Yusuf
Forgive me if this has been discussed before, but if it was I couldn't find the post.
What do you think Yusuf's backstory is? Heck, what's his nationality?
1. Dileep Rao: is an American of Indian descent. Trained as a stage actor and always seems to play smart, understatedly badass supporting characters in movies. He doesn't tell people his age.
2. Yusuf:
* Accent! He definitely has a non-American accent in the movie, different from Dileep's natural accent. I'm not very good with accents. British? Indian? Actually, he doesn't sound Indian to me, but most of the Indians I know have lived in the U.S. for years and their accents when they speak English are more based on their local languages than on Indian English.
* Then there's his name, which could be his real one or an alias. Yusuf is an Arabic name. If it is an alias, it would be a bad one for Kenya, which is majority Christian and not Arabic-speaking. It would be a perfectly inconspicuous name in West or North Africa or the Middle East. If it's his born name, his parents might be Muslims of Indian or Pakistani descent, but that doesn't tell us where he's from. In my personal experience, people who emigrate from India usually still give their children Indian first names, like Dileep has (vs. say Chinese immigrants to the U.S. who almost always have an English first name as well as maybe a Chinese one; but that may just be because Americans suck at pronouncing Chinese). So he could have grown up anywhere, really.
* Cultural clues! Stop me if I'm full of crap here, but Yusuf doesn't read Indian to me in his body language or way of speaking. To make a huge generalization, Indian workplace culture is much more non-confrontational, hierarchical, personal (you ALWAYS say hello and ask how people are), and soft-spoken than Europe or the U.S., and Yusuf really doesn't show any of this in his interaction with the team. On the other hand, if he's spent a few years as an expat, he's probably naturally blended in to the norms where he is. I know very little about Kenya, so maybe someone who is from there or has spent time there can say whether they think he's from there or has been there for a long time?
I'm also curious about everyone's personal theories and fanon around Yusuf's character. How did he get into mixing illegal dream drugs? Does he have formal education in pharmacology? Why is he living in Mombasa? Are he and Eames personal friends, or just colleagues? How old is he?
What do you think Yusuf's backstory is? Heck, what's his nationality?
1. Dileep Rao: is an American of Indian descent. Trained as a stage actor and always seems to play smart, understatedly badass supporting characters in movies. He doesn't tell people his age.
2. Yusuf:
* Accent! He definitely has a non-American accent in the movie, different from Dileep's natural accent. I'm not very good with accents. British? Indian? Actually, he doesn't sound Indian to me, but most of the Indians I know have lived in the U.S. for years and their accents when they speak English are more based on their local languages than on Indian English.
* Then there's his name, which could be his real one or an alias. Yusuf is an Arabic name. If it is an alias, it would be a bad one for Kenya, which is majority Christian and not Arabic-speaking. It would be a perfectly inconspicuous name in West or North Africa or the Middle East. If it's his born name, his parents might be Muslims of Indian or Pakistani descent, but that doesn't tell us where he's from. In my personal experience, people who emigrate from India usually still give their children Indian first names, like Dileep has (vs. say Chinese immigrants to the U.S. who almost always have an English first name as well as maybe a Chinese one; but that may just be because Americans suck at pronouncing Chinese). So he could have grown up anywhere, really.
* Cultural clues! Stop me if I'm full of crap here, but Yusuf doesn't read Indian to me in his body language or way of speaking. To make a huge generalization, Indian workplace culture is much more non-confrontational, hierarchical, personal (you ALWAYS say hello and ask how people are), and soft-spoken than Europe or the U.S., and Yusuf really doesn't show any of this in his interaction with the team. On the other hand, if he's spent a few years as an expat, he's probably naturally blended in to the norms where he is. I know very little about Kenya, so maybe someone who is from there or has spent time there can say whether they think he's from there or has been there for a long time?
I'm also curious about everyone's personal theories and fanon around Yusuf's character. How did he get into mixing illegal dream drugs? Does he have formal education in pharmacology? Why is he living in Mombasa? Are he and Eames personal friends, or just colleagues? How old is he?