Carmen Lebbos

Carmen Lebbos
Born	Carmen Elias Lebbos (1963-02-22) 22 February 1963 Beirut, Lebanon
Nationality	Lebanese
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1979–present
Website	http://www.carmenlebbos.com/

Carmen Lebbos (Template:Lang-ar; born 22 February 1963) is a Lebanese actress who has worked in film, television and the theater since 1981. She has been in several television series and movies including Ziad Doueiri’s West Beirut and Josef Fares’s Zozo.

Biography

Carmen Lebbos was born in Beirut to a working-class family.

At the age of 14, Carmen ran away from home and got married, in hopes of finding a sanctuary only to find herself in the worst prison ever! Coming from humble roots in Beirut, she was desperately seeking a spot in the so called “showbiz”! At the age of 12, she had the opportunity to be a part of a dance troupe due to her appealing height, but once again, the odds were not in her favor. Even though her father was a dance instructor, he extremely opposed the idea for it was a taboo at that time and a girl dancing in front of people would be regarded as contradicting the norms and traditions, so she had to turn away from what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. As soon as she turned 16, she set her mind to attend the Academy of Arts to study acting. At that time, she was searching for a place to stay, and in the midst of all that chaos, life threw another opportunity at her. That’s when she met Ziad Al Rahbani who showed her all the secrets and tricks she needed to know to become a “natural actress”. She absorbed and studied Ziad in the radio station, where she taught herself how to play with her voice and choose tones according to the situations and that’s merely by observing others. However, she still emphasizes on how her true mentor, Mr. Yaacoub Chedrawi, taught her the very basics of the theater, even though she always referenced her Russian idol Stanislavski’s book and considered him to be the greatest theater teacher of all times. Carmen was so passionate about acting, however she was after something much more important than fame. She wanted to actually live countless lives and adventures by personating characters. She wanted to be the rich woman, the raped woman, the battered woman. She wanted to be every woman on Earth. And she excelled because she was that dedicated to each part she took. Carmen would imagine the woman she’d play while reading the scripts. She would know exactly what that woman looks like, the way she talks, walks, dresses, the way she wears her hair, the tone of her voice, and much more. Carmen would delve so deeply in the part that she is often caught “in action” in her own daily life away from the set. Many times she would turn down roles for she couldn’t see the woman in her mind. This is how passionate she is. Late in the 80's, she was seriously considering moving to Paris in order to strengthen her acting knowledge and skills but found it rather impossible to live there all alone with her young baby.

In an interview discussing Ziad Rahbani Carmen maintained that he was simply the man she once loved, adding that "never, during all the 15 years of being together 24 hours a day, did I regard Ziad in the light other people saw him in. To me he was the man I loved and lived with and drank coffee with every morning... And that is that.”

She played with Laura Ramsey a major role in Whatever Lola Wants directed by Nabil Ayouch, where she plays the role of a famous forgotten Egyptian dancer called Ismahan.