Tuppy: First off, provide my readers with the basics: gender, sexual orientation, age and disability?

Nabil: Male - Hetero - 50 - wheelchair user with brittle bones, small in stature.

Tuppy: What is your ethnic background and religion, and where were you brought up?

Nabil: My family and ancestors going back to Genghiz Khan, have been Muslims. Before the Mongolians became settlers in the Caucasia and converted to Islam, my ancestors would have been pagans, following a shamanic tradition. I like to think they would have eaten a lot of magic mushrooms, of the Fly Agaric variety. I was born in Jordan but came to England when I was three and became institutionalised in hospitals and children's homes for disabled kids, so I never lived with my family after that. Thus, I was not brought up in a Muslim culture (thank Christ). Was raised a bleeding Christian instead, a goddam Methodist, so no fucking swearing, no sodding gambling and certainly no playing with girls in the home. Always afraid the staff would cut my willy off.

Tuppy: What was the reaction of your family when you were born disabled?

Nabil: My dad nearly died of a heart attack and my mother tried to commit suicide. When the British child care authorities offered to take me away from them and put me in a home, my parents jumped at the chance.

Tuppy: Are you still in touch with your family, and which members?

Nabil: My dad snuffed it when I was twelve - probably murdered by the Israeli secret service. Well, that's me and my brother's fantasy. He was an army officer working with the military attachá in the Jordanian Embassy in London, a wireless operator in the Signals and Intelligence Section, listening to secret messages between the Israelis, the Americans and the Brits. The Israelis began hatching their plot to start the 1967 Six Day War in 1965. The CIA had advised them that to ensure that the war was winnable, it would need two years in the planning, hence my father getting wind of it in 1965. Mossad, the Israeli secret service found out he knew, so arranged for him (perhaps through an injection) to be impregnated with highly radioactive substance, which precipitated leukemia. My Dad was dead within weeks. Well, that's the story, anyway. Can't prove any of it, of course. My mother? She's still alive. I think. Last time I spoke to her was 3 years ago, when she rang me from her home in Jordan, on my birthday, to ask if I would lend her five thousand pounds. She had no idea it was my birthday and I didn't have the heart to remind her. Anyway, I told I couldn't lend her the dosh because I was totally skint. She asked why? "Aren't you supposed to be a famous actor? I thought you were rich!" "Not bloody likely," I said. "I'm a poor semi-famous actor. Besides, I'm a 'has-been' now. I haven't had decent money coming in for ages." "But where's all your money?" "Well, if I did once have loadza loot, I ain't got it now." "Why?" She asked, furious that I wasn't going to cough up in her direction. "Because I've got an expensive girlfriend, that's why." "Why have you got an expensive girlfriend?" She asked, laughing "Because I'm an idiot." She laughed that much, we got disconnected. I haven't heard from her since. From my mother and father, sprang forth four children - two with congenital disabilities and two, ostensibly, without disabilities. Me and my sister with brittle bones live in England and I occasionally see her, maybe once or twice a year. The brittle bones is the result of a recessive gene because my parents were first cousins who carried the same gene. Marrying first cousins is the norm in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. They're obsessed with keeping property within the bloodline. Bit like our own British Royal Family. I wonder how many disabled Royal offspring have been secretly locked away in the Tower!

Tuppy: How did you start making a life for yourself?

Nabil: I went to university, got a degree in psychology and philosophy, couldn't be bothered to do a proper nine-to-five job, so I decided to be an actor and set up Graeae Theatre Company. If you mean, how did I manage to escape from me family. I didn't need to, they had already escaped from me. They had forfeited their rights to control me when I put into child-care. They were no longer in the frame, so I was free to do whatever I want. Thank God, I was born disabled!

Tuppy: Are these first cousin marriages arranged by parents?

Nabil: Where I come from, it's the Grandmothers who arrange á the marriages - their choic is final. Occasionally, if you are a favourite of Granny, you might swing a love match. But I was disabled and therefore sexless and obviously incapable of passing on the family line, so no one would have wasted a second thought about me getting married. Had I been non-disabled and therefore of marriageble quality, I probably would have had an arranged marriage. And it would certainly have been with someone of Islamic faith, probably related, and quite likely a first cousin. When I met up with one of my sisters after an absence of nearly 20 years, she couldn't wait to ask if I was a Man, i.e. could I do it? When I told her I could, she wept tears of joy. That was her biggest dread, that her disabled brother wasn't a real man. Anyway, naturally, being raised in the modern western tradition and being a libertarian, I don't believe in arranged marriages. All partnerships should be mutually consenting by the couple and chosen on the basis of genuine desire, though the exercise of free will.

Tuppy: How would you say you have fared on the romance/sex front, and how has disability and your ethnic background influenced this?

Nabil: I didn't lose my virginity until I was 27. Prior to that, I never had girlfriend. I knew lots of women that I was always falling in love with, but I rarely had the confidence to try to do anything about it. I automat-ically assumed they wouldn't be interested because of my disabilities. The one or two times, I did have the courage, they would always say things like "I like you a lot. You are a very special person. Clever, intelligent, talented. You're a great friend to have. Such a marvellous personality. Always cheerful.. blah blah... I do admire you... but... but... but." And who said women are more interested in personality! What a load of bollocks! As a disabled man, I have learned that women are just as Body Fascist as men. As for whether my ethnic background has had an influence on my sexual attractiveness or lack of, I don't really know, because my disabilities tend to upstage any ethnic or racial considerations.

Tuppy: Perhaps you should re-consider - people do have sexual preferences for, and aversions to cute blondes, swarthy Eastern Europeans, black bodies, etc. Blaming all failure on your disability might have been misconceived.

Nabil: The trouble was, for most of my youth and early twenties, I was not too keen to get overly attached to a woman. Generally, I felt, having a girlfriend was too much of a distraction or diversion from the real missions in life, like finding out who I am and where I am going, getting on with my studies and working out the most effective and practical route to saving the world.

The other thing I noticed was that I started to become sexually interesting to women once I became an actor, started to appear on stage, television and film and become a minor celebrity. Suddenly, I found women who wanted to be my girlfriend, even though I was still disabled. As Henry Kissinger said, "Power is the biggest aphrodisiac". My fame and success was giving me apparent power, and that was what was turning women on. It wasn't me, myself, Nabil that had metamorphosed into a gorgeous looking bloke. I was still the same. I still hated seeing myself in the mirror. It's not surprising billions of people want to be Hollywood movie stars or rock stars, because they instinctively know that even if they are conventionally "ugly" or just plain-looking, the result will still be sexual pulling power.

Tuppy: If you hate seeing yourself in the mirror (although most people do) could this mean you share body fascism yourself?

Nabil: Indeed. In fact, that was why I originally came up with the term. I was meditating on my own aesthetic prejudices, particularly as an artist, I made myself be aware of my preconditioned preferences and questioned them, analysed them, tried to work out why and how and from whence, and were they culturally determined or are they instinctual products stemming from biological imperatives? In the end, I concluded that the Human condition has the ability to transcend all physical, material, social, genetic dictates and that if we are to move on to a higher, more enlightened plane of existence which is the only refuge that can save us and the planet, we must recognise those demons within, however sourced, which commands us to make value judgements on the basis of ultimately superficial criteria....and having put on the spotlight, we can hopefully exorcise them. That's the theory, anyway.

Tuppy: You had a disabled girlfriend, Tina, who you met through filming The Skin Horse with Outsiders - how was that, and did you tell your mum?

Nabil: My mother doesn't give a toss about anything I do. I don't exist. When I do come into her orbit, she tells me, I will go to Hell because I don't believe in Allah and Mohammed, and my lovelife is of no interest to her. I am not her real son. I took great pleasure in telling my mother Tina and I had a son out of wedlock. Especially, after she told one of my sisters that she was the black sheep of the family. "No she isn't." I said when I saw how hurt my sister was, "I am because at least, she was married when all her children were born."

Tuppy: Do you hold any values of your old culture?

Nabil: I don't hold any of the values of Muslim or Arab culture. I couldn't even list them. I don't believe in any religion, and any culture which is defined and organised by religious belief is not one I could identify with or have sympathy for. I totally agree with Karl Marx about Religion being the Opiate of the People. In Britain, however, it was the Royal Family which was the Opiate - that is, until Big Brother and other crap TV came along.

Tuppy: What have been your biggest problems in life?

Nabil: Being judged on the basis of negative perceptions of my disabilities and physical appearance.

Tuppy: Does your culture and do you believe in re-incarnation?

Nabil: Orthodox Islam does not believe in Reincarnation but my mother does - she claims it is mentioned in the Koran. Well, I've looked and I haven't found any reference to it. My mother is a Pick and Mix