CHLOE MAGAZINE : What first attracted you to acting ? Patrick Sabongui : I think it was life . I fell in love with life at a very young age . When I discovered acting , I realized it ’ s a way to experience even more of it . To me , acting was a gateway into more facets of life . If you do it right , it can connect you viscerally to different experiences [ your ] characters might have . You walk away from that experience knowing a little bit more about the world that we live in .
CHLOE MAGAZINE : What first attracted you to acting ? Patrick Sabongui : I think it was life . I fell in love with life at a very young age . When I discovered acting , I realized it ’ s a way to experience even more of it . To me , acting was a gateway into more facets of life . If you do it right , it can connect you viscerally to different experiences [ your ] characters might have . You walk away from that experience knowing a little bit more about the world that we live in .
CM : A lot of people know you from your role as Reda Hashem on Homeland . How have you found being part of a show with such a massive following ? In terms of fulfillment , I don ’ t think I could ’ ve asked for a better [ role ]. Every single person on the team is just so skilled at what they ’ re doing and so passionate about it . They encourage me to elevate my game . It ’ s inspiring because it ’ s a show that ’ s making a genuine effort to do the best that it can . People are going to pay attention . It ’ s controversial so you ’ re going to kick up a lot of dust . Whether you ’ re a fan or not , everyone feels something about it . No one goes “ Homeland ? What ’ s that ?” like 90 % of the other stuff I work on . It ’ s either “ Oh wow , that ’ s my favourite show !” or “ Oh really ? You ’ re on that show ?” CM : You recently finished working on The Prince Short Film with your wife Kyra Zagorsky and your two kids . How did it go working as a family ? I don ’ t want to say effortless because it was a lot of work to get it done but the family dynamic part of it felt natural . [ Kyra ] based the script on a real life situation that happened to our family a few years ago . This was a very important story to her ; also a very timely issue and it became very much a passion project for the whole family . CM : Whats a new role or project that you would love to try out ? I haven ’ t done a sit-com yet . I don ’ t always get seen as a comedic actor but people who get to know me before they know my acting assume that [ comedy ] is my genre – probably because I ’ m a bit of a clown in real life . Early in my career , a casting director told me ‘ You ’ re going to work a lot of different areas but you ’ re going to have your real success in comedy ’. That was a decade ago and I ’ m still waiting for that to come to tuition … CM : Any goals for this year you are working on achieving ? I want to keep doing the work that I have been doing . That takes an active effort . You know , when you ’ re starting out as an actor I think we have this image of like , once you get on a big show or you ’ re a series regular that maybe now you ’ ve ‘ made it ’ and you can sit back and choose the projects you want to work on . That hasn ’ t been my experience .
My goal for our future as a family is to keep moving forward in the hustle and not fall back . That ’ s why I ’ m here . That ’ s why I don ’ t turn down opportunities . But that ’ s part of our work ethic . We can ’ t take our foot off the gas .