Actor Barkhad Abdi may have been in the running for the gold Oscar statuette, but to many people’s (unsurprising) surprise, he is struggling to stay afloat.
The 28-year-old actor plays Muse, the leader of a group of Somali pirates in Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips. Acknowledged by critics and the audience alike, Abdi earned countless award nominations and a Bafta award for his supporting role in the film.
But the other side of the coin is that he is facing financial troubles as he received $65,000 for his performance in the $55 million film two years ago, reports E! Online. And even with an Oscar nod, there is no certainty of his future earning potential as an actor, according to thewrap.com.
“When Abdi is in Los Angeles to promote the film, he subsists on a per diem, good at the Beverly Hilton, where the studio likes to put him up,” a story by the New Yorker states. “The town car is available only for official publicity events. His clothes are loaners.”
The article reads that “Recently, Abdi requested that he be allowed to stay at a commuter hotel near Lax to be closer to his friend, a Somali cabdriver from Minneapolis, who shuttles him around for free.”
After filming Captain Phillips, the Somali-American Abdi went to work at his brother’s mobile phone store in Minneapolis, but decided to quit when the film premiered.
“How I thought about it was, like, when the movie came out, reviews are either going to be good or bad,” he told the New Yorker. “Either way, I cannot be working here.”
Abdi is presently reading scripts in search of his next role and he plans to move to Los Angeles and live with fellow Captain Phillips actor Faysal Ahmed, reports thewrap.com.
There goes the assumption that receiving accolades equals being rich in Hollywood. But be that as it may, Abdi is rich with the love of moviegoers for his spectacular performance. And like Oscar Wilde says, who, being loved, is poor?
Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2014.
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