Olympic taekwondo medallist wins role in Hollywood movie

By Martin Cleary
Citizen sports writer

The Ottawa Citizen (1994) - Fire bombs roared overhead as the frightened six-year-old boy hid under a couch in war-strickened Beirut. The 19-year-old memory never dies.

In a freak accident eight years ago, his brother and prospective business partner in taekwondo was killed by a rifle bullet in Ottawa. The death of Rodrigue pushed him to the limits of his psychological strength. It took him five years to rebound from the death.

It's two years since he won a demonstration silver medal in taekwondo at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, but he's hurt the Ottawa public hasn't supported his martial arts academy. He has 80 members while other clubs have hundreds.

The scales of injustice have weighed heavily to one side for Master Sayed Najem of Sayed's Taekwondo Academy and the Ottawa Dragons club, which turns two years old today.

But in a few days the scales will begin to tip in the other direction as Najem, 25, heads to Hollywood to learn more about his major role as the leader of a group of hoods in a martial arts movie called Meltdown.

Martial-arts role biggest break

"This is the biggest break for me to go to the 1,Jnited States," says Najem, who has watched the Canadian flag rise nine times for his gold, silver and bronze achievements as a bantamweight at the Olympic Games, world championships, Pan-Am Games and World University Games.

"When I won (Olympic demonstration silver), no one looked at me. But because I've made it to Hollywood, now people are looking."

The television cameras descended 10 days ago on his second-floor Bank Street studio, where the colorful interlocking mats kick life into the rectangular room with its drab wall of mirrors, a wall of windows and four awkward pillars splitting the space.

While watching a replay of his interview with CJOH, he was concerned about a missing tooth. Would it be noticed in Hollywood?

He told the interviewer he would have the second leading role, needed to gain 15 pounds, and couldn't sleep the night after learning of his dream assignment.

"I must fix my tooth," he says with concern. "My baby tooth just fell out and the adult one is coming in."

Late in the interview, he innocently says: "I die at the end."

"I shouldn't have said that," he says, scolding himself. "I feel really bad. How do I know? I haven't done this before."

Next comes the taped interview with CBOT. He talked about how he watched the famed Bruce Lee and how he, too, wanted to be in the movies. At the end, he was asked to do a spontaneous audition and make a mean face. He tried. He laughed. He felt embarrassed by the request.

"I hate it," he shouts, and turns off the VCR.

When his parents moved to Canada 19 years ago from Beirut, they settled in Ottawa for a few years, moved to Edmonton and eventually back to Ottawa. But Sayed stayed in Edmonton and lived and trained with Master Hyung Keun Min, who "supported me like a son."

It was in Edmonton where his anger got the better of him and his father directed him into taekwondo to defuse the situation.

"I had trouble at school and people would pick at me," says Najem, who office walls are covered in Olympic diplomas, certificates, photos, letters and medal-draped trophies. "I would fight all the time. I wouldn't take hell from anyone."

Najem was discovered no in a Hollywood restaurants like some stars, but in San Francisco where he was demonstrating the new Olympic chest protector which will be used in the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Anstralia.

"After I finished, Mr. David Howell approached me and asked if I'd like to be in the theatre," Jame says. "I didn't believe it right away, but I did after I flew to Los Angeles and visited Warner Brothers.

He (Howell) has a Twin Dragon Taekwondo School and he wanted to keep it in the (Dragons) family."

The movie will take four to six months and will be shot in Austria. Najem, who expects to receive a six-figure contract, acted in a 1992 documentary on taekwondo called Black and White.

"I'm nervous of playing my role right," Najem says. "I am a nice guy not a bad guy."

"If I don't succeed at least I tried."