Karen David in The Scorpion King 2

She has the face of an angel, sings like a star, and now we will finally see her in her biggest on-screen role yet. Canadian actress and singer/songwriter Karen David appears in her first Hollywood lead role in The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. It is a Universal Studios prequel to the blockbuster The Scorpion King, which starred Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

For this movie, Dwayne has been replaced by Michael Copon, who many might recognise from the Power Rangers series. He plays the role of the young Mathayus, who after witnessing his father’s death in the hands of the king, seeks revenge, and in the process, transforms himself into the most feared warrior of the ancient world.

Karen plays Layla, in many ways Mathayus’ female counterpart - and also eye candy for the mostly male audience of this franchise. There is even a fight sequence with fellow actress Natalie Becker - in reference to which Karen was quoted saying it’s ‘the girl fight to end all girl fights’.

Indian-born Karen Shenaz is no stranger to the big screen, she appeared in several movies including Provoked alongside Aishwarya Rai, as well as a brief cameo in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. She certainly has the talent and ambition to push her acting career forward, and might just have left the door open wide enough for many fellow actors/actresses of South-Asian descent to follow suit.

But just how likely is the prospect of seeing more Desi talent in Hollywood movies? Are there actually enough roles to satisfy the demand? Take Naveen Andrews for instance, he is a fixture in one of the biggest TV shows in recent years (Lost). He also has had a number of big screen appearances, including showing up in The Brave One with Jodie Foster and Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror - but we are yet to see him play a lead role. He can without question act, it appears however that directors are more willing to put other actors forward for roles which ethnicity little matters.

Another person who surely has had his share of big screen appearances is comedian Kal Penn. We have all enjoyed watching him in the Harold and Kumar movies, and also in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, where he played the shy but not so entirely shy Indian exchange student Taj Mahal Badalandabad, who came to America to ‘study the great American art of muff diving’. Even though I laughed hysterically at his lines, I do wonder whether there are roles out there for him where he does not have to play on his Indian heritage or put on an accent.

Perhaps it’s a matter of patience, and as actors/actresses, they possibly need to accept more work until they have built an impressive resume for themselves.

Karen is well on her way to slowly culminating her aspirations as an actress; let’s not forget, she’s pretty busy being a singer too!

I have saved the bad news till the end: The Scorpion King 2 will unfortunately only be released on DVD and Blue-Ray Disc, but I am sure that won’t stop Karen’s career from blossoming like it has been. After all, who can deny a beautiful woman her success?

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner