Four years after the end of the second season of "Being With Her," the series written by Asi Ezer starring Rotem Sela and Aviv Alush, Tonight will go up in arc 12 for a third season - which will include only four episodes.
The series' veteran actors, such as Sela, Alush, Ofer Hayun and Hila Saada, are joined this season by several new actors, including Yael Elkana, Roi Goldschmidt and Omar Sharif Jr., the grandson of the mythical Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, who starred in films such as "Dr. Zhivago And "Lawrence the Arab."
Sheriff Jr. (37), who was born in Canada to a Jewish mother and an Egyptian father, plays in the series the partner of Zvika (Mark Ivanir), Noa's tough agent (Rotem Sela).
He met Asi Ezer after coming out of the closet in a column he wrote for an American magazine.
The Israeli star contacted him on Twitter to support him in his decision to be exposed, and since then they have remained in good contact.
The role in "Being With Her" was written especially for him, and Sheriff Jr. did not hesitate for a moment.
"I saw one episode and became addicted immediately," he says in an interview immediately after he asks in pure Hebrew, "Hello, how are you?"
(And hurries to make it clear that he only knows a few sentences).
Rotem Sela and Aviv Alush in the new season of "Being With Her", Photo: Shai Yehezkel
According to him, the series caught him because of the multiculturalism in the connection between Noa and Amos (Alush).
"I grew up in a family where my mother is Ashkenazi, the daughter of Holocaust survivor parents from Poland, and my father's side are Muslims from Egypt.
"My mother sent me to a Jewish school in Canada for a few years," he says of his extraordinary background.
"I speak Arabic as well as Yiddish, because it was important for my grandparents to know Yiddish. I visited Israel four or five times. I was here on a trip from school, and before that as part of my master's degree. Although I grew up in Egypt, Israel's importance to Jews was very clear to me. "Where I grew up, I usually only hear negative things about Israel, so it was important for me to check what I think about this whole issue in my master's degree, which focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
What do Egyptians think about you participating in an Israeli program?
"They don't like it, unfortunately. The reactions are negative, they called me a 'traitor to the legacy'. But my grandfather played 'funny' with Barbara Streisand, and he was treated like that at the time."
Tell about your character in the series.
"I play a Hollywood agent of Palestinian descent who married Zvika. We do not agree on a lot of political issues, and I have a complex relationship with Noa, but at the end of the day we have to overcome it."
What was it like working with the Israeli actors?
"Amazing. I did not know exactly what to expect, but it was great. Rotem Sela is a professional in any situation. She is a real star. And Mark Ivanir is an international actor. In a few years we will surely see him on stage at the Oscars receive an award. And my two favorite actors, "I have to do a scene with them, they are Hila who plays Vanessa and Ofer who plays Assaf. They are both comic geniuses in my eyes."
Grandpa Omar Sharif, Photo: Reuters
What else are you doing these days?
"I published an autobiographical book, 'A Tale of Two Omars', which sells on Amazon, in which I tell about the mixed culture I grew up in. It's a story about love, acceptance and finding empathy, because that's what we need most, that people will understand more "Each other. It's okay to love people who think differently from you."