- I'm always bringing this ocean of drama and tragedy,
but I am actually a clown.
Not many people know about it.
My name is Golshifteh Farahani,
and I'm gonna let ELLE ask me anything today.
What's the best part about playing Nik Khan?
It's playing for the first time,
a female warrior that is not a love interest of somebody
and she's not in love with somebody.
She's just fearless, ruthless, brutal killer.
And is, she's not sexualized.
I think this is one of the best things about her.
She's an exceptional character we rarely have seen
in the history of cinema.
I first met Chris Hemsworth in Thailand.
Right before the shooting "Extraction 1,"
I went to his room to say hello
and talk about what we are gonna do.
It was amazing.
Wow, meeting Chris is meeting the kindest,
most generous man actor you can ever imagine.
So it was very comfortable.
Amazing.
Oh, if Chris Hemsworth comes with a warning label
it's like, "Be careful.
I am the most loving, lovable human being on this planet,
so be careful about that
because I'm so beautiful inside and out.
I care for you.
I see you and I'm very generous.
So be careful because you will just melt in front of me."
Voila.
Adam, Adam Bessa.
He was the most social person.
He has this quality, you know, the British have that
they, they actually, they know how to do it.
They make people talk about themselves.
They ask questions and everyone feels amazing
about having conversations with them.
and Adam Bessa definitely like he's the master
of creating conversations with people
and make them talk about themselves and he's quite funny.
My favorite memory was the day
I was shooting the fight on the train.
We trained for two months like athletes
and I wanted to do everything myself.
I didn't want any stunt to do anything.
I had to change three times my under clothing
because it, they were soaked wet.
I was bruised from shoulder to toe,
and at the end of the day it was like a big celebration
that everyone were hugging each other
as we achieved something incredible.
And that fight is one of the most favorite fights
of all our stunt team,
and I kept watching it and watching it
because I couldn't believe that this is happening.
So I'm very proud of it, very proud of it.
"Extraction 2" will leave you emotionally involved
and curious about the characters of this movie,
but you will get entertained very much.
What actor inspired me growing up?
I would say Marlene Dietrich.
I think it was her strength, her power, her presence,
as this non-sexual, some entity between a man and a woman.
Completely on the contrary of Marilyn Monroe.
There was something about her that inspired me very much,
and I also, I loved Audrey Hepburn.
That sweetness and that pure feminine vulnerability
at the same time.
But also, I must say that I was very much inspired
by Al Pacino and Robert De Niro,
"Taxi Driver" and "Scarface."
I love their work.
Is there a character I miss playing?
I would say no.
I am so open to whatever this world of cinema
is bringing me.
I have no desire, no regret, but there is some directors
that I would've loved to work with
like Cassavetes or like Kubrick.
Have I ever lost a role?
Yes, I have lost two roles
that both of them they really hurt me very badly.
One of them was "Prince of Persia."
It was when the government of Iran took my passport
and they didn't let me leave and that led to my exile.
It was the most traumatic time of my life.
And then the second one, again,
it was another movie with Colin Farrell
that I supposed to do.
I was so looking forward to work with him.
And because of President Trump, I have a French passport,
but my visa took much longer that it used to take
because I'm born in Iran
and I also couldn't make it to that shooting.
So two times for political reasons I lost two roles
that maybe I'm not attached to those stories,
but the fact that I couldn't go because of politics
hurt me very badly.
In my next role, I would love to be a mother.
I want to be a mother in life,
and that would be my next role in life.
That's what I want to be, and that's what I want to do.
I would say yes.
I'm a double cancer, ascendant Leo.
I am a absolutely a mother.
I would care for everyone, yes,
and I am very domestic at the same time.
Nobody can tell, but the things that makes me the happiest
is to go and buy zucchini and make food and cookies
and feed people.
I'm very well and happy inside my house.
I'm such an introvert, but yeah, I also an extrovert.
And yes, I have that lion that is out here
as you can see, representing "Extraction,"
but at the same time,
I'm just a domestic mother I would say.
Something that people dunno about me is the ear trick.
I have a ear party trick that people they don't know about.
I'm not gonna show you because everybody will know about it,
but I have a ear trick and I'm very funny.
I'm a clown.
Not many people see that clown,
but I'm a very, very funny character
that can make people laugh a lot.
But I'm always bringing this ocean of drama and tragedy,
but I am actually a clown.
Not many people know about it.
Well, I was obsessed with "Breaking Bad."
I know that it's very late for that
and everybody watched it some years ago.
But my goodness, when I started watching "Breaking Bad"
I was moving with my phone on the plane everywhere.
I couldn't put it down,
and I was going crazy because I couldn't sleep,
I couldn't eat.
And I worked with Brian, and I didn't watch "Breaking Bad"
while I was working with him.
And when I was watching "Breaking Bad"
I was like, "Oh, I missed him."
I was in the same room, same scenes.
I was washing his body and I didn't know he did this.
So it was such a loss, my God.
The most meaningful compliment.
As an actor I would say,
"Watching this character changed the way I was living."
That your, your art can change somebody's behavior, pattern,
and structure of mind and life.
I think that is why we artists are here to inspire people
to break out of their comfort zones.
And as a human being that you inspire me to,
to push through impossibles.
That I could inspire people to believe in their dreams,
throwing themselves out into that darkness
knowing that they're gonna land.
That is something that I would say
it would be a great compliment.
Something that I am learning recently
is the process of letting go.
The process of letting go of control and trusting,
and not giving up, but letting go.
Trying to accept things I can't change
and change things that I can change,
and knowing which one I can change and which one I cannot.
So this is something that I'm learning in life.
Something that makes me feel nostalgic
is thinking about my homeland and my country,
and the pain that this country is going through,
and the courage that people are having
pushing towards freedom.
Thinking about home makes me the most nostalgic.
The proudest moment of my career
is when I'm watching women and men getting inspired
to believe that they can do anything.
The path I came from, it was kind of an impossibility.
I made it through.
I did it.
I broke out of frames.
I didn't become a Middle Eastern actor,
or a terrorist part, or a region.
I broke, not just out of my country
living the life of exile,
but I broke the frames and I became anything and everything.
I became a woman from New Jersey in Jim Jarmusch.
I became a witch in "Pirates."
I became a 18th century Spanish woman in "Altamira."
I became Nik Khan,
which we don't know where she's coming from.
She's a villain.
We don't even care where she's coming from.
I became so many things,
and this is something that makes me proud,
to make people know that they can be anything and everything
and I am proud of it.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me and ELLE today.
Don't forget to watch "Extraction 2" out now on Netflix.