Facets of evil
Tahar Rahim keeps it real with ‘Serpent’ role
This year Tahar Rahim’s career has zoomed into overdrive by playing two real-life figures who couldn’t be more opposite.
In “The Serpent,” Netflix’s eight-part true crime series premiering Friday, Rahim’s Charles Sobhraj offers a disturbing glimpse of unadulterated evil.
Sobhraj, a life-long criminal, tortured and murdered for profit with never a shred of emotion, much less sympathy.
In vivid contrast is Rahim’s Golden Globe and BAFTA Best Actor nominated performance as Mohamedou in “The Mauritanian.”
He was a Muslim held in Guantanamo for 14 years — but never charged. Remarkably, he was forgiving of his captors.
“Usually, if I am going to play someone real I need to meet them, as I did with Mohamedou,” Rahim, 39, said from his Paris home.
“So I thought of meeting Charles. I wanted to see the way he would con me. I wanted to see that! But it was just a thought for a second. Out of respect to the victims and their families, it wasn’t possible.
“I couldn’t do it. I mean I didn’t want to give him more attention.”
Sobhraj posed as a gem dealer in 1970s Bangkok, where he preyed on backpackers and travelers whose money, valuables and passports he would use after he had drugged, beaten, even burned his victims alive.
Decades ago William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) and Benicio Del Toro had hoped to film their version but it didn’t happen.
“He’s one of the hardest characters I’ve had to portray. I had always wanted to explore evil in a character because what’s interesting is that these characters are very distant from your true nature.”
Yet his job as an actor is “to find my connections with the character. With this one I couldn’t! The guy is a murderer, con man, a manipulator who has no empathy.
“Usually I start from inside but I couldn’t do it. I just thought, How about doing it the other way around?
“So I started from outside. We knew about his look, the way he behaved and I did my research.”
There were pluses, he allowed.
“What was, I shouldn’t say ‘fun’ about this, in a way, was to be involved in this era of the ’70s — the cars, the clothes. All of that was fun.
“I had a very good time in Thailand as well. Thai people are so nice. It’s a beautiful place and you shoot five days (often on location it’s six). And then you’re on holiday. You know the weekend is like a beach on a (not so distant) island. It was great!”