In the spring of 2014, Palestinian-American actor Thom Bishops shot his 17th film, Time Out of Mind. The movie stars Richard Gere and Jena Malone, and Bishops was cast in the role of a vegan chef who offers kindness (and food) to a homeless man played by Gere.
The film is enjoying success on the festival circuit—it showed at Rome and Toronto (where it won the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize) in October, among others—and will be distributed in 2015 by IFC. And for Bishops, playing a food-oriented role came naturally. The 36-year-old Brooklyn native is from a well-loved culinary family—his sister and mother, Rawia Bishara, run renowned Bay Ridge restaurant Tanoreen.
Bishops himself has taken a different, if no less creative path—he went to NYU, and while there met acting teacher Susan Batson and studied in her advanced class alongside talented veterans like Harvey Keitel and Nicole Kidman. He started booking immediately, securing his first role in the short film T for Terrorist, produced by the Farrelly brothers and starring opposite Tony Shalhoub of the TV series Monk.
Bishops now lives in Los Angeles, and his acting credits include the sci-fi thriller The Final Cut starring opposite Oscar winners Robin Williams and Mira Sorvino; Fanboys with Seth Rogen; the dark comedy Sex and Death 101 with Simon Baker and Winona Ryder; and the comedy Peace After Marriage, where he stars opposite acclaimed Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass (Paradise Now, The Visitor).
Bishops also has appeared on the hit shows Law and Order SVU and House, and shot the ABC pilot Dangerous Liaisons with Katie Holmes. He’s also testing the waters as a producer with a few projects, one of which is a sci-fi love story called Kindred. Another centers on a Zodiac-style killer terrorizing Brooklyn in the late 1990s.
In 2011, Bishops starred in the film A Seven Hour Difference, which premiered at Dubai Film Festival and won several awards internationally. A Seven Hour Difference explores the relationship between two people who are in love but come from completely different cultural and religious backgrounds—one being American and Christian (Bishops’ character) and the other Jordanian and Muslim.
A Seven Hour Difference is one of two films Bishops has done in the Middle East, and he plans to do more. In fact, Bishops and other Arab Americans in the field recently met with King Abdullah of Jordan to discuss the importance of focusing on the business of film in the region. “There are so many creative, singular voices in the Middle East who have so much to express, and I’m gratified to see a film industry emerging there,” says Bishops of this effort. “I want to see it going beyond making art for art’s sake, and become a viable industry that employs thousands of people the way it does in so many other countries.”
As far as the role Arabs and Arab Americans play in the American film industry, Bishops concedes that it’s not a major part. “I’m an actor. It’s my job to portray characters on screen that are not me,” says Bishops. “So in many cases, my nationality is irrelevant to a character. But I’m an advocate of more positive portrayals of Middle Eastern characters that are not just a stereotype, but are multi-dimensional and balanced.”
Bishops notes that there has never been a big name female American actor of Middle Eastern descent, and the only leading Arab man to date is the legendary Omar Sharif. “He was a marquis name. He played varied roles and just happened to be Middle Eastern. He was Dr. Zhivago; he co-starred with Barbara Streisand and Peter O’Toole,” says Bishops. “I’m very inspired by him.”
Of course, times have changed since Sharif graced the silver screen. Bishops notes that the pool of Arab-American actors is small, and that in the post-9/11 years, Arab portrayal in American film has enforced some negative stereotypes. “There is much more complexity in Middle Eastern culture that I want people to see, and I want to help balance that on-screen representation.”
The ceremony that comes with cooking and hosting is, of course, a major part of that culture. In the rare moments that he’s not working, Bishops restores furniture, makes music, and most importantly, cooks. “Preparing a meal is an active meditation,” he explains. “Cooking is about where you have been and where you are going, and like acting, it’s a form of communication and creates an environment of conviviality.”
In fact, when he was new to LA, Bishops’ culinary talents came in handy. “I didn’t know anyone. So, when I met people I liked, I’d invite them for dinner. This started as me cooking for two friends and ended up with me cooking seven course meals for thirty people,” laughs Bishops, adding, “I think this is what I would want everyone to know about Palestinians: we’ll always end up cooking for thirty somehow. It is in our genes.”
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