By Christina Radish

 In the Starz original television series Crash, Nick E. Tarabay plays hot-blooded police lieutenant Axel Finet, who uses his good looks to manipulate and bend the rules. Best remembered for his recurring role as the sexy drug dealer Matush on the hit HBO show The Sopranos, Tarabay made his television debut on Sex and the City, and appeared on such series as CSI: Miami, The Unit and Moonlight, among others.

Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, Tarabay began exploring various creative outlets, at a very early age. After a detour playing semi-pro soccer for leagues in Lebanon and Kuwait, and a brief stint in the restaurant business in New York City, he decided to follow his calling and set his sights on becoming a professional actor.

From the producers of the Academy Award-winning Best Motion Picture, the provocative 13-episode drama Crash looks at the way different lives intersect and collide in the melting pot of L.A. Tarabay recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about being involved with such a complicated and complex show.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Was there someone or something that inspired you to act, or did you just always want to be a performer?

Nick E. Tarabay> To be honest with you, after I decided to pursue this career, I traced it back through my life and realized I’ve always had a passion for it. I’m Lebanese and my dad is very old school. It was very hard to make him laugh, so it became my mission. I was 8 or 9 and we would have people over and I would watch everybody, from my uncle to my aunts to my grandfather and grandmother, and I would imitate them. That was the only thing that would make my father laugh. I would imitate everybody, and I got through to him. It started, with me entertaining my family and my father, and putting a little bit of a light heart on our situation. And, I like to be seen, so it all clicked. It was cool.

MediaBlvd> Did you have any formal acting training?

Nick> I did some plays, and stuff like that. I was always fascinated by plays, when I was a kid. Me, my brother and my sister would watch old plays and quote lines. To this day, we memorize the lines and act it out. I always loved it. And then, when I came to New York, originally, I was going to do something else completely, but I would go to a movie or go watch a play on Broadway, and I would get blown away or mesmerized by that feeling of someone portraying somebody else. Especially on stage, it’s just breathtaking and brilliant, to say the least. I was transformed. That is the power of a great actor or writer. Every time I would watch a piece, whether it was in the theater or on TV or in cinema, the piece would leave something with me. I would watch a good performance and, all of a sudden, I would become that guy and start moving like they moved. All of my friends kept saying, “Why don’t you pursue this? You have a thing for it,” so I decided to try it. I started studying with Terry Schreiber in New York, at the Terry Schreiber Actors Studio, and I fell in love with it, from the first day. At the information session, we all sat down and he started talking about acting, and what to do and what it is about, and I fell in love with it completely. When something feels right, your whole body reacts in a certain way and you go, “Oh, I’m supposed to do this.” It was just right, and it’s been a love story ever since.

MediaBlvd> How did you get involved with Crash? Was it just through the regular auditioning process, or had they seen you in something?

Nick> It is such a joy to work for and with Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas, who are the casting directors for the show. I’d worked with their office a couple times before, and they always called me in, God bless them. So, they called me for Crash and said, “Do you want to come over to audition?,” and I went there and did my thing. I really have a great manager behind me, and he really worked very hard to make it happen. The next thing I knew, I got a call and he said, “Alright, so do you want to go to New Mexico?,” and I was like, “For what?” He said, “To shoot Crash.” It was amazing, and it came at the right time. So, I went to New Mexico to supposedly shoot only one or two episodes. My character was supposed to be on either one or two episodes, and that’s it. They had supposedly built the whole treatment around his death. But, before even the second episode, Glen Mazzara, our executive producer/creator, called me into his office and said, “Nick, I’m supposed to kill you, but you’re doing such a good job, I’m really conflicted.” And, I was like, “Well, if you’re conflicted, don’t do it.” So, he said, “I’m going to try and see what happens. No promises.” I thought I might be doing another episode and that’s it. Glen Mazzara was just a brilliant writer and I thank him, and Bobby Moresco and Paul Haggis, because they actually had an open mind and decided to make me a series regular, after two episodes. There are certain people in our lifetime that we meet and they’re just great, and you feel like you must have done something right in your life to deserve to meet those people. They have the talent and the patience, and an open mind to see a talent and say, “You know what? We should expand on this.” Glen Mazzara was definitely one of those people that I’m very, very glad that I got to know him. Acting is a dance. It’s a collaboration between an actor and the people that he works with, and it’s a collaboration between an actor and the audience. We have to dance together, and it worked really well.

MediaBlvd> Had you been looking to do a TV show, or did it help that it was the same production team behind the Academy Award-winning film version of Crash?

Nick> Of course! When you have names, such as Paul Haggis, Bobby Moresco and Glen Mazzara -- and even Don Cheadle is involved with this production -- and you have a powerful movie like Crash that they want to do a series of, I knew it was going to be a win-win situation. If that two-hour movie had that much of an impact, imagine what 13 episodes would do, having the right people behind it. When you hear a name like Crash, you know that it’s going to be a successful thing, and you want to be a part of it.

MediaBlvd> For those who might not have seen the show yet, who do you play on the series and how does your character fit into the overall story?

Nick> My character’s name is Axel Finet, and he’s a Lieutenant at the L.A.P.D. Axel is a free-by-all-means character. He does what he wants. There is a bad side to him, but that doesn’t mean that he’s a bad person. There is a big tattoo on his back that says “Savior,” and that’s exactly how Axel perceives himself. He’s there to clean up the streets and, while he’s doing that, he gets rewarded for it. He’s pretty wild and free, whether that’s physically or with what he says. He’s married and he’s in love with one of the cops on the show, whose name is Bebe (Arlene Tur). He has this conflict between his girlfriend and the stuff that he’s doing. It’s starting to catch up to him now, a little bit. He’s going to have to find a way to keep his life going the way he wants it to go.

