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Rabat – American actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks said that his visit to Morocco has changed his stereotyped view of Muslim countries.
In a promotion of his new film “A Hologram for the King” Hanks went back on a film he made in Morocco ten years to explain how he used to have a stereotypical view toward Islamic society.
When asked if “A Hologram for the King is partly redressing the balance with all the anti-Muslim feeling in America right now, Hanks said that he thinks that his “job is to steer away from stereotypes.”
“Ten years ago, we shot some of Charlie Wilson’s War in Morocco. I had never been to a Muslim nation before. I was a white, western American and I assumed that every time the muezzin called the faithful to prayer, everybody shut down and went to their local mosque. Some did but really there was no change whatsoever. A huge stereotype was busted just like that.”
Hanks’ work visit to Morocco apparently helped him correct his stereotypical vision of other Muslim countries, and described filming in the country like “living in a culture that tolerates you but doesn’t embrace you.”
“All of that helped me to internalize Alan’s sense of alienation, because we were so far removed from anything that was recognizable to me as an American.”
In an interview with Radio Times, Hanks, a donor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, ruled out the possibility of Donald Trump making it to the White House.
Despite the statements of the American actor, journalist Matilda Battersby for the Independent said that Hollywood is well known for stereotyping the Middle East and “A Hologram for the King is by no means the worst offender.”
The same source quoted the UAE-based independent filmmaker Faisal Hashmi as saying that the region is either portrayed as “a war-torn ultra conservative one littered with armed men, women in burqas, men wearing turbans, and the overall city feeling like it’s in some sort of constant lockdown,” or as if it is “Las Vegas of the desert – fancy sports cars, hotels, scantily clad models, rich people everywhere in the most exclusive fancy parties.”
