Many jobs of an actor
LOS ANGELES Actor Hisham Tawfiq has played an impressive range of roles in his own life, from marine to New York firefighter to man of faith.
His best-known screen part to date is that of Dembe, stalwart field soldier for criminal mastermind Red (James Spader) on NBC and Global’s The Blacklist. As the season resumed Thursday, Dembe’s loyalty was in question after Red’s near-fatal poisoning and he’s on the run.
While any actor relishes shifting gears with a character, Tawfiq acknowledges being conflicted in this case.
He recalled receiving the script in which Dembe reveals Red’s responsibility in a shooting: “When I read that, my heart dropped and I said, ‘No, Dembe wouldn’t do that!’”
Tawfiq knows firsthand, however, the twists that life can take. The New Yorkborn actor, who skilfully deploys an African accent as Dembe, took an unexpected journey to a fulltime acting career.
When he suffered an injury playing football at his high school in Harlem, Tawfiq tried a dance class as rehab. His talent was revealed and his love of the arts was sparked. His initial dream of playing college football had already been affected by his father’s death when Tawfiq was a senior (“I went down the wrong path”), but given the chance to regroup and pursue sports, he zigzagged.
“I had my choice of going to summer school and to college or to France with a dance company, and I chose France,” he said.
He made a snap decision to join the marines because “I was getting in a little bit of trouble,” he said. He served during 1990’s Desert Storm, but said the challenges he faced had more to do with his faith than the limited combat the bombing operation demanded.
“Being born and raised a Muslim … I had the battle of serving my country but at the same time standing up for my faith,” he said. “So those were most of the challenges I had to deal with when I was serving and when I came home, and it took me a while to come to an understanding” of that.
The more lasting effect was a new sense of determination.
“Once I was in the Marines, I turned things around and made a checklist of everything I wanted to do in my life,” including take every available civil service exam. That led to a yearlong stint as a guard at New York’s Sing Sing prison.
Then the New York Fire Department called with a job offer at a Harlem station, making him one of a small number of African-American firefighters in the city and something special to neighbourhood youngsters.
“To actually serve the community I grew up in was amazing, and to represent this superhero-type guy for kids on the block,” he said.