Sawt Falasteen - From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame

"Now I'm dedicating myself to cinema. I hope this will be my job for life. It's something I've dreamt of since I was a child," said Lame, all smiles, in an interview with AFP.

"And I've always dreamt of having an Oscar, maybe more than one."

The 24-year-old Italian influencer with Senegalese roots holds top spot on the TikTok app, with 162.8 million followers.

He has until now been famous for his short silent videos mocking the convoluted tutorials of tips that abound on the Web.

Why do it simply when you can make it more complicated, he jokes on social media, offering his own easy remedies with his trademark gesture -- palms turned towards the sky, accompanied by a knowing smile and wide eyes.

When did he realise his dazzling success?

"The first sign was when I started seeing other people around the world on television and some Real Madrid players like Vinicius Junior doing the same thing. I understood that it was becoming a global thing," he said.

Lame is discreet in his black baseball cap and beige leather jacket, his expressive eyes hidden behind thick sunglasses.

But he does not hesitate to pose for selfies with his fans, who call out to him as he leaves a restaurant opposite Milan's majestic Duomo cathedral.

After a brief stint in the Italian fashion capital this week, where he appeared on the catwalk for German brand Hugo Boss on Wednesday, Lame returned to Los Angeles, the TikTok star's new home and springboard for his Hollywood debut.

In an action comedy film called "00Khaby" -- which he says will be shot in Brazil, India and the United States -- Lame will play a food delivery man recruited as a spy by the American secret service.

"But I will continue to make videos for TikTok!" he promised his followers.

- Dyslexic, like Tom Cruise -

Lame's TikTok idea came to him while wandering around the housing project where his family lived in Chivasso, near Turin, after losing his factory mechanic's job in March 2020, on the cusp of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I thought it was just an app for dancing or children but during the pandemic I started using it because there wasn't much to do," he recalled.

His posts took off -- helping him to gross an estimated $16.5 million through marketing deals with companies in the period between June 2022 and September 2023, according to Forbes.

Not bad for the former mechanic who had worked a series of odd jobs to get by.

"I was a bricklayer, a window cleaner, I worked at Amazon and I was a kitchen assistant," he recalled.

School was a fiasco, he admitted.

"I always liked to make people laugh and so I always used to act the clown a bit. In the end they failed me two or three times".

His double handicap, being both "dyslexic and dyscalculic" didn't help matters either.

But Tom Cruise "gave me a lot of advice, being dyslexic himself", Lame said.

"I asked him if there were any problems in learning a script. He told me that in the end, it all comes down to good will.

"That's the advice I get from most actors or famous people."

- Redford gives advice -

No less than Hollywood legend Robert Redford advised him against taking acting classes.

"He said it would be better to be as natural as possible," said Lame, who is focusing instead on English lessons.

Redford chose Lame for a documentary series illustrating the ravages of climate change in African countries, including Senegal, where Lame was born before migrating to Italy at the age of one.

"We'll show how it's affecting populations, kids... in some regions which water doesn't reach any more," he explained.

Another project is a film Lame is co-writing with his manager, Nicola Paparusso about the life of Tommie Smith.

The black US sprinter shot to fame for raising his black-gloved fist to protest against racism when he took to the medals stand for winning gold at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

It will be the opportunity, Paparusso said, to show that Lame "is not just a silent actor who doesn't speak or a comic actor" but an artist who has "dramatic verve".

"He is a born actor, a genius."

H.Darwish--SF-PST