Thank goodness for accidents.

Homayon Ershadi never planned on becoming an actor. Born in Iran in the 1940s, Ershadi studied architecture in Italy and eventually went back to Iran, where he became a prominent architect. It wasn’t until 1997 that Ershadi left the blueprints for the silver screen when Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami offered Ershadi the lead role in Ta’m e guilass, better known in the United States as A Taste of Cherry.

“In Iran, we don’t have agents [or] auditions,” Ershadi said. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

Stopped at a red light, Kiarostami knocked on Ershadi’s window and said, “I’m making a film; would you like to be in it?”

A couple of awards from the Cannes Film Festival and the Boston Society of Film Critics later, Ershadi found himself leading an entirely different life.

“I work very hard . but I don’t consider myself to be a professional actor,” Ershadi said.

That is likely to change very soon.

Cast as Baba, Amir’s father, in The Kite Runner (Dec. 14, DreamWorks), Ershadi ventures outside of the Iranian-movie spectrum and into a pivotal supporting role that will garner him worldwide media coverage.

“It is my first, I call it, international film outside of Iran,” Ershadi said. “It is very different. [There were] 10 people on set filming [Cherry]. Here, there were 26 different nationalities on set, different languages, different translations . There were 300 to 400 people on set a day.”

Based on the 2003 best-selling novel by Afghani-American author Khaled Hosseini, Runner details the life of Amir, a wealthy boy from Kabul, Afghanistan. Amir is haunted throughout his life with guilt, following events involving his best friend and son of his father’s servant, Hassan.

Starting in the 1970s and ending in present day, the backdrop of the story features the fall of Afghanistan during the Soviet Invasion and the effects of Taliban regime.

Runner, despite taking place primarily in Afghanistan, was filmed in Western China.

“[In Kashgar, China,] the population is 95 percent Muslim . the landscape, the architecture, are all very close to Kabul,” Ershadi said. “In Afghanistan, it is not safe for filming,”

In addition to the dangers that arose from filming, many of the actors, particularly Zekeria Ebrahimi (young Amir) and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (young Hassan) have faced life-threatening consequences just for taking their roles.

The two 12-year-old boys from Afghanistan, as well as another child actor from the film, are currently being relocated to the United States out of fear for their safety. Various threats, primarily centered on the rape of Mahmidzada’s character, have been made by some Afghanis. Though the event is more implied than graphically shown in the film, it was enough to cause an uproar among some Afghanis.

“Those kids are wonderful,” Ershadi said. “They are very talented . I saw [Mahmidzada], and I knew he was something else.”

Despite the concerns that have arisen from Runner, Ershadi had no reservations when taking on the role.

“I didn’t have hesitations going into the film,” Ershadi said. “I want to educate . We are not terrorists, we are not Bin Laden, we are human beings.”

Runner was set to release in early November as a result of threats. The film is now set to premiere, Dec. 14.