Golshifteh Farahani

After playing in Ridley Scott's Une vie de mensonges (2008), she was banned from leaving her home country Iran in February 2008 on her way to London to make a screen test for Prince of Persia: Les sables du temps (2010). The role she was set to audition for eventually went to English actress Gemma Arterton. This was only reported six months later when she actually could leave the country. She now lives in Paris, France.

I think there is a problem in France that anyone who is not European, you want to know where they come from and why do they come from somewhere or why they speak English or why they are human. That's the big barrier for all of us that are coming from some far, far away countries. But at the end of the day, we are all artists.