‘Extraction 2’ Star Golshifteh Farahani: Leonardo DiCaprio Helped Her Get Over ‘Trauma’ Of Making Iranian Movies

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Golshifteh Farahani has had a career so remarkable that it’s enough to get a movie made about it.

After becoming a star of Iranian cinema in her early 20s, the course of Farahani’s life changed forever when she starred in the 2008 Ridley Scott film Body of Lies alongside Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.

As a result of Body of Lies, which her native government deemed to be American propaganda and a violation of Islamic law due to her appearance in the film without hijab, Farahani was exiled from Iran and has never returned.

Since then, though Farahani has gone on to build an ever-growing Hollywood career that will hit its latest peak in Extraction 2, which sees her character of Nik not only have an expanded role but lead a fight scene that Chris Hemsworth says is the best in the film.

Speaking to BroBible’s Post-Credit Podcast ahead of the film’s release, Farahani reflected on making Body of Lies and what she learned from sharing scenes with DiCaprio.

“The thing I never forget is the scene that — it’s not in the movie, it’s in the deleted scenes — I had to touch him,” Farahani explained to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast.

“And the funny thing is, me and Leo, behind the scenes, we were buddies, we were friends, we were going jet skiing, we were hugging each other. But the funny thing is, in front of the camera, I couldn’t touch him. I was so stuck and traumatized. I was so conditioned because I was coming from Iran that you don’t touch anybody in front of the camera,” she continued.

“And I remember that day, when I was sitting there, we were buddies, literally. But when they wanted to shoot, I couldn’t even imagine touching his neck and finding this piece of bone, so they had to stop for half an hour. Ridley [Scott] came and Leo really said, ‘Okay, it’s okay, just put your hand behind my neck now go lower down.’ It’s not even a kissing scene! Just touching him, for me, was so not possible. So, I would say he taught me how to touch a man in front of the camera.”

In addition to Farahani and Hemsworth as franchise-lead Tyler Rake, Extraction 2 stars Adam Bessa, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Bernhardt, Tinatin Dalakishvili, and Idris Elba, and will hit Netflix on Friday, June 16. You can also check out our full interview with Farahani below: