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We're Hangin' With..... THE STAR OF THE YOUNG BLACK STALLION BIANA TAMIMI by: Lynn B.
It's been a whirlwind couple of years for the pretty, dark-haired girl who started riding before age 5 and always had a secret wish to become an actress. Long-haired Biana looked gorgeous in a blue jacket, jeans and a mother-of pearl disc necklace when we spoke with her in Los Angeles about how a friend got her into movies, her love of horses, adventures on the set and future plans. AGW: Tell us how you got chosen for the role of Neera. Biana: Well, my friend's mom was looking on the Internet for filming courses for him, because he wants to be a director when he's older. So then she found this ad for a 9 to 11 year old girl with a middle-eastern accent who rides well. So they called us up and said 'Disney's looking for Biana' because they said it fit my description perfectly well. So the next day the family came over and they shot an audition tape with me riding my horse and they sent that to Disney. And two weeks later I got on the plane to go to Africa. It just happened so quickly. AGW: How did you make friends with the beautiful horse in the movie so fast? You're kissing his nose. Biana: It takes time to gain confidence and trust with horses. We had a week before the whole shoot that we spent with the horses, and where I learned a lot of stuff about acting. So I spent time with him there, and I just hugged him and touched him and things like that, and gained trust. AGW: How much of the riding did you actually do? When was somebody else on the horse? AGW: They were on the horse for the Black Mountain scenes, the jump, the big jump over all… and falling off the camel. That was about it, but sometimes for the helicopter scenes, I couldn't do that for some reason. Although I wanted to, I wanted to do all those stunts, that would've just been a blast, I would have had so much fun. But no. AGW: Have you ever been on a camel before? Biana: Never, that was my first time on a camel. It was so cool. But they spat this green goo at the trainers and things, luckily not at me! They made gurgly sounds. It was very fun, but they're kind of stubborn animals. And getting up and down was weird 'cause you had to lean far back and lean really far forward or else you just topple off the front. They were cool though. AGW: So did you really get buried in the sand for a little while? Biana: Yes, that was neat, that was so much fun. It was in my ears and eyes. It was nice and cool under there because outside, above the sand it was very hot. But it was really refreshing actually. AGW: So you were five when you started riding? Did your parents have horses, or how did you get involved in riding? Biana: I was four and a half. My mom had some horses before when she was little, but that's something else. My friend invited me over for a lesson with her, 'hey Biana, want to come over and have a lesson with me?' and so I was like 'sure'. And so that's pretty much how it started, and I started to love them, and I loved that lesson.
Biana: I got to keep the one I used for the majority of the movie. It's when I'm trekking through the desert in that blue little outfit and black turban. I got to keep that one and I think that's about it. AGW: So how do you think you are like Neera, and how are you different? Biana: I'm like Neera in ways that we're about the same age. I'm 13 now, but before I was 11. So we're both 11, or around that age. And we love horses, and once we have a dream we follow it and try to achieve it. And we're different in that she's a lot more adventurous than I am actually. I'm not such a rebel. But I will be with my parents and everything, sometimes. But we're still pretty much the same so the director just told me to just act natural when I'm acting because we have a really similar personality. AGW: What was the hardest scene for you to film, and what was the most fun? Biana: The hardest scene to film, It wasn't a really hard scene, but the horse kept wondering around and stuff. It was when we were going up this little hill and then we saw the house and then I'm like 'look, we found it, we made it.' The horse kept on walking off and running away. It was really hard, we'd have to do it again, several takes. Actually like 15. AGW: What was the most fun? Biana: The most fun would have to be most of the race riding scenes actually. That was so much fun, I just felt like I was flying. The wind was in my hair and I felt so happy like I was one with the horse. AGW: So were you getting to go really fast, where you going all out? Biana: I think 50 miles an hour. That's fast. AGW: Did you get to see any of the countries you were in while you were making the film? Biana: Once we went out to inland Africa and we went to this game park and saw just animals and things. We were going to see elephants but they were hidden somewhere. We saw zebras and giraffes and it was great, it was so much fun. But also we went to South Africa to film, which was where we got all the Shangri-la scenes. Beautiful greenery, it was so beautiful. We went from town to town kind of, and we shopped and we ate and we did just regular things. . Also in Africa there's still a lot of apartheid and segregation, so when I went there I noticed a big difference between America and Africa. And I just feel so blessed that I have so much [more] than a lot of other people. So I'm really glad that I got to see that. AGW: How did you get along with Patrick, the little guy who played Aiden? Because he'd never acted either. Biana: We were like brother and sister pretty much. We played volleyball and basketball and we played all these sports, and wrestled and hit each other and stuff. It was really fun with him and his family. It was good. Being with them, it just made us forget about everything that happened that day. We could just renew and feel good about ourselves. AGW: Are you considering other film roles, or are you going back to your normal school life? What's up for you now? Biana: Well, we're not quite sure, but things are coming and nothing is certain at this moment. But anything can happen I guess. I'd love to try something new. I'd love to keep on acting because I had so much fun doing this one. But I just want to finish school and get that over with, get through it and then get more serious. AGW: So are you in school again now? Are the kids still treating you the same, are they nice to you? Biana: I'm in school back home. Before, when I first did the movie some people were treating me a little bit differently. People that I wasn't really associated with, now they wanted to be with me. So I didn't feel too comfortable around them. So it was different. But all my friends that I had before, we're still great friends, we're really close. It was so good they didn't really judge me on that. AGW: What kind of music do you like? Biana: I like all kinds of music. I like country actually. I like Pat Green and Toby Keith. And lots of other, some pop music. AGW: We hear that Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise are kind of your fave movie stars. Anybody else you like? Biana: I'd say Jennifer Lopez. She's cool, I like her. She's a good role model. There's a lot of good ones. AGW: When you're in school what's your favourite subject? Biana: I like health because it's really fun. Because we learn a lot about health discussion, we do like yoga and stuff to help us relieve ourselves, it really lifts us up. Also I like English and math. It's more fun this year than last year. AGW: Have you read any of the Black Stallion books? Biana: I've read the Black Stallion, the original Black Stallion. I did a book report on it. It was about a year before I did the movie, and at the end of the book report I wrote 'I would love to be the boy'. AGW: And they made it a girl! Biana: I know. That's so cool. AGW: You have a horse named Buddy? Compare Buddy to the stallion. How are they different? Biana: Stallions are a lot shorter, the Arabians. Thoroughbreds are longer and they're just not as collected as Arabians. Arabians have a shorter gait than most thoroughbreds. Thoroughbreds are used for jumping, and racing also, but mainly racing. I use mine to jump. I'm a hunter-jumper at home. AGW: What does that mean? What kind of a horse competition is hunter-jumping? Biana: Hunter-Jumper is a different kind of riding style. It's when you jump over more natural fences, but not bushes. It's a little more natural, it's not timed. I think it's really fun. It's in a little arena, and there's jump sets, they can do different courses and things. I had an Arabian before, and they do jump, but it's not their favourite thing. The horse that I had didn't like to do it.
Biana: Not really. It was kind of hard because the end of the last scene of the race I had to win by a lot of feet. So they had to pull back a little bit and I had to make him go a lot faster to win by a certain amount, a certain length. So it was a little hard to make him go even faster than he was already going but still it was fun. AGW: Did anything funny happen on the set? Biana: It was really cool 'cause the director and a lot of the horse wranglers, they cussed a lot. And whenever they cussed they were fined a certain amount of money and I received the money, we had this deal. It was cool, and everybody was so nice. They just goofed around everywhere. AGW: Did you ever see the movie National Velvet? Biana: Yeah, that was a great movie, I love that. AGW: So if they call you the new Elizabeth Taylor it'll be ok. Biana: Some people have already called me that. They said that I looked a bit like her… AGW: If there's a message you can say to kids your age who want to be in the movies but they don't know what to do, or they think it'll be too scary, what would you tell them? Biana: I'd just tell them to follow their dreams. There's hope everywhere, and if you stand up for what you believe in then anything can be achieved, so just follow your dreams. Also for girls, in some cultures girls are ranked a lot lower than males are. So this movie proves that girls can do anything, and even better than guys can sometimes. For this movie, Neera rides in the race and she beats all these other guys, grown up guys. And she's only an 11 year old riding a great horse. So it's true that girls can do anything guys can. And they're created equal. AGW: How cool is it to be from two different cultures? Your mom is Mexican and your dad is from Palestine. What is it like? Biana: I speak more Spanish than I do Arabic, a lot more English than I do Spanish. When I was little I used to speak a lot more than I do, because I used to practice more. But I now I usually answer back in English. AGW: You did learn about both cultures? Biana: Oh yes. It's very cool. AGW: Is there anything else you'd like to tell girls? [At this point Biana's mom Elizabeth joins in and tells us…] One thing that I admire about her is that when this thing happened, we just told her 'Biana would you like to do this?' we never pushed her. She just said 'yes'. So I think, go for it. Take a chance. AGW: How did you feel when you saw your face up there that big on the screen? Biana: It was like seeing a reflection of myself. It was just like an instant replay of what I did in Africa, and I just remembered all the good memories that I had there shooting this film with everybody being so kind and so nice, and I was so appreciative. [Note:
You can check out this great movie only on IMAX or large format screens
in your area starting Christmas Day]
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Okay,
how cool is this? The Hollywood dream can really come true. 13-year-old
Texan Biana Tamimi was an 11-year-old A-student schoolgirl, riding her
horse Buddy in competitions as a hunter-jumper on the side. Next thing
she knew, she was riding a regal Arabian stallion as Neera, an Arabian
girl in a desert cross-country race filmed in Namibia and South Africa
for the IMAX movie The Young Black Stallion, a beautiful prequel to the
Black Stallion films. 
AGW:
The costumes you got wear were really cool. Did you get to keep any of
them? 
AGW:
The other people you were racing, did they ever get too close to you?
Were there any problems with the races?