Faces to watch
![Omar Metwally 'Rendition' Oct. 19 Omar Metwally auditioned for his role in the CIA thriller by taping himself doing the script in his Brooklyn apartment. "I sent the tape, and that's apparently what got me the job." As Anwar, an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who lives in Chicago with his pregnant American wife (Reese Witherspoon), their young son and his mother, Metwally gives a heartbreaking performance. On his way home from a business trip, Anwar is arrested at the airport because the CIA believes he is a terrorist involved in a recent bombing in North Africa. After denying any connection, Anwar undergoes a series of torture sessions. An actor of Egyptian and Dutch heritage, Metwally was rarely ever cast as an Arab character, but that all changed with Sept. 11. "Since then, the number of [Arab] roles has increased," he says. But Metwally, who has appeared in such films as Steven Spielberg's "Munich," doesn't mind playing Arabs as long as they are not stereotypes. "It always comes down to the character," he says. "Is the character interesting and can I bring life to it?" He'll soon appear in James Ivory's "City of Your Final Destination," in which he plays an American of Iranian heritage. Susan King](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1f160b2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x391+0+0/resize/500x391!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F88%2F97%2F2902d88a5b2c15b73fae47e40a1a%2Flat-faces1-jlunn3nc20070907111321)
Omar Metwally ‘Rendition’
Oct. 19
Omar Metwally auditioned for his role in the CIA thriller by taping himself doing the script in his Brooklyn apartment. “I sent the tape, and that’s apparently what got me the job.”
As Anwar, an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who lives in Chicago with his pregnant American wife (Reese Witherspoon), their young son and his mother, Metwally gives a heartbreaking performance. On his way home from a business trip, Anwar is arrested at the airport because the CIA believes he is a terrorist involved in a recent bombing in North Africa. After denying any connection, Anwar undergoes a series of torture sessions.
An actor of Egyptian and Dutch heritage, Metwally was rarely ever cast as an Arab character, but that all changed with Sept. 11. “Since then, the number of [Arab] roles has increased,” he says.
But Metwally, who has appeared in such films as Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” doesn’t mind playing Arabs as long as they are not stereotypes. “It always comes down to the character,” he says. “Is the character interesting and can I bring life to it?”
He’ll soon appear in James Ivory’s “City of Your Final Destination,” in which he plays an American of Iranian heritage. Susan King (Ken Hively / LAT)
Alexa Davalos ‘Feast of Love’ Sep. 28
Alexa Davalos hails from sturdy thespian stock. Her grandfather, Richard Davalos, played James Dean’s brother in 1955’s “East of Eden.” And mother Elyssa Davalos is a veteran of TV, theater and films.
Davalos says she couldn’t resist joining the family profession, even though that may not have been her family’s desire. “I kept it very quiet until it was actually happening,” says the 25-year-old actress, who stars as the free-spirited Chloe in Robert Benton’s romantic drama.
The role is her highest profile yet and also marks her first nude scene. “There is a stigma about it and fears -- am I going to be protected?”
She and Benton talked about it during the audition process “and just speaking with him put my mind at ease, enough to say, ‘If I am going to do this, he is the right person.’ ”
Since completing “Feast of Love,” Davalos has made “The Mist,” a Stephen King chiller directed by Frank Darabont (“The Green Mile”), due out this year. And she’s now in Lithuania filming the World War II drama “Defiance,” starring Daniel Craig and directed by Edward Zwick. S.K. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)