MediaBlvd> Was it easy for you to find something to identify with, in such a complex character, or did it take some time for you to understand him?

Nick> No, it actually took some time. Axel used to be a gang member, who has become a cop. It’s interesting because he brings that street life into his work and he loves to be on the streets. He is one of those people that doesn’t want to sit behind his desk. He wants to be interact with people. What was hard about it was trying to do research on both of those aspects -- the street life and the cop life. When I did the research, I found that there was a lot of similarities. There’s just a different agenda, in the end. The gangs have their own laws and rules, and the cops have the law and they want to preserve the good. It was interesting to find out where my character could go off a little bit and where he could say, “No, I cannot do that,” but it took some time. With great writers behind us, it made it easier to discover the character.

MediaBlvd> What’s been the most difficult aspect of doing the series, and what’s been the most enjoyable thing about it?

Nick> I can’t think of anything that was really difficult. What was difficult -- and I don’t know if difficult is even the right word -- was finding the heart of the character. With a character like Axel, being that free and having a bad side, it’s very hard to play somebody like that because you can always play a caricature and I didn’t want to do that. I always look for a character’s heart. What are his weak spots? What makes him love something? What makes him hate something? The main challenge for me was finding where Axel’s heart is. Every day was the fun part of it. Going to work, every day, was just a joy. Whether it was the crew or the actors that I worked with, they just made it so much fun and so much easier to do than any other show that I’ve been in. These people worked so hard, whether it was the stunt people, the make-up people, the hair people, the wardrobe people, or the set designers. It was just like a small family. It was a joy for me to wake up every morning to go to work. The actors that we had working with us, starting with Dennis Hopper, who is a legend, to all of us, whether we were new or not, everybody brought their game. Everybody was ready, wanted to work and was hungry. There were no egos or attitudes. There was just work, and I loved that.

MediaBlvd> With the show set in Los Angeles, but filmed in New Mexico, what was it like to work there? Did you find that there were advantages to working outside of L.A.?

Nick> I found that there were a lot of advantages, working in New Mexico. When I first heard that we’d be filming in New Mexico, I was like, “Wait a second! How are they going to do the stuff on the streets? How is that going to work?” But, they did an amazing job finding some locations. There were some scenes where we thought that we were in L.A. The people in New Mexico are very, very hospitable and very nice. And, it was very peaceful to be there. One of the things that I loved about New Mexico was that they have such a beautiful sky. One of my joys was to watch the sunrise or the sunset, every day. It really put us in a zen mood, and it took away all the distractions that Hollywood sometimes has. And, it brought the cast closer together because most of the main characters were not from New Mexico.

MediaBlvd> Do you have any idea if there will be a second season of the series? Is this a character that you would like to continue to explore?

Nick> I would love to keep exploring this character! I have so much to play with Axel. We’re not sure if there is going to be a new season or not, but we definitely hope so. I loved working on the show and I loved my character a lot, and there is more to him. If there is going to be a second season, the writers are going to flush out this character even more. He is definitely a fun character. This is one of those characters that you don’t mind doing for awhile because there is more than one dimension to him that you can explore. It’s definitely fun to do.

MediaBlvd> Having played so many bad-ass characters in your career, what is it about those types of roles that appeals to you? Has there been one that has been particularly fun to play?

Nick> I would have to say that Axel is probably the most fun of all. Bad-ass characters have such a freedom. They’re just uncensored. They say whatever comes to their mind, and they do whatever they want. They are just 100% alive. A lot of people may disagree with that, but I think most of the people that disagree with them are just afraid of them because they have the talent to do what they cannot dare to do. A lot of people think something, but don’t do it. And then, you have this character that comes over and does it and says it, whether it’s right or wrong. I don’t think Axel is a bad person. This is what he believes in, and who’s to say what’s bad or what’s right. We are all different individuals and we see things different ways. Axel comes from the streets, so he understands that you can’t make an omelette, if you don’t break some eggs. But, ultimately, he’s doing what’s right. That’s his belief. I cannot put judgement on a character. That would absolutely kill my performance. Audiences are very smart, and getting smarter. They can’t relate to someone who just shoots and kills people. If you show something like that, people are not going to connect to it. Even psychotic killers have some sort of history of pain that made them that way. Being in a time of all these advances that we have, people are aware that something doesn’t come out of nothing. Everything starts somewhere, and a psychotic killer was probably abused or hurt when he was a kid. You cannot just have somebody do something with no reason. There has to be a reason. You need to find the human side, and the heart of the character. That’s how people will always connect to it. And, you want to see real life. That’s our job. As actors, we are storytellers, so we need to find out what makes our character tick and what makes them happy, and we need to portray some sort of a mirror to the audience, so people can say, “Oh, wow, I know a guy like this,” or “I’ve seen something like this.” Then, it’s real and it’s riveting.

MediaBlvd> If you had your choice, are there types of roles or specific genres that you’d like to work in, that you haven’t gotten the chance to yet?

Nick> Yes, I would love to work in comedy. I believe that I have a great sense of humor. It just hasn’t been discovered yet. And, I actually would love to work on more vulnerable characters. I believe that I have a lot in me, and that’s why I love the theater. I just finished doing an intense program with my coach and mentor, Larry Moss, and I just finished working on a scene from a play that’s called Days of Wine and Roses, about a character who’s an alcoholic and his wife was an alcoholic, and he sobers up. That was very vulnerable. A lot of us tend not to show our vulnerability. But, I believe that, after doing a lot of research on a lot of characters, that our power comes from our vulnerability. It doesn’t come from our defenses. So, I would love to work in comedy, and I would love to do more vulnerable characters, and I have this feeling, in my heart, that it will come through.