Archived: Syrian Refugee Turned Hollywood Movie Star: ‘Let’s Not Target the Victims’

-PEOPLE

Actor Jay Abdo was a huge star in the Middle East, with movie and TV roles that made him a household name. He couldn’t walk down the street in Damascus without attracting a crowd. So maybe it’s not entirely surprising that now he’s making movies withTom Hanks and Nicole Kidman. What is shocking is that, like hundreds of thousands of Syrians trying to flee the oppression of President Bashar al Assad and the terror of Isis, he’s a refugee.

“I used to be a very, very busy actor,” Abdo tells PEOPLE of his life back in Syria, where he had lead roles in films and TV soap operas and tried to use his fame for good. “I was deeply, deeply involved in social activism,” he says. “Children with cancer, special needs. I’ve always avoided politics. You can’t do any politics [in Syria] unless you are pro-Assad.” Abdo stayed under the regime’s radar by largely staying quiet about political issues. Then the Arab Spring came to Damascus in 2011 and everything changed.

“Students started marching in the streets shouting “Freedom! Freedom! Dignity!,” recalls Abdo. “I remember some of my friends: artists, lawyers, doctors, some gay and lesbian, marched in the streets for universal rights. The regime [responded] with violence. They started shooting people, torturing them for three or four days, then releasing them to teach [others] a lesson.”

According to Abdo, the government also put pressure on him to publicly back Assad. “They wanted me to support it and talk out in the media … which I couldn’t do.” Instead, Abdo fled to the United States, where his wife, Fadia, was already living, studying in Minnesota. He left behind money, property, even his name. Abdo’s first name at the time was Jihad. He changed it to Jay when he arrived in the West.

As the Abdos made their home in the U.S., applying for asylum and helping other refugees, they struggled to make a living. Jay delivered pizza and flowers and practiced his English driving for Uber and Lyft. “It was a challenge,” he admits. “But I couldn’t give up. It was a challenge for me to prove to myself, to my wife, to the whole world that we can make it. This country is great with lots of opportunities.” Then an extraordinary opportunity struck. As Abdo continued to struggle, a friend in the Syrian expat community heard that director Werner Herzog was looking for an actor who could speak Arabic. “She said, ‘Jay is here!'” Abdo says. Before he knew it, he was shooting Queen of the Desert, trading character ideas with Herzog and sharing screen time with Kidman. “She was an angel,” he says.

He has since landed a role in another upcoming movie, A Hologram for the King, opposite Tom Hanks; a pilot for Amazon called Patriot and a film titledRedeployed. It might well be the happiest time in his life, if it weren’t for the constant fear he harbors for the men, women and children fleeing Syria, just as some American politicians call for a halt to accepting refugees in the wake of last weekend’s attacks in Paris.

“What happened in Paris is so sad. Heartbreaking. Atrocity never stops. Unfortunately, it’s what is happening in Syria on a daily basis,” says Abdo. But to politicians balking at taking in refugees, “I would tell them I understand your feelings. Everyone hates terror. But Syrians are good people. We are creators, we are builders, artists, activists.”

Abdo and his wife continue to work to denounce Assad and Isis, and reach out to those who might need some comfort in this new country, just as he found. He holds out hope that it will be there for the 10,000 newcomers President Obama wants to allow into the country. “I’m not involved in politics, but I can speak humanely,” he says. “Don’t react when you’re angry … Let’s not target the victims.”