Barkhad Abdi, the Oscar-nominated first-time actor who starred in "Captain Phillips," is reportedly going broke as the $65,000 salary he earned for the film two years ago dwindles away.
The 28-year-old Somali-American actor, who uttered the infamous line "I'm the captain now" in the Tom Hanks thriller, is
now struggling to stay afloat, The New Yorker's Dana Goodyear reported this week.
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"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," Goodyear wrote. "The town car is available only for official publicity events. His clothes are loaners. Recently, Abdi requested that he be allowed to stay at a commuter's hotel near LAX, to be closer to his friend, a Somali cab driver from Minneapolis, who shuttles him around for free."
Abdi was born in Somalia but moved to Minneapolis when he was 14. A former limo driver and DJ, he had no acting experience whatsoever when he attended an open casting call seeking Somali actors for a Hanks movie.
He landed the role of pirate leader Abduwali Muse and got a paycheck for $65,000 more than two years ago when the movie started filming. After "Captain Phillips" wrapped, Abdi went back to Minneapolis and got a job at his brother's mobile phone store.
But he quit before the movie premiered.
"How I thought about it was, like, when the movie came out, reviews either gonna be good or bad," he told The New Yorker. "Either way, I cannot be working here."
Abdi was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the same award at the BAFTAs. Now, he's reportedly reading scripts and searching for his next role to keep the money coming in.
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