For Sam Asghari, life is gold.
He performs the “baddest man” in a brand new film with John Travolta, “The Gentleman Thief,” and he is head over heels in love along with his girlfriend Brooke Irvine.
However he additionally is aware of that, to many individuals, he’ll perpetually be often called “Mr. Britney Spears.”
Requested if he thought there would ever come a day when folks would not ask him concerning the troubled famous person — who he dated for six years and was married to for nearly two years, till 2024 — he advised Web page Six: “That may by no means occur.”
“However am I fully able to reply these questions and am I fully prepared for this to not have an effect on me? Completely.”
Not like Asghari’s established new life, simply this yr Spears, 44, was arrested for drunk driving and went to rehab.
Simply days in the past, the singer sparked security considerations after standing and dancing on the sunroof of a Mercedes G-Wagon touring on the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles. She later dismissed the backlash on Instagram, writing: “Nothing is what it appears. »
So, what does Asghari consider this newest conduct from his ex-wife, who has struggled so publicly previously?
The Iranian-born actor pauses earlier than responding.
“I actually centered on what’s taking place in my nation,” he mentioned. “All my focus has been on this and the initiatives I’ve achieved. I do not actually like watching leisure information and I do not wish to consider what I see anyway.
Asghari not too long ago mentioned that Spears was simply as oppressed as Iranian girls.
The 32-year-old first met Spears in October 2016 on the set of her “Slumber Social gathering” music video. He performed her love curiosity, they usually hit it off rapidly.
Asghari stood by Spears as she fought to be free of her strict 13-year conservatorship, they usually married in June 2022 in a moderately weird star-studded wedding ceremony with friends together with Madonna and Drew Barrymore. Throughout these years, a number of sources advised Web page Six that Asghari was a powerful supporting pressure for her.
Even now, Asghari — who, as Web page Six beforehand reported, left the wedding with none spousal assist — makes it clear that he desires the very best for Spears.
“The previous is the previous, and we will have fun it and all the time replicate on it,” he mentioned. “You may’t change the previous. Issues that occurred occurred. And like I mentioned, I might by no means complain about one thing that modified my life for higher or worse.”
Within the years since their divorce, finalized in December 2024, Asghari has moved on. He has been with Irvine, 32, for nearly two years and the couple dwell collectively in Los Angeles, with their canine Porcha.
“She’s wonderful,” he mentioned of the actual property agent. “She’s very supportive of us, and we’re attempting to benefit from the summer time and go on trip, and we’re attempting to determine with the schedule the place to go.”
Might the 2 quickly increase their household?
“I am centered on my profession now, however what I’ve realized is that if I need to create a future in Hollywood, I’ll need to put myself at risk and never my household and the people who find themselves subsequent to me…” Asghari mentioned. “However yeah, sooner or later, who does not need to begin a household? I imply, everybody desires to begin a household.”
A former health coach, Asghari labored to construct a profession in Hollywood. Final yr, he appeared within the NBC hit “The Traitors.” And now he has a job in “The Gentleman Thief,” out July 31, during which he performs Victor, a part of a group recruited by veteran con artist Mason Goddard (Travolta) to steal a $100 million portray from a yacht.
“I’m the macho man, the muscle of the operation,” Asghari mentioned with amusing. “Everybody has a specialty on the group, and I am the man who holds the massive weapons and goes on missions.
“I’m severely the baddest man on this film.”
Asghari was introduced into the mission because of his previous buddy, Randall Emmett, who produced the movie, which additionally stars Rebecca de Mornay, Lukas Haas and DJ Khaled.
It is a outstanding full-circle second for Asghari, who, as a baby rising up in Tehran, watched Travolta movies to be taught English. (Her favourite: “The Taking of Pelham 123,” launched in 2009, a couple of years after she moved to america at age 12.)
“I by no means imagined that in the future I might share the display with him,” he mentioned of Travolta. “Coming from Iran on the age of 12 is already profitable the lottery, as a result of the possibilities of coming to America from a rustic like which can be nearly zero.”
Now, he marvels, he is “working with legends like Mel Gibson and John Travolta and John Cena and Jean Good and Don Cheadle and Morgan Freeman and all these folks I by no means would have considered.”
“I come from a rustic that has been by a lot politically… and there are lots of harmless folks in Iran who’ve lots of potential. And I all the time say that if I used to be in Iran, I might by no means have achieved something higher.”
Since a younger Asghari joined his tow truck driver father in Los Angeles, he mentioned, “I’ve all the time labored. The second I got here to America, I used to be sweeping the ground of my cousin’s tow truck store, after which I turned a mechanic.
“The explanation I am in leisure proper now’s as a result of my journey has taken me on this path. Whether or not I am an athlete, whether or not I work in leisure, or have a enterprise, I am going to nonetheless be the identical particular person…it does not change me, working with John Travolta or sweeping my cousin’s ground.”
Even after being round Spears for so long as he was, he mentioned, “I am all the time stunned to fulfill individuals who have been on this trade a very long time, particularly icons. The extra profitable somebody is, the extra well-known they’re, the extra iconic, the extra charismatic, they’re often probably the most hardworking and humble particular person.”
With Travolta, “we talked about cigars, we talked about Iran, we talked about automobiles, we talked about planes. »
And what about Scientology, provided that Travolta has been a member of that faith for many years? Did Travolta attempt to recruit him?
“Completely not!” » he mentioned. “I do not even know what that’s. So no. No, by no means. He was an absolute skilled, simply an unimaginable particular person, an unimaginable father, an unimaginable household man.
Subsequent, Asghari directed a brief movie referred to as “The Good American,” set in Iran and America, starring as an Iranian refugee and rideshare driver dwelling in Los Angeles. It should hit the competition circuit this fall.
“As an artist, I really feel like our duty is to not become involved politically, however to become involved emotionally and assist initiatives that actually matter to you,” he mentioned. “It was a Hollywood manufacturing displaying what is basically taking place in Iran and the way immigrants react after they come to this nation.”
The conflicts which have torn his nation aside in current months “haven’t achieved me any good,” he continues. “I imply, who likes to see their nation held hostage by their very own authorities and do all these horrible issues and contain them in a struggle that they can not defend themselves? It does not make me really feel good in any respect, however it offers me the motivation to have the ability to proceed to characterize and be capable to do issues for my folks.
He sees himself, he says, as a rose rising by concrete.
“The concrete was the nation I got here from – and the rose was me rising in unknown circumstances. »