After a relatively late start in a gritty industry, Toronto-born Stephen Lobo has had a consistent role on screen for the past five years, including past roles in major Canadian and American TV shows like Godiva’s, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Smallville, Falcon Beach and Painkiller Jane. His latest starring role is in the Canadian film Afghan Luke, directed by Mike Clattenburg (Trailer Park Boys).
The film, which had its Canadian premiere at TIFF, tracks a Canadian journalist’s (Nick Stahl) journey to Afghanistan after his controversial story about Canadian snipers gets nixed. Along with his aloof Afghan fixer (Lobo), he is confronted with the unforgiving reality of the Afghan war. The movie officially opens worldwide tonight. We caught up with Lobo at his Vancouver home.
What’s a major difference for you between acting for TV and film?
For me the biggest difference, because I’m theatre-trained, is having the whole story in front of you in a film, and it’s easier to make choices as an actor in this finite world that the writers have created. But there’s something satisfying about the beginning, middle and end, and immersing yourself in a role. In TV, though, you don’t know where the story is going, and often times the writers don’t know where the story’s going, either. A cool thing that starts to happen in TV shows when the writing’s good is that (the writers) start to write for the actor, and it’s an ongoing process.
How did you come to work on Afghan Luke, and what connection did you develop with the story?
To be honest, the role just came up and I auditioned for it. Mike [Clattenburg] said he loved the audition, and thought I was a perfect fit. I connected to the character’s essence, and I think that’s what got me the part. He was just a big goof, really, but once you got to know more about him you realized there’s more to him. This character is, in a way, the voice of Afghanistan, so I felt a lot of responsibility.
What are a few things you learned about the relationship between fixers and journalists?
The fixer-journalist relationship was fascinating to me, because it was something that I’d never heard of. These foreign journalists are going to these countries and don’t speak the language, and the words they take away are being filtered through their fixer. Whatever subjective point of view that this fixer may have is being delivered through the journalist, and it’s something not many people think about.
And about the situation in Afghanistan in general?
My character has this perspective of being stuck, literally, in the middle all of these powerful countries with varying interests, and it’s been this way for so long. If I learned anything it’s that I could never understand what it would be like to live there. It was like, how can we understand a situation that the people who are actually in the situations can’t even wrap their heads around?
There are a lot of modern, Middle Eastern war movies; can you name a few of your favourites?
Three Kings comes to mind. I loved Lions for Lambs, and that’s an interesting movie because I think it might find its place in a bit of time.
How has the movie been received so far?
Well a lot of the reviews that have come out have been pretty brutal, but yeah some of them are good. Look, I’ve been in some really bad movies, and this is not one of them. It’s not just a movie about Afghanistan, it’s the main character’s search for truth in a crazy world, and it uses Afghanistan as a backdrop. I think there’s poetry to the movie that’s there to find.
What other projects are you working on these days?
I just started a new series called Arctic Air for CBC about bush pilots in the Canadian North, and I play a rookie pilot. I’m also working with my wife Sonja Bennet on an indie film called In No Particular Order, and I have a small spot in a movie called Clap Stock.