Lexi Alexander: We need more Palestinian representation in Hollywood

The following was originally published in the Palestine in America Film Edition. Please support our work by ordering a print copy, downloading a digital edition or becoming a subscriber.

“Lissa til3abi bil Hollywood?”

“Are you still playing in Hollywood?”

For Palestinians who dream of becoming anything other than a doctor or lawyer, hearing these words is a right of passage, but in reality can be demoralizing. 

These questions, innocuous as they may seem, can deflate ambition and motivation. Lexi Alexander, an accomplished Palestinian American filmmaker, does not allow such stigmas to stop her from making waves in Hollywood and wants others in her community to follow in her footsteps.

It’s extremely inaccurate to describe what Alexander is doing as “playing in Hollywood.” Not only are her films loved by masses—one achieving cult status—but she actively advocates for fellow Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims in the industry. In some instances, big-name directors reach out to her to make sure their work accurately portrays Palestinians without being offensive.

“Hollywood isn't welcoming us with open arms let alone recruit our voices, we have to fight to get in and we have to behave in a manner so they let us stay in–if we don't, we're out and then all the general public is left with is people portraying us in a racist or at best in a condescending orientalist manner, which is a powerful way to dehumanize us,” Alexander said. “It's easy to invade, annex, bomb [and] abuse people who have been dehumanized. We need more than just the occasional movies about the occupation. We need a movie about a Palestinian who disappoints his parents by becoming a professional football player in the NFL instead of a doctor, or about a famous Palestinian women's rights activist who also happens to be the grandma of a Palestinian DJ who keeps getting into trouble, or about a young Palestinian journalist who sells insurance during the day and moonlights as publisher at night. We need to be able to portray us. All of us." 

Early Years

Alexander’s most famous films–Johnny Flynton, Green Street Hooligans and Punisher: War Zone–each provide a glimpse into her childhood. 

Growing up in rural Germany, Alexander developed a love for soccer and fighting. By the time she was 16 years old, she was a professional kickboxer. Lexi would go on to win both the European and World kickboxing championships—accomplishments that would ultimately help her get to the United States.

Alexander jump-started her directing career with Academy Award-nominated Johnny Flynnton, which is based on a boxer who was accused of murdering his wife, but according to Alexander there are two sides to this story and things are not always as they seem.

“I remembered as a kid in the gym, you know, maybe as an 8- or 9-year-old, I was taking this heavy bag off, and I miscalculated the weight of it, you know, as just an 8-, 9-year-old. And I think that thing could have really hurt me because it was coming off and it was coming at me. [A] guy ran from the other side of the gym, all the way there to stop that thing from dropping on me. [Then] he kind of laughed and put it back on. I just never forgot that. So in a sense, you know, the little kid in that film, although that was a boy. But the little kid in that movie was kind of representing me,” Alexander told Palestine in America. 

Alexander’s Wikipedia page says she was a part of a hooligan futbol group, but she rolls her eyes at the notion. She said her brother and his friends would take exception as well. 

“My brother had to babysit me, and because I was a big football fan, I got caught up in going to the game every Saturday, and then I saw it go off–the fight,” the Green Street Hooligans director said. “I mean, it's a very organized thing, you know, and when I saw it go off, I guess I was already a little filmmaker, because I wanted to document it all. And they always wanted to have photos of when it goes off.”

Not only did these experiences end up reflected in the films she’d go on to create, but they catapulted her to the United States, where she has now spent a majority of her life. 

She met Chuck Norris and other accomplished fighters at a fighting tournament, and they sponsored her immigration across the pond. She arrived on an H1 visa, which required Alexander to hold a job to keep her status. 

Lexi in Hollywood

When she first arrived in the U.S., Alexander worked as a stunt double before transitioning to directing and writing. She did stunts for movies like Batman and Robin, but she realized fairly quickly that female stunt doubles are not as protected as their male counterparts. She says in that industry, they often go without proper safety equipment because of the lack of clothing they usually wear in scenes. Once she realized the job wasn't sustainable for her body, she began taking classes that would help her move on to safer jobs behind the camera.

As soon as she had her script for Johnny Flynton finalized and the money she needed to produce the film saved up, Alexander got to work executing her “calculated” plan to become recognized and get more work as a director.

Thanks to her background in fighting, Alexander was able to travel the U.S. giving fighting lessons. She was being paid approximately $2,000 to $3,000 per seminar, plus travel and hotel expenses.She found that if she only ate food from gas stations that accepted her for credit cards, she would be able to save up the $40,000 in just one year.

She hit a few bumps along the road of raising the funds. Alexander wasn't used to not being able to afford doctor visits and medicine,as she grew up in a country where healthcare is a right not a privilege. As a result of her diet, she got sick and had to rely on fish pills instead of antibiotics to help her heal.

“I didn't have health insurance,” she explains. “Now this is a weird thing. That's also just in this country. This normally doesn't exist in any other country, right? Where you get sick and you have no money to pay for it…then somebody in this directing class that I was taking said, ‘you know, oh, we all get sick and we all don't have insurance, you go to the Petco and you take these fish pills.’”

When Johnny Flynton earned its nomination, Alexander felt as if she had “made it,” and that  all her hard work had paid off. Successful as she may be, however, she admittedly is still working hard to keep her place in the industry. She describes it as if she’s hanging on to a ledge over a steep fall. She especially felt this way after being the first woman to direct a Marvel or DC film, when she was hired to create Punisher: War Zone.

The initial reception of Punisher wasn’t pleasant. Although many recognized the cinematography was done very well,critics like Roger Ebert called the film too gory. It is also well documented that the movie did not receive support from the studio. The film was released in a throwaway fashion at the end of the year and was slated against mainstream successes including Slumdog Millionaire, Marley and Me and Benjamin Button. Many critics agreed Punisher was violent and gruesome, but even Ebert couldn't deny that it was well-produced. 

“The Punisher: War Zone is one of the best-made bad movies I've seen,” the critic wrote. “It looks great, it hurtles through its paces and is well-acted. The soundtrack is like elevator music if the elevator were in a death plunge. The special effects are state of the art. It's only flaw is that it's disgusting.”

The studio’s low marketing budget for the movie and being considered a box office failure made Alexander feel dejected. Comedian Patton Oswalt wrote a review of the film that helped her realize it wasn't her fault and gain a new friend simultaneously.

“All of this mayhem, insanity and just-plain bugfuckedness is contained in one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen this year…And director Lexi Alexander, a former stunt woman and kick boxing champion, has just groin-punched her way to the front of the line in the Nutball Director’s Pantheon,” Oswalt wrote on his website.

Alexander shared that after reading his words she called him and said, “I thought I had messed up,” And he replied,”‘Oh my god, I'm so glad this is the best movie I've ever seen.”

“That's how we met,” she told Palestine in America. “A good reason my career's still going and I haven't quit is because he kept encouraging me to not quit.”

As radical as she can be

Alexander didn’t begin speaking out about issues important to her until she was in her 20’s. She credits her “origin story” to an unlikely source: a young Jewish kid named Jonothan. The boy gave her a script to read that told the story of an alternate universe where Israel was created in New York State instead of on Palestinian land.

“I never forgot that kid because it bothered me. It bugged me. I'm like, ‘why is this New York Jewish kid yelling at me that I'm not standing up for my people?’” Alexander exclaimed. “And I swear to God [I] repeatedly tried to find them and contact them because it just ignited something in me.”

Being vocal about Palestine can cost you jobs, Alexander confirmed. There were times she had not paid rent in months because she was unemployed. She even remembers someone telling her in the beginning of her career that  she should drop her Palestinian identity and only publicly claim her German side. 

“I will never forget that,” Alexander said. “Because you know, when you are half-half and you know the history of those people, it's a really weird thing to say to somebody because I know German history. My grandfather was a Nazi soldier. He also hated me.”

Lexi Alexander’s mission

Though Alexander hasn’t created a film about Palestine, that doesn't mean she hasn't made a Palestinian film. Anything she creates is Palestinian, because she is a Palestinian filmmaker, she says. 

Alexander is eager to find colleagues who can relate to her experiences in Hollywood. She believes in strength in numbers, so she makes a concerted effort to pitch shows with characters who are Palestinian and to cast Palestinian actors. She wasn't able to cast any Palestiians in her most recent film—Old Dominion—but she did have an emotional moment when she had four actors wear traditional Palestinian clothing to the set.

“When they arrived on set, I was bawling because there was something from my home that I could put on screen that's probably never been on screen. And that was a win for me,” Alexander said.

Alexander's drive to advocate for more Palestinians and Arabs in Hollywood may have started with a young Jewish kid, but her passion really developed when she watched Dr. Jack Shaheen’s documentary Reel Bad Arabs about the way Arabs are portrayed on film in the United States. The more she followed Shaheen’s research, the more she realized Palestinians were receiving the brunt of the racism. 

In the mainstream spotlight, she may not be able to be as radical as she would like,, but she says the other option is to let go completely, which she consistently considers.

“The movie industry has probably hurt Palestinians more than anything else, and it was deliberate.” Alexander explained. ”It's not easy for us and we're holding on, and I think we're all holding on, because we know if there's none of our voices in there, it's just going to get worse for us.”

To learn more about Lexi Alexander, listen to our podcast episode with the Palestinian American filmmaker.