DUBAI: Shila Ommi had always dreamed of starring in a Pixar film. For the last three decades, the Disney-owned studio has been the apex of animation, turning out masterpiece after masterpiece of fantastical yet deeply personal stories that resonate the world over. For a voice actor, there is no higher aspiration. Imagine her surprise, then, when she finally got the call, and it turned out she was being asked to tell a story so close to her own.
“I could not believe my great fortune, nor the blessings that were being shined on me from above. I just had tears in my eyes right away,” Ommi tells Arab News.
The film is “Elemental,” now showing in cinemas across the Middle East. It’s an immigrant story set in a universe where the elements of fire, water, earth and air have come to life. Ommi plays Cinder — a fire element who moves to Element City in search of a better life for her daughter, Ember.
“Elemental” is now showing in cinemas across the Middle East. (Supplied)
Forty-five years ago, Ommi was just like young Ember, fleeing unrest in her home country of Iran for Los Angeles along with her mother and father, who sacrificed everything for her future.
“Ember resonated so much with me. She has such weight on her shoulders, and I think that’s how all children of immigrants feel. Your family gave up so much for you to have a better life, and that gives all of us a burden, a guilt, and a deep sadness,” says Ommi.
In the film, Ember is struggling with mental health issues she’s unable to define, until a chance meeting with water element Wade Ripple helps her discover that she’s been living out her parent’s dreams for her, without ever considering what she really wants. In playing Cinder, Ommi was on the other side of that struggle for the first time in her life, playing a surrogate for both the Korean-American director Peter Sohn’s mother and her own.
“It absolutely helped me understand what my parents went through. At the same time, I’m a total mama’s girl, and I always had such a deep love for them that I was in their shoes, empathetically. I was always observing, and seeing what they were going through, and going through so much of it with them,” says Ommi.
The film is also a love story, as Ember and Wade strike up a romance despite their parents having always told them that fire and water can’t mix.
“Ember is this feisty, quick-witted, angry, beautiful, young 20-something woman and she finds this unlikely friendship with Wade, who's this sappy, emotional, empathetic, sweet guy. She comes to see that whatever their differences are, there are so many more similarities between them than they realize,” says Ommi.
As their connection deepens, and as Ember’s mother Cinder starts to realize the pureness of their bond, the story ultimately becomes an ode to how much better the world can be when we open ourselves up to other cultures and celebrate our differences.
“The film’s message is that we become better when we come together,” says Ommi. “There's an alchemy that happens when people of different backgrounds come together, regardless of what that background is, and it is absolutely beautiful.”
The film is heavily inspired by the Middle East as well, with the home country, script and language of the fire people drawn from regional languages and cultures. Even the region’s architecture makes it into the film, with the central building in the film’s primary setting of Element City modeled after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
For Ommi, the region was on her mind constantly while making the film, not just because of her own origins, but as the region itself is a melting pot of different cultures.
“I happen to be an immigrant living in the United States, but there’s barely a country on earth that doesn’t have its share of people who have come from abroad to live there. People who are born and raised in a country are blessed, but I always encourage them to open their heart to outsiders, because there is a chance that they are going to make their lives better,” says Ommi.
“People who come from elsewhere will always try to make their host country proud, I think. They always want to be able to do great things and show that they are contributing. I’m that way, my family is that way, and I know a lot of other people are that way,” she continues. “We’re all better united in our humanity.”
