‘People know me a comedic actor’

It might be interesting to see a well-known dramatic actor or actress cast in a comedic role. It can show them in a new light and makes the audience realize their talent is more far reaching than they thought.

Mehran Ahmadi is one such prolific actor who has stricken good balance of dramatic and comedic roles during his long run career. Below is an excerpt from the exclusive interview with the actor.  

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ifilm: You played the role of a clergyman named Seyyed Rezi in one of the episodes of ifilm series ‘Course of Events’. This role is hugely different than your other roles. How have you come up with it?

Mehran Ahmadi: The fact is that I have been offered the role of clergyman several times before. But since the roles were not appealing to me, I turned them down. Seyyed Rezi, however, was a distinctive role for me because, first off, it was the role of a clergyman; and also it had some levels of complexity. These all made me take on the role.

I hold the idea that playing the role of a clergyman is some sort of risky because it needs to be believable; and the viewer should be conceived that the one playing is a true clergyman - not an actor. I did my best for Seyyed Rezi to be believable. It was a role that challenged me a lot and there were times when I felt I am drained from within. I was emotionally involved with the role and was very much willing to see the end result.

I also need to add that playing the role of a clergyman had the risk to make the whole work some piece of phony and of slogan mode. Thanks God, it did not happen.       

ifilm: Do you mostly consider yourself a dramatic or comedic actor?  

Mehran Ahmadi: I am an actor and it does not make any difference to me to play which one. I appeared in two comedy television characters. One was Behboud in ‘The Capital’ and the other was a character in ‘Mehrabad’. It is unfortunate that people mostly know me a comedic actor. Every role is different on its own. Basically, I do not take on recurrent and non-different roles. I am not able to play such roles; and it is strange to me why people remember me as a comedic actor. Doubtlessly, this does not mean that comedy roles are not good enough. Not at all! I am mostly wondering why my dramatic roles were not seen by people as much as my comedic roles were. To me, the role of Seyyed Rezi in ‘Course of events’ TV series was a distinctive and impressive one.  

ifilm: You picked ‘Confiscation’ comedy feature film as your first directorial experience. Does this mean that you are after box office high-grossing movies?

Mehran Ahmadi: Not the least bit. I think of making something that is worth watching not a high grosser. This is not what I do. I mostly think about work ethic and all I am trying to do is not to use short weights. I intended to make a movie of high standard so that the audience does not just laugh but rather perceive the concept behind my film.

For more exclusive interviews, click here. 

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