Yesterday I was catching up with the Showtime series Weeds. An older theme there was an Armenian drug dealing gang.
There are two types of Armenian characters in Hollywood productions. One is a hard working small business owner who is a descendant of the Metz Yeghern survivor. The other type is a violent criminal belonging to an Armenian gang. The first type is a Western Armenian. The second type is a recent emigrant from the USSR.
What was strange was that the actors playing the Armenian gangsters were Arabs. And the language they spoke was in Western Armenian.
With the latest news stories of some of our criminal compatriots trying to rip off the US government, trying to sell weapons to terrorists and the Armenian government selling weapons to Iran, it's clear that the negative stereotypes of Armenians are going to persist and probably become worse.
To portray these characters in the movies and the media, there will be opportunities for Armenian actors to have a steady stream of villain roles.
A good job opportunity for Chorni Gago, now the ex-mayor of Yerevan. Ticks all boxes: has a nickname, hands on experienced in mafia dealings, has personal torture cells, passionate in arts in form of classic music.
ReplyDeleteHe could play sophisticated gangsters who are passionate about opera.
ReplyDelete