The first time I saw Oded Fehr was in The Mummy, when he sweeps in from the desert swathed in black, with smoldering eyes and facial tattoos. I can’t remember anything else about the movie, but I stuck around for the credits to learn his name. I thought “Now that is a movie star.”

He’s been muddling around these past years with supporting roles in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (in which he displays some true comic timing and appears in nothing but a towel in several scenes) and Resident Evil, and I’ve been waiting for him to hit it.

Looks like I’ll have to keep waiting. He’ll be starring in “Sleeper Cell” on Showtime, as an Arab terrorist posing as a Jew.

He told Charmed magazine:

I am the bad guy, but the way the show is written he’s a guy you almost love to hate, or hate to love. He’s a regular Joe. He’s friendly and nice, but he does these awful things. It’s probably the hardest role I could have chosen to play, to try to understand, to try to portray that. I’m Israeli-Jewish. It’s a very powerful show.”

Yeah, but unless he’s building weapons naked I’m not likely to watch a show about suicide bombers. Somebody get this guy a leading role!