism and isolation he later experienced in the US. This episode also features Dev's friend Brian (Kelvin Yu) and his father, Peter (Clem Cheung), and a flashback to his own childhood in Taiwan, his immigration to the US, the racism that he also experienced (seriously, enough with the racism, America), and the experience of watching his son assimilate. As Framke writes, this episode “goes on to feature some truly lovely, funny moments, particularly between Dev and Brian's parents as they bond over their immigration experiences. And after learning more about their parents' pasts, Dev and Brian are impressed by their sacrifices but still can't quite understand them.”

Jane the Virgin

This show, which both celebrates and pokes fun at telenovelas, is especially focused on the differing "immigrant" experiences through three generations. The titular character, Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez), gets pregnant after being accidentally artificially inseminated, but notwithstanding that far-fetched premise, the show has a lot to say regarding the multigenerational Villanueva family. There’s Jane, who the show creator, Jennie Snyder Urman, describes as “a very American girl,” her mother Xiomara (Andrea Navedo), who bridges the gap between her very American daughter and her own mother, Alba (Ivonne Coll), who is an undocumented immigrant.

The show’s second season focuses on Alba and her quest for a Green Card as well as the difficult decisions and hardships she's faced as an undocumented immigrant. This issue is especially poignant since cast member Diane Guerrero, who plays Jane's childhood friend Lina, watched her parents get deported when she was fourteen years old. "It's just an incredibly gut-wrenching story, which she told me early on when we first cast her," Urman said in Vox. "It's such an emotional, scary position to be in. We didn't want to just take that and make it something soapy and campy."

Fresh off the Boat

While this sitcom faced some controversy early on when Eddie Huang, a chef who wrote the memoir upon which the show is based, didn’t like the family-friendly direction it was going, the show nevertheless takes a complex look at how Louis and Jessica Huang, first-generation immigrants from Taiwan, raise their three sons in Orlando, and, to be perfectly honest, deal with all the crazy and (at times) racist white people.

While Louis enthusiastically embraces American culture and owns a steakhouse called Cattleman's Ranch, Jessica struggles with belonging and watching her children assimilate to the American lifestyle and culture. The stories range from the oldest trying to fit in at school (he wants to eat lunchables) and having to deal with racist classmates to how the Huangs' Chinese traditions clash with the American ones.

While these shows are just a start, as Framke says, they “illustrate that immigrants are more than their accents, their different lunches, or their traditions you might not understand. They're just people — and their struggles, mishaps, truths, and triumphs are exactly the kinds of stories television should be salivating to tell.”

10 THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT THE I VISA

Our beautiful I visa chart (click to download as a PDF) summarizes key points about the I visa.

Our beautiful I visa chart (click to download as a PDF) summarizes key points about the I visa.

1. What is the I visa?

An I visa is a temporary visa which allows representatives of foreign press, radio, film, or other foreign information media to enter the US in connection with the news gathering process, as well as informational or educational documentary films or a television series. It is a temporary visa that should not be used as a basis for a permanent stay in the US.

2. Who can use the I visa?

Reporters, members of a media or documentary film crew, video tape editors, employees of independent production companies, freelance journalists working under contract, or anyone essential to the foreign information media function may be eligible for this visa. Both print and film activities are included in this category. The foreign media organization which the I visa applicant is representing should have a home office outside the US.

3. Who cannot use it?

If the applicant is working on commercial, entertainment, or advertising productions, they will not qualify for "I" classification visas. Stories that involve reenactments or staged events, scripted or dramatized events such as reality television and quiz shows, are not primarily informational and, as such, cannot be the basis of an I visa application.

4. What are the limitations?

The I visa is company-specific and project-specific, so the I visa holder may only work for the foreign media organization that sent them over to the US on the project and in the capacity that was outlined in the I visa application. It is only intended for temporary work in the US on behalf of the foreign media organization that sponsored the application and should not be used if the applicant intends to take up residency in the US. An I visa holder can travel in and out of the US as many times as needed to complete the relevant project, as long as the visa remains valid.  

5. How to apply for one?

I visas must be applied for directly at a US Embassy/Consulate in the applicant’s home country. The applicant must make a visa appointment at the US Embassy/Consulate, complete and submit the DS-160, and pay the applicable visa processing fee. The applicant must present their passport (valid for at least six months beyond period of intended stay in the US) and valid documentation, including a letter signed by the foreign media organization sponsoring the application outlining how the applicant qualifies for the I visa, as well as a valid employment contract. Applicants should allow enough time for the Embassy/Consulate to process the visa stamp (typically three to ten business days).

6. How long is the I visa valid?

I visas can be approved for up to five years; however, some Embassies and Consulates have recently begun issuing shorter term visas (six months to one year) depending on the amount of time they believe the applicant will need to finish the project or production outlined in the visa application. As long as the I visa holder enters the US during the validity period of the I visa stamp, they will be admitted to the US for “duration of status,” which means that they can remain in the US for as long as they work on the approved project. The visa will cease to be valid if the I visa holder works for a company other than the foreign media organization that sponsored their I visa application.

7. What about family?

An I visa holder’s spouse and child (under twenty-one) may also apply for derivative I visas that will allow them to accompany the I visa holder to the US. Spouses and children are not authorized to work in the US with the derivative I visa, but they may attend school or university while in the US, although the school may suggest they obtain a student visa (F-1).

8. What if the I visa holder receives a job offer with a new employer in the US?

If an I visa holder identifies a new work opportunity in the US with a new employer, they must discuss their visa options with their prospective employer. They may apply for a change of status to a new visa classification with the new employer. But they cannot commence working with the new employer until the change of status petition is approved.

9. What happens if the I visa holder leaves the foreign media organization sponsor?

If the I visa holder leaves the foreign media organization that sponsored the I visa, the I visa will no longer be valid as it is specific to their work for the foreign media organization that sponsored their application.  Even though the visa stamp may still be valid, if the I visa holder is not working with the sponsor, they are no longer in valid status.  

10. What if the I visa holder wants to stay in the US permanently?

If an I visa holder wishes to remain in the US permanently, they should consider an immigrant visa, more commonly known as a Green Card.  Generally, they must be sponsored either by a US employer or a by a US citizen family member, if applicable. It is best to discuss Green Card options with a lawyer in order to determine the best plan of action.

Ten Iconic American Roles. Nine Foreign Actors.

America is the land of diversity (well, to some degree) as well as opportunity (go American dream), and immigrants come to the US to work in many different industries and professions, which is something we know because, well, this is an immigration law firm. The American film and television industry is no exception to hiring and employing foreign workers. Beginning with Charlie Chaplin (British) and Cary Grant (also British), Hollywood continues to employ many foreign actors in "American" roles. I still remember when I first heard Detective Jimmy McNulty (played by the British Dominic West) speak with his posh British accent. (For comparison, here's a scene from The Wire).

We're not, of course, the first to notice the foreign invasion of talent. NPR discussed this and also the equally serious and important media journal TV Guide. And while the AV Club doesn't like it, we actually do. It's good to have diversity. It's good sometimes to have an "outsider" perspective on things. And since the Oscars are this weekend and we are in a cinematic state of mind, we thought we'd take some time to admire the talent of these foreign actors (as Amy Poehler did during the recent Golden Globes) tackling that damn American accent and playing particularly famous or iconic American roles.

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