Meet Sarah Hindi | Actress

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Hindi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, what role has risk played in your life or career?
There is a quote by novelist Anais Nin that defines my relationship to risk — ‘And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.’

I first started my actress career as a child on national television in my home country Lebanon where I was playing a rebel kid on a hit sitcom of the nineties. The small screen was my comfort zone for a decade but then it felt too small, just like the bud in the quote, and so, fresh out of high school, I took on my first role in a feature film “Rue Huvelin” by Mounir Maasri . First, it felt terrifying, like I was entering another playground with different rules. I had this crippling fear of judgment because, when you think about it, acting is really taking the risk to fail instantly in front of other people. The film was a success.

Later on, it was the whole country that started to feel like the bud. I worked hard to extend my horizons. I was cast in the biggest Arab Sci-fi show yet to date “Hells’gate”, an Original production of pan-arab streaming platform “Shahid”, the Netflix of the Arab world. The excitement was overwhelming but so was the fear, a bigger show meant more people to disappoint. But I trained hard and did it and Season 1 was a huge success!

And then came the biggest risk of all. The Arab world started to feel like the bud, and so I packed my bags and moved where it all began, Los Angeles. The fear was surely there, I didn’t know anyone and had no family in this unknown land, only my thirst for knowledge and opportunity. I enrolled in the acting program in UCLA and in just a year, got an agent and starred in 3 wonderful short films including ‘Dolma’ by talented Martin Matar that we shot on film.

Taking risks is like being born, you’re cozy in the womb, maybe you want to stay there forever, but at some point you’ll suffocate and you need to go through the painful process of birth to live and grow!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Acting has always been part of my life. I was one-year-old when I shot my first commercial. It was my father’s dream for me, he always wanted a girl and had 3 boys. When I was born, he decided I was going to be an actress. He used to drag me to auditions all around town and it worked. I was in many commercials as a kid and I was part of a famous kids’ band on national TV and acted in TV shows. It was fun until I began to question it in my early teenage years. I was afraid I could never fulfill my father’s expectations and thus never make him proud. But the grain was installed in my
mind…Acting became my deepest wish and frustration, the only thing I could measure myself
against. For years, I dropped the idea, went to Paris, went through a whole bunch of unrelated studies including two masters in Audiovisual law and economics. But as much as I tried to repress this desire, it kept resurfacing, the more I
aged, the stronger it got. After 5 years in Paris and Africa, I moved back to Lebanon and enrolled in a theater workshop. This is where I reconnected with the craft and found a deep healing therapy in it. I wanted to be a full blown, emotionally charged and flawed actress. I wanted to tell stories and move people to the core, to shift consciousness and perception and relate the human experience, joy and pain alike.

While developing a career in film distribution, I opened myself up to act again and things started picking up, I got cast in feature films and in two Original shows of the biggest streaming platform in the Arab world. One of my favorite role was on “Hells’gate”, the biggest Arab Sci-show to date where I embodied “Sahem” a.ka “The Arrow”, a rebellious commando who fights against the corrupt political regime in Beirut in 2052. I got to put my martial art skills into effect on this shoot and did most of my stunts. The show was a hit and we are shooting Season 3 in 2023.

To me acting is a personal matter, a philosophy. Whatever tribulations I go through life, I look at them as tools I can later use to relate the human experience as best I can. I have experienced a lot of joy but also suffering in my life. Lebanon was a great place to live but it also had its dark side that culminated in the massive explosion of 2020 of which I was a frontline witness, a failed revolution in which I vigorously took part in and one of the biggest financial crisis the world has ever known. I try not to let fear and nostalgia control my life, instead I use this truth and emotion to feed my characters and their backstory.

When I hit 30, I decided it was time to take risks and do what I love fully, I moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the acting program at UCLA. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, leaving everyone I love behind and venturing alone in this unknown city. Acting came at a price. But the cost of regret is way higher and I am so glad my friends and family gave me the strength to pursue this dream. It’s still hard today, all the competition and self doubt but I feel I’m on the right path and this is priceless.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a big nature fan! I feel we have lost our connection to nature and I try to spend as much time as I can out of the concrete jungle. I will surely take my friend to the wonderful beaches that surround us, ‘a Thousands steps’ beach in Laguna, take a walk around Newport beach, Malibu, Santa Monica to name a few. Before hitting the beach, we would go on one of the infinite hike trails the city has to offer. After that, maybe go get some sea food at a fish Shack. There are also some nature sight gems less than an hour from the city like the “Vasquez rocks’ natural reserve. We would definitely plan a weekend in ‘Joshua tree’, get a cozy house there, cook our meals and take long walks in the magnificent desert.

I am very much into sports as well, which I think are a big part of the culture here. I would like my friend to experience the everyday LA lifestyle so she’ll definitely join me in a boxing class at ‘Lobos’ boxing club on Melrose and hot yoga at ‘Heated Room” on W 3rd street and maybe a little bouldering at ‘Cliffs of Id’ in Culver city.

We would hit the Getty and the Hammer museums for a little culture. Have a turkey club sandwich at ‘Joan’s on Third’, listen to some jazz at ‘The baked potato’ and have dinner at ‘Greekman’s’ or ”Pine and Crane’ in Silverlake. I would also take her to the ‘The Upright Citizens Brigade’ in Franklin Village for a little comedy show and go to a movie premiere if there is one happening. If we feel like a party, we would go to a ‘Dialogue’ party downtown and delight in some Romanian minimal house music.
The rest is up to where the wind takes us because the most wonderful things are often unplanned!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Shoutout goes to my country, family and friends without whom I would have never had the courage to take the risks I needed to grow.

To my country, Lebanon, for all the hardships and joy you brought me and for showing me the true value of things.
To my family, father, mother, brother who have filled me with unconditional love and support.
To my friends, for whose love and nurture I try to pay forward and who make me a better person.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahhindi___/?hl=en

Image Credits
Boxing picture : Daniel Torobekov Picture wearing white shirt: Jose Daou Last two portraits: Diana Kanafani