partners, up to his eyeballs in debt, and very easily discredited for it, even as he had the wisdom and intelligence to know what was going on before so many of his colleagues. Arguments between the FBI and the CIA amount to office politics on a devastating scale. O’Neill himself was forced out of the FBI before the 9/11 attacks. He took a job as the chief of security at the World Trade Center and perished when the first tower fell. As for Soufan, he was a 29 year-old dealing with the tremendous mounting pressure of extremism at the very frontline. “But when he talks about his experiences, it’s never heavy,” marvels Rahim. “He tells you funny stories. He tells you extraordinary stories, but it’s never heavy.” Rahim takes a beat. “But it had to INTELLIGENCE Tahar Rahim as Ali Soufan in The Looming Tower, leading the interrogation of Abu Jandal.
be heavy for him. He’s human. You must be so clever to be 29 and to deal
of the show; it closes out The Looming
France to Algerian parents—but he had
with international problems every day.
wanted to be polite, but I wanted to
Tower. As the two men spar in Leba-
little hope of wrapping his head around
You have to be extremely clever and
take some time,” he remembers. He
nese Arabic, Soufan makes a piercing
conversational Lebanese. “I wish I
bold. There’s no other way.”
spoke to the show’s creative team, and
case for the contradiction between
could, but you never have the time to
Rahim was 27 when A Prophet
told them he would call Ali. He meant
terrorist fundamentalism and true
work on the basics,” he sighs. “You go
changed everything for him. It earned
Ali Benmohamed. “They thought I was
Islamic faith. It was the point of the
on phonetics, and the more you learn
him trophies from the European Film
talking about Ali Soufan, so they set up
show. “In 10 minutes, you can teach a
it, the more you understand the music
Awards and the Césars. But it’s taken
a Skype call with him by chance.”
lesson to the audience that a lot of TV
of the words. You start to get notions
him nearly a decade to make his Hol-
news shows and debates can’t teach,”
about what it all means, but not a lot.”
lywood debut. 70% of the roles he’s
But Rahim was hesitant still. “I
Too polite to stop them, he took
The scene is testament to the
been offered since Hollywood saw
the call and was blown away by the
Rahim explains. “But in 10 minutes, in
person he spoke to. “He started to tell
a dramatized scene, it becomes easy
journey the idealistic rookie of the first
A Prophet, he estimates, have been
me about his life, and where this story
to understand. I was blown away by
episode has been on by the time of
terrorist characters. “I had to say no
would go,” Rahim says. “He said, ‘I’m
it, and at the same time it’s just two
the finale. Rahim proffers that a key
sometimes to great directors because
one of the producers on this, so don’t
people talking to one another. Playing
aspect of the show is the realization
of the terrorist thing,” he remembers.
worry; what I’m telling you is true.’”
chess with one another.”
that Soufan’s private and professional
Instead he has focused on work from
For Rahim, all roads led to the
personalities differed. It was there in
auteurs like Asghar Farhadi, Fatih Akin
resettled in the United States, graduat-
challenge of getting that scene right.
the writing, but Rahim found it in the
and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
ing with a political science degree from
“It was 12 pages in Arabic,” he laughs.
real Soufan, with whom he wound up
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania in
“I don’t speak it. I was so afraid of that
spending a lot of time.
1995. He joined the FBI soon afterward,
scene, because if I screwed it up? It’s
He usually saw the personal
lywood. “Only then did I have two
and at 29 he caught the eye of John
the end of the show; if it’s not working
Soufan; funny, warm and still in love
offers—this and Mary Magdalene—
O’Neill, then head of the FBI’s National
you’re dead.”
with the ideals of the American dream
come in at once. What’s the takeaway
that propelled him to join the FBI. It
from that? When you stop dreaming
Born in Lebanon, Soufan eventually
Security Division, who set him to work
He trained and prepared. He spoke
After a while, he says, he gave up waiting for the right call from Hol-
combatting a threat from Islamic
at length with the Arabic cultural con-
was this spark of patriotism for his
about something it comes to you? I
fundamentalism that few believed
sultant on set, and he had been study-
adoptive land that so confounded Abu
don’t know what to think about that.”
could ever impact American soil. He
ing privately with a Lebanese-speaking
Jandal. But at a book signing one day,
met resistance from the big machine
coach. “I worked a lot,” Rahim admits.
Rahim saw Soufan’s other side. “He
finally changing for minorities in Holly-
of American government, but it was
It was in the schedule for a day of
was scanning,” Rahim recalls. “He saw
wood. But he never backed down from
Soufan’s intelligence, mined from a
shooting. “I remember they wanted to
someone there and he said he started
his commitment, even as his family
days-long interrogation of Osama
give me more time, too. They said, ‘We
to suspect he had been from some
expanded and the idea of an American
bin Laden’s one-time bodyguard Abu
have one full day, and if you need more
kind of Secret Service abroad. I saw his
paycheck might have appealed. “You
Jandal, which gave investigators the
we can give you the day after.’ I was so
look change. He had different eyes.”
have to feed your family, but what are
clearest picture of al-Qaeda’s organi-
prepared—and so scared—that we did
Much of The Looming Tower
you going to teach them?” he says.
zational structure and confirmed the
it in less than a day. Three cameras,
revolves around the human frailties
“When I was a student I remember
identities of the 9/11 hijackers.
five takes, done.”
that caused so many of the slip-ups in
I only had €300 [$350] a month to
the days leading to 9/11. Jeff Daniels’
live on. You don’t need mountains of
John O’Neill is a man juggling multiple
money. Life is good.” ★
The Jandal interrogation is a key
Rahim was already multilingual—we
scene in the tenth and final episode
speak in English, though he was born in
6
He wonders whether things are
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