Jihad 'Jay' Abdo, a Star Who Fled His Native Syria, Looks for a Hollywood Ending

LOS ANGELES—Long before he got to Hollywood in 2012, Jihad Abdo was already a bankable star.

Over a 30-year career, he had been featured in hundreds of TV episodes, 43 movies and 21 plays set in modern and ancient times, in roles as varied as villain, military officer and prince. He couldn't walk the streets in his hometown without being hounded by fans pleading for a picture with him. "Going shopping was a nightmare," he recalls.

But all that fame and fortune came his way in Syria, far from the Hollywood spotlight. When he arrived here, as a refugee from his war-torn homeland, Jihad became "Jay" and turned into something very familiar here: an out-of-work actor. The closest he came to celebrity was his job with French Florist, the self-styled "Los Angeles flower delivery choice for the entertainment industry and stars."

Then, in an only-in-the-movies twist of fate, opportunities to act in movies starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Hanks came knocking. So, maybe he is on his way to stardom in his adopted country, too.

"I'm a natural optimist," says the 51-year-old actor, smiling broadly. "I knew the day would come when I would get my break."

His path to Tinseltown began when civil war in Syria escalated in 2011. Mr. Abdo failed to accept official invitations to participate in rallies and TV talk shows to back the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad. Threats followed; his car windows were smashed. Mr. Abdo decided to temporarily leave behind that "huge mountain of fame, stability and very good living," he says, thinking, "I'll go improve my English and come back."

He moved to Minneapolis, where his wife, Fadia Afashe, had been studying. There he auditioned, without success, for local theater productions from late 2011 to April 2012. "In the Middle East, I was always saying no to lead roles," he says. Now, "I felt like a plant pulled from its soil and transplanted in the wrong place."

Hollywood had never been a goal, he says. But with the situation in Syria worsening, "I told Fadia, if we are going to stay in the U.S., it's L.A. for the acting business."

Once here, without a credit history or secure jobs, they lived for months in a motel favored by prostitutes. Finally, an elderly Jewish woman agreed to rent the Muslim couple a one-bedroom apartment. They also befriended a neighboring Orthodox Jewish family, with whom they began to exchange recipes. Ms. Afashe, who studied public policy, applied for jobs at nonprofits. Mr. Abdo signed with an agent.

He worked Hollywood much as any other unknown seeking stardom might do. He volunteered to be in movies made by film students in order to compile his demo reel. A minor role in a reality TV series, "Repo Show," earned him $240.

To pay bills, Mr. Abdo did minimum wage work delivering pizza and flowers and waited tables in an Italian restaurant. "My problem was, I couldn't memorize all the menu," he recalls. "So many cheeses, pastas and toppings." To work on his accent, he posted an ad on Craigslist: "Married Middle Eastern man seeks work with elderly people to engage them in conversation." There were no takers, he says.

In late 2012, he starred alongside an ad executive and members of a local band called B Funk'N in "We've Got Balls," a 93-minute campy comedy about the destruction of a bowling alley. Mr. Abdo played a butler who is mute for much of the film, which director and producer Cherie Kerr termed a "minus-microbudget film."

For all Ms. Kerr knew, Mr. Abdo was a recent immigrant with a polished style and double takes that reminded her of the late comic legend Sid Caesar. When Mr. Abdo told her he was famous in the Middle East, she recalls responding, "Wow, Jay, I'm so honored you were in my small little indie film."

Says his wife: "When I saw him in this movie, I was crying. I was used to him in major roles."

"I know [that time] was hard on him, but you would have never known it," says Craig Stiles, a screenwriter who befriended Mr. Abdo at a gym. "The guy did it with high spirits."

Jay Abdo

Mr. Abdo recalls of that period, "Every night I would put my head on the pillow and smile thinking about the day I'll get my break."

His break came last fall, when acclaimed film director Werner Herzog learned about him from Nick Raslan, a producing partner on his film "Queen of the Desert." The forthcoming biopic stars Ms. Kidman as Gertrude Bell, a British writer and archaeologist who helped map the Middle East. Others in the cast include James Franco and Robert Pattinson.

Mr. Raslan, who moved to the U.S. from Syria as a teenager in the early 1980s, had met Mr. Abdo at a breakfast party thrown by a mutual friend. He introduced him to Mr. Herzog, who after watching his clip reel, asked him to audition.

The "audition"—20 minutes of conversation and violin-playing—put Mr. Abdo on track for the role of Fattuh, the guide who accompanies Ms. Bell on her exploits. When filming began a few months later, he tallied the most screen time in the film after Ms. Kidman.

Producers on the "Queen of the Desert" describe Mr. Abdo as a pro, unfazed by sandstorms or a camel's whistling as he recited his lines. He did need a bit of instruction on modifying his acting, says Mr. Raslan, from the more over-the-top style favored in the Middle East to "the American way," as he puts it.

"I can't praise him enough as an actor and a man," Ms. Kidman said of her co-star in a statement. "He gave me the confidence to get on the camel!" For his part, Mr. Abdo carries pictures on his iPhone of them together. "We became friends in five minutes," he says.

Mr. Herzog says he understood the Syrian actor's fame only "acoustically" until they visited a Marrakesh souk, or market, together during filming in Morocco. "Everyone wanted a photo with him," recalls Mr. Herzog. "The merchants in the souk gave us everything for half price."

Recently, Mr. Abdo was back in Los Angeles, a legal U.S. resident and a working actor again. His latest production: playing the doctor Tom Hanks visits in a Saudi hospital in "A Hologram for the King." Directed by Tom Tykwer, the drama about a failed American businessman is based on a novel by Dave Eggers.

"Finally, I am where I belong. This is my place," said Mr. Abdo, his eyes twinkling. "I didn't think of it before, but it's every actor's dream to be in Hollywood."