5
I just needed to hire one person, so I began to see them one at a
time. I discovered that they all spoke some English, but my
pathetic inability to understand their accent kept us from
communicating.
I asked them only one question as they sat down in front of my
desk: “Please say and spell your name.” Seems simple enough,
right? But I had a heck of a time understanding or pronouncing
their names. Trying to follow along as they spelled them was a
nightmare.
I was awfully discouraged until the last guy sat down and
introduced himself. He almost sounded American when he said
his name—“Amir”—and spelled it out for me. I looked up at him
and said, “You’re hired.”
I complimented him on his English, and asked how he learned to
speak it so well. He said that he ran the music stand around the
corner. He sold pirated copies of CDs and tapes. Much of what he
had in his collection was American music. He smiled and sang a
couple of verses from Snoop Dog. He’d been listening to
American music every day for the last decade, so his English was
pretty darn good.
A few days after I hired Amir, he helped me hire other locals to
prep the site and get ready for the delivery of boats and
production sets. They all worked very hard and never
complained.
I spent a lot of time with Amir. Every day he was by my side,
helping me give directions to the crew members. He laughed with
me when I did something silly, and he even started to anticipate
what needed to be done. He would take care of things before I
asked.
Amir accompanied me when the crew members invited me to
their homes for a meal. I loved these visits, because I could see
how they lived. I learned more about the people who worked
next to me each day. They didn’t know the popular actors
working on the movie. To them, I was the movie star. I went out
of my way to show them respect and appreciation for their work,
their home, and the meal. They almost burst with pride when I
This was the 2 nd day of shooting for the movie outside of
London. I took this picture while driving a support boat.
3
sat down at their table for a meal. This, in turn, made me feel like
a celebrity. I would glance at Amir with a look that said, “This is
amazing.” Amir would smile back as he enjoyed the experience
with me.
I was in Morocco for more than three months, and I got to know
many of the local crew members well. They were some of the
kindest and loveliest people I’ve ever met. I wouldn’t trade those
experiences for anything.
This is Amanda and me in front of the Hassan II Mosque (a
gigantic landmark on the shores of Casablanca).
At the end of my stay, I said my goodbyes to Amir. I haven’t
spoken to him since. But I often think about those months I spent
with him. Without Amir, I likely would not have seen the side of
Morocco that I appreciated the most.
Before my trip to Morocco, it was already part of my nature to
treat people with respect and kindness, no matter where they
came from or where they lived. But what I learned in Morocco
was that when you show genuine respect and kindness to those
who don’t expect it from you, you surprise them. They often
honor you back tenfold.
I don’t know how best to describe it, other than I got a glimpse of
how it feels to be a movie star. n
My wife took this picture. She and my parents took these camels
into the Sahara Desert to camp overnight.