With 'Eagle of the Ninth,' every shot was extremely planned and organized. The director was like, 'Do this!' And I say, 'How was it?' and he says, 'Good.' It was very odd. I would never know where he was headed, or even if he was shooting me at a close-up or from a distance.
— Tahar Rahim
What is art? Art talks about life; it's subversive.
I don't know how to get bored. I need to learn to rest.
Thanks to 'A Prophet,' I'm known in a lot of countries.
I'm looking for challenges, and as always, what matters is the script, the character and the director.
I don't spend much time on Twitter. I joined because I found it funny.
I've always refused to play terrorists.
If I don't love my character, I can't do it.
At the end of the day, I remain a country boy inside.
I simply can't wear an outfit if I don't feel that is right for me.
It's not about 'succeeding,' but sometimes on a film, you know you've captured something.
In my town, and especially in my area, there were people from everywhere: Algerians, Senegalese, French people, Asians, all kinds of immigrants and natives, and everyone circulated.
When you agree to work with a filmmaker, it's important that you accept their world. It's an adventure. I like that. I throw myself into the director's arms, into their universe.
Some kids go walking in the mountains, but I just went to the cinema. So when I told my parents I wanted to be an actor, even though this wasn't normal for Arab kids or anyone in the town, they were sort of expecting it and were very supportive.
I'd rather have one good scene in a movie by a great director than a small role in a mediocre movie.
Everybody is not completely traumatised by their life.
I knew I'd have to go to Paris eventually, and I didn't want to be the provincial kid who just turns up and says, 'I want to act.'
I sometimes feel that racism is getting worse.
I love fashion as an art; I love fashion as costume, as a character. I don't like dictates and the phoniness of appearance.
I learned to walk on my own legs, to dive so deeply into a role to forget that I'm acting.
I don't want to say, 'I want to be in Hollywood,' like so many actors do, but I know that Hollywood is still making good movies, and I'd like to be part of that someday.
Movies don't have borders.
We're seeing TV series that are as good as movies were in the '70s and '80s - shows like 'The Wire,' 'The Sopranos' and 'Breaking Bad.'
The mud is cold when you're in the north of Scotland!
I'm an actor, full stop. Not an Arab actor. Not an actor of Algerian origin. Just an actor.
I like films to be pure cinema, but I also like them to provide a snapshot of a family, a society or a character - something that can nourish you as a human being as well as an actor.
We need prisons because there are some hardcore criminals, but I never met a guy who has been in jail that came out with a smile on his face thinking, 'Right, that's it - now I am going to be good!'
I recall the first time my agent told me to wear clothes specifically chosen for me, I would try and find excuses not to do it.
