After a memorable start, Barkhad Abdi is taking a real💞istic, slowly-but-surely approach to his budding Hollywood career.
Last March, the first-time performer walked the Oscars red carpet as a Best Supporting Actor n🐻ominee for his scene-stealing role as a Somali pirate in the 2013 Tom Hanks film ౠ“Captain Phillips.”
Now, nearly a year later, he’ll log another first with ꧋his television debut on Friday’s 9 p.m. episode of the CBS cop drama “Hawaii Five-O.”
“I’m st🌸ill at the very beginning stage of my career. I never planned to be an actor; it’s so🦂mething that I never imagined,” Abdi tells The Post. “There’s a lot that I want to show and a lot that I want to accomplish, you know?”
One year after th💜e Academy Awards, newcomer Abdi — a former Minneapolis limo driver who now lives in LA — says he’s doing just fine, despite what you may have read elsewhere. At Oscar time last year, media reports suggested that Abdi was “broke” () and after making only $65,000 for “Captain Phillips.🐼”
But the Somali-born actor — remember♛ed for telling Hanks’ Captain Phillips, “Look at me! Look at me! I’m the captain now” — says that role (if not the paycheck) was l🧔ike “a door opening.”
Since the Oscars, Abdi landed the part on “Hawaii Five-0” and roles in two upcoming movies — including a thriller starring Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”), Helen Mirren, Colin Firth and Alan Rickman which was shot in Southꦜ Africa (Cape Town) last fall.
“I’ve had a few jobs. It’s been a great experi♋ence so far, you know?” says Abdi, who turns 30 in April. (On a personal level, he says he’s also had a girlfriend for about six months.)
On “Hawaii Five-0,” Abdi plays a presumed-dead Congolese warlord who resurfaces in Oahu and w🧸inds up creating a volatile hostage s🧸ituation that Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and his crew must defuse.
Abdi acknowledges a similarity between that role and playing Abduwali Muse — his real-life character in “Captain Phillips” — in that he’s portraying another bad 📖guy.
However, he isn’t concerned with being typecast.
“I don’t worry about it. To me,🐷 if the storyline is good, that’s when you know whether you’ll take the job or not,” he says.
“I’m an entertainer, you know?” he continues, adding with a laugh, “If you would like to see me doing bad, I guess I🔯 should do that again.”