Egyptian actor praises Hollywood

George Clooney (centre) stars as a CIA operative

An Egyptian actor in a film about Middle East oil and violence praised Hollywood for taking a step towards an "authentic" look at the region.

Amr Waked plays an Egyptian grooming men to be suicide bombers in the $50m (£28.2m) political thriller Syriana.

Hollywood was "very courageous" to have made the film, but "has many steps to take before they tell the truth of the Middle East for real," he told Reuters.

George Clooney is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the film.

The film was also named best screenplay by the US National Board of Review.

Syriana, which is released in the UK in March, is loosely based on the book See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War Against Terrorism by former CIA officer Robert Baer.

'Are we just terrorists?'

Waked, who has starred in 13 films, said he had turned down an offer to "do a terrorist in a film" before because he did not feel it sounded convincing.

However, after reading the script for Syriana and meeting director Stephen Gaghan he decided to accept the part as he felt the result would be "authentic".

He said: "The one thing that really mattered for me is how the Arabs are portrayed. Are we just terrorists in the film or not?"

Waked said the presence of an Arab character who was striving for reform, as well as the way the film explored characters' lives and motivations, also helped make up his mind.

"Stephen (Gaghan) is trying to show how humans are victims of the system. The human being is a victim of the system and the system is malicious," he said.

He said he hoped future films about the Middle East would become "more intelligent".