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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/27731/full/27731/israeli-actor-plays-muslim-terrorist-in-showtime-s-sleeper-cell/ <br /><br /> <b>Israeli actor plays Muslim terrorist in Showtime’s ‘Sleeper Cell’</b> <br /> Friday, November 25, 2005 | by <p>tom tugend </p> <br /><br /><p><b>los angeles |</b>  In the upcoming Showtime television series “Sleeper Cell,” Tel Aviv-born actor Oded Fehr plays Farik, the leader of a Muslim terrorist cell who poses as a synagogue-going Jewish man.<br /><br /> Fehr savors the irony of the casting and plotline, but he was less enthusiastic when a producer initially approached him about the role.<br /><br /> “I told my agent I didn’t want to do it,” said Fehr, who at 34 has the tall, dark and handsome looks of an old-time Hollywood idol as he sits outside a Starbucks in Los Angeles.<br /><br /> After he read the script, Fehr changed his mind. “The writing was fantastic,” he said. “There was also the challenge — I have never played a role that was so far from me.”<br /><br /> As Farik, Fehr is chillingly convincing as the alternately menacing and personable leader of the multinational terrorist cell, plotting to spread havoc at some of the best-known L.A.-area landmarks.<br /><br /> Among the likely targets considered in the opening segment are the Los Angeles International Airport, the Rose Bowl, the UCLA campus and local nuclear facilities.<br /><br /> The latest recruit to the six-man cell is Darwyn (Michael Ealy), a young black man and devout Muslim, who is actually an FBI undercover agent.<br /><br /> He has infiltrated the cell by first posing as the inmate of a federal prison, and is steered to Farik by a fellow Black Muslim prisoner.<br /><br /> Darwyn first makes contact with Farik at a most unlikely place: Sinai Temple in Westwood, where the cell leader, wearing a yarmulke and tallit, poses as a regular worshipper.<br /><br /> He is so dedicated a congregant that he coaches the Sinai Maccabi girls’ softball team, wearing a blue T-shirt emblazoned with a large Star of David.<br /><br /> The other members of the cell are an odd lot, all Muslims but mainly non-Arab. Christian is a radical French skinhead, Ilija is a Bosnian whose family was killed by Serbians, Tommy is <br /><br /> an all-American boy rebelling against his Berkeley parents and Bobby is an Egyptian American.<br /><br /> As Darwyn’s love interest, Gayle (Melissa Sagemiller) adds a touch of romance to the macho drama.<br /><br /> The producers of “Sleeper Cell” are obviously striving for veracity, both by setting the cell’s meetings in such familiar locales as bowling alleys and children’s parks, and by hiring a Pakistani-born Muslim as one of the writers.<br /><br /> Whether juxtaposing “good” Muslims with “bad” Muslims and making most of the terrorists European and American will make the series attractive to U.S. television viewers remains to be seen.<br /><br /> Fehr is optimistic that the quality, tension and timeliness of the show will find an audience and carry “Sleeper Cell” over into a second season.<br /><br /> If so, it might prove a major break for the actor, whose Jewish mother and German father met in Israel.<br /><br /> At age 18, Fehr joined the Israeli navy and after discharge worked for two years as an El Al security guard.<br /><br /> After his parents separated, his father returned to Germany, and Oded joined him to work in his business in 1992.<br /><br /> On a whim, Fehr signed up for a drama class at an English theater in Frankfurt and went on to star in his first play, David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.”<br /><br /> This initial success determined his career path and he moved to England and enrolled at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol for three years.<br /><br /> From there it was a short leap to the movies, playing the mysterious warrior Ardeth Bay in “The Mummy” and in the sequel, “The Mummy Returns.”<br /><br /> Six years ago, Fehr moved to Hollywood. Since then, he has acted in the sci-fi thriller “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo” and, most recently, “Dreamer.” <br /><br /> <br><br /><br /> <b>“Sleeper Cell”</b> will air on the Showtime cable channel 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., Dec. 4 through Dec. 18.</p> <p> </p>

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