He’s down with the CIA, terrorists and Jamie Foxx

by Dawn Abbey

VALLEY – It was 4 a.m., dark and quiet on the streets of downtown Phoenix.

“We were squashed into a van, not told where we were going, and driven to an old abandoned warehouse. They herded us inside. We saw very bright lights, a strange room filled with computers, and young Arab‑looking men. Frantic people were milling around,” recalled Kaleb Alfadda.

He wouldn’t leave this place again for 16 hours. He had become a captive of the movie industry.

Alfadda, a 14‑year‑old Boulder Creek High School student, was one of dozens of local youths chosen as an extra in the movie “The Kingdom,” presently filming in the Valley.

About a year ago, his mother, Anthem resident Dawn Alfadda, saw a television advertisement  looking for teenage boys with Middle‑Eastern features to try out as extras for an upcoming Universal picture. The young Alfadda had been taking acting lessons, and his mom encouraged him to audition.

“I went downtown to the tryouts,” Alfadda said, “We stood around for hours holding up a numbered card and filling out papers while people took pictures of us.” More than 1,000 teens showed up for the casting call, he said.

Months passed and they heard nothing. “We had just decided they were never going to call me, and had gotten over the disappointment, when the phone rang and they told me I was hired.”

In “The Kingdom,” a team of U.S. government agents is sent to investigate the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East. The cast stars Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner.

The making of the movie was run like a clandestine operation. Alfadda said he was told to call at certain hours to find out where he was to go for filming a scene. When he called he was told a location but also told to call again later. When he did so, he was told to go somewhere else, and to call back again.

“By 3:30 a.m. when we got down to the final location, I actually felt like I was in a real‑life CIA scenario,” he said.

In Alfadda’s scene, young Middle‑Eastern men are in an Internet café playing video games and hanging out. The café is owned by an ex‑terrorist who is visited by U.S. agents, played by Foxx and Garner, for assistance in the bombing investigation.

During the shooting, a crew member asked if any of the boys spoke fluent Arabic. Alfadda, whose father was born in Saudi Arabia, had learned to speak Arabic. But because he felt he was not “fluent,” Alfadda didn’t respond.  He now bemoans the fact he let two other guys capture the speaking parts.

“It was just a few words, and they even coached them on pronunciation. I could have done it.”

Not only did the boys each make an extra $700, Alfadda understands they may have received contracts for future parts as well.

Even though Alfadda has taken acting lessons and has an agent, he has never acted in any school or community plays.

“I guess I just like movies. It’s more exciting,” he said.

Alfadda said this experience has encouraged him to continue pursuing movie roles.

Yet this fall, the ninth‑grader will be playing another role– linebacker for the Boulder Creek Jaguars.