THE DEADBOLT: How much trouble did the wind give you guys at the Olancha Sand Dunes?

TAHIR: Oh man! There was a scene in there that we almost couldn’t shoot because the sand storms were crazy! There’s one scene that you see the movie where after Iron Man escapes, we find parts of his armor in the sand dunes and it wasn’t written the way we ended up shooting it. There was a huge debate that day, "Should we just cancel the shoot or what?" Then they decided to go for it and we got out there in Hummers, because there was no way to get out there in the middle of these dunes. And a couple of scenes where I’m just facing the camera, I had to dig myself into the sand so that I could stand still. It was that bad. I wear these goggles in it and those goggles were not part of the costume. They were literally taken from one of the special effects guys because he had some cool motorcycle goggles. There was no way for my character to keep his eyes open with the sand coming at him. But the beauty of it is - no matter how big the budget is, you can never replicate what nature can give you. You could put the biggest fans to blow sand in your face, but it’s not the same thing and it doesn’t give you the same charge either as an actor to stand and face nature. So yeah, it was horrendous. But I think in the end the product, as a result, is going to be tremendous.

THE DEADBOLT: It’s turning out to be an awesome year for you since you’re also appearing in the new Star Trek movie, too. What can you tell me about your character, Captain Robau?

TAHIR: Robau is a new character. He has never been seen in this saga. Of course they’re keeping Star Trek very, very secret and I have to respect that. I think the idea is this - that it’s such a known storyline that if we can reintroduce it with a fresher look, with a fresher approach, a lot of it is going to depend on how much surprise is in the actual movie. So, all that I can say about it is that my character is the captain of a ship.

THE DEADBOLT: So, with the Captain title, I take it you’re a good guy?

TAHIR: I’m a good guy. I’m one of the Federation captains, which is great for me because it came on the heels of doing Iron Man, playing a bad guy. So I’m not getting typecast as the bad guy, which can be an issue. He’s a good guy and it’s a nice heroic storyline of this character. He commands a ship, which has not been seen in the saga before.

THE DEADBOLT: So that marks a couple of firsts for you in this film. How does it feel to play the first character of Middle Eastern decent?

TAHIR: You know, that’s funny that you say that because just a couple of days ago a friend of mine - I’m kind of a Trekkie, but some of my friends are like real Trekkies so of course they go to all of these blogs - sent me this link to a blog that has like 500 blogs on it just on that fact. It’s an actor of Middle Eastern decent playing a captain, which hasn’t happened before. There have been other characters of Middle Eastern decent, but there has never been a captain. And a lot of the discussion on the blogs was about the fact. At least for me, personally, it’s great because it is a context in which my ethnicity is not being discussed as an issue. To me, that’s great - about a character in a story who’s trying to get Task A, Task B, Task C done. And you’re not dealing with the color of his skin or whatever, we’re not dealing with all of that. We’re working on a very even playing field and the blogs were also about that. It gives us hope, in a way, if you look at it as the realities of today hopefully will not be the realities of tomorrow.

THE DEADBOLT: That’s what Star Trek is all about.

TAHIR: Exactly, and the way J.J. cast this thing. He cast me in literally four hours.

THE DEADBOLT: Was that because you guys worked together on Alias?

TAHIR: Yeah, maybe. You know, I wasn’t going to dig it out. You know, leave a good thing alone, man. [laughs]

THE DEADBOLT: How faithful is this Star Trek to the original series?

TAHIR: It’s very faithful, all of the characters are there. You do get new insights into them and you get things that so far people have probably pulled together from their own research. Some of those questions might be answered and some of them might be challenged, where people thought up certain histories they created. Some of those might be challenged; some might be corroborated. It’s a nice mix. The feel of the movie is great, at least the part that I had. It has a very robust feel to it. It’s very tangible. The ship that I command has a lot of muscle to it. It looks like a capable thing, you know. So yeah, I think J.J. knows what he’s doing. He has a really great vision and a really great way of executing his vision. I think a lot of people will be very pleasantly surprised.

It also reintroduces the franchise to a generation lost and I think he kept that in mind. How can we bring in this generation that hasn’t grown up with it? How can we make it and not just reintroduce it, but let them own it a little bit so that they feel they’re not looking at this story, which was so big with their older brothers or their uncles and fathers? How can this age group also go, "Yeah, we’re a part of this. We understand it."

THE DEADBOLT: As far as Iron Man goes, have you been contacted about the sequel?

TAHIR: The way my character is, it doesn’t really die. And there have been talks about - I don’t think there’s a script yet, but there are certain characters who can easily go on.

THE DEADBOLT: When you mentioned Mandarin, it seems like Favreau is trying to figure out how to fit him into a second film.

TAHIR: Exactly, either a second one or third one. We know - we were told that our relationship with this particular project is not done yet. Whether they use us or don’t use us, that’s up to them. But we were told this and that’s how our contract and all of that works, that we can go on. So yeah, I think there’s a chance. I’ll go ahead and knock on wood right now. [laughs]