WATCH: Amir Jadidi Discusses ‘A Hero’s Moral Complexity and Why He Thinks Every Actor Should Work With Asghar Farhadi

Amir Jadidi, the star of Asghar Farhadi’s latest Oscar contender, ‘A Hero’ joins Awards Daily’s Shadan Larki to discuss working with the Iranian auteur and his complicated character at the heart of the story.

No good deed goes unpunished.

A Hero opens with Amir Jadidi’s Rahim being released from debtors prison on a two-day leave. When he is given a bag of gold that can solve his crisis, he chooses to return the coins to their rightful owner, thus unlocking a series of events with far-reaching consequences. As with all of writer/director Asghar Farhadi’s films, A Hero lives and thrives in shades of grey, in the nuances of flawed people with complicated lives, made all the more difficult by circumstances out of their control.

Mr. Farhadi isn’t interested in showing us life as it ought to be, but instead a picture of what life is—warts and all—povery and pain, but also the joy of a father reconnecting with his son, and beauty in the banality of a family’s evening meal. It’s no surprise that Farhadi has delivered another knockout. His previous films A Seperation and The Salesman brought Iran her first Oscar wins, and Farhadi has found himself once again in a prime spot in the International Feature Film race this year.

But what is a surprise is Jadidi’s performance as Rahim. A fresh face to American audiences and a rapidly rising star in Iran, Jadidi did undertook a complete overhaul of his lifestyle from weight loss to adopting a subtle regional accent. The careful crafting resulting in a deep connection between actor and character. Jadidi’s tennis player physique and confidence is replaced by a shy, haunted man with a creeping sense of desperation. Jadidi is a revelation.

Watch our complete interview with Amir Jadidi below: