Captain Phillips is a really good movie, and the last scene was absolutely phenomenal acting on the part of Tom Hanks, but for most of the movie you could argue that he was upstaged by Barkhad Abdi, who played Muse, the head Somali pirate.
Barkhad Abdi is indeed from Somalia, but he immigrated to the U.S. when he was a child and was working as a Minneapolis limo driver when he saw an advertisement on television to audition for a role in Captain Phillips. “I was always fascinated by the pirates, and I was amazed by what they do,” Abdi explains. “And I’m a Somalian myself – I was born in Somalia, I left Somalia when I was seven years old, and I witnessed the war. So I could relate to the pirates in a lot of ways, I know a lot of people who came from Somalia who lived with us in Minneapolis.”
So, why was a Minneapolis T.V. station advertising roles for Somalians?
It turns out that Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali immigrant population in the United States. When he first landed the part, Abdi says the Somali community gave him some backlash because they feared the role would be damaging to the world’s views of Somalians, but now the response is mostly positive. “The Somali community, they’re loving it. I received all kinds of messages on Facebook and Twitter, complimenting me and telling me how proud they are of me,” said Abdi.
