Ali Nasirian:
Acting requires passion, ecstasy and attachment
Iran Theater- A sculpture of the famous stage and screen actor Ali Nasirian was unveiled at the Film Museum of Iran on Saturday evening.
The sculpture represents Nasirian as Abolfat’h, a bookbinder in director Ali Hatami’s popular TV series “Hezardastan”.
Nasirian and actors Reza Kianian and Fatemeh Motamed-Arya attended the unveiling ceremony of the sculpture designed and made by Hossein Ardestani.
At ceremony, Nasirian said that he got a good feeling on seeing the sculpture and expressed thanks to the museum.
“I remember Ali Hatami told me that he wants ‘Hezardastan’ to be an album of me and my other colleagues Mohammad-Ali Keshavarz, Ezzatollah Entezami, Davood Rashidi and Jamshid Mashayekhi. And his remarks encouraged me more to accept the role of Abolfat’h,” he said.
“Abolfat’h was a bookbinder who was suffering from tuberculosis and had to live separately from his wife. I did not know how to speak Persian with an Azarbaijani accent and Nasser Tahmasb lent his voice to the role which added more to the character,” he said.
Referring to the interest of young people in the acting in cinema, he said: "Acting requires enthusiasm, ecstasy and attachment, and unfortunately today is not like ours days. In our time, it was a small hall for 90 people, where we begged to bring in an audience, ask for their opinions, and find out about the problems in our work. I went to the first theater class in '1330. At that time, we were practicing in the ruins of Sangalaj (now Sangelaj Theater Complex), but unfortunately today, everyone is waiting for the red carpet.
Motamed-Arya called Nasirian the representative of an unrepeatable generation because of his typical style of acting and his own dear self.
“He gave identity and character to acting. This means he made a great thing out of nothing, and that is precious in our cultural history like our Persepolis,” she said.
“The reason behind the popularity of his generation is because of their methods, thoughts and attitudes towards this career, which left us a great structure and is precious for us. We cannot see a role played by Nasirian and say we don’t like it,” she added.
Kianian also said, “When Motamed-Arya says Nasirian is from a golden generation that means this generation was the first educated generation of Iranian cinema and theater. They were the first who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts.”
Nasirian received an award for best supporting actor at the 37th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran for his role in “A Hairy Tale” in February.
The Iranian Theater Forum also honored him for his lifetime achievements in May 2019. In July 2019, the 7th Shahr International Film Festival also honored the actor with a lifetime achievement award.
