A piece in the Los Angeles Times yesterday by Ashraf Khalil presents an interesting overview of the struggles facing actors of Arab and Middle Eastern descent. This despite opening with a deeply suspect, no-names anecdote — a voice coach lecturing an actor about hiding his grandfather’s heritage, or he “won’t work in this town.” Even if true (and I would flag it as somewhat dubious not because of shoddy reporting, but because of self-motivation on the part of the actor), this is reflective of the individual, bigoted opinion of one idiot voice coach, and not a top-shelf decision maker. As such, it’s an awful if predictably emotionally strategic opening for a much more thoughtful piece about one of the chief dilemmas facing Arab actors today — whether to play terrorist roles.

Interview subjects include Omar Metwally (Munich, the forthcoming Rendition), Tony Shalhoub and Sayed Badreya (next summer’s Iron Man), and of course the main gripe seems to (rightly) be one about multi-dimensionality. One of the more amusing bits, meanwhile, mentions the pilot episode of The Watch List, which features a skit in which young Arab actors learn how to play terrorists — practicing holding assault rifles, begging 24‘s Jack Bauer for their lives and, finally, falling down dead. In the end, the class’ teacher (Iranian American comedian Maz Jobrani) earnestly urges his students to learn how to play these roles “so that Latino actors won’t get them.”

There’s also a telling, funny-sad anecdote from Badreya about his work as a consultant on the 1996 Kurt Russell/Steven Seagal action flick Executive Decision; a wedding scene at a mosque, meant to showcase Arabs in a positive, familial light, as well as a moderate Arab ambassador character who helps the movie’s heroes defeat the terrorists were both trimmed from the film. That’s something you can hang on studio executives. Well… them and a jingoistic test audience, more than likely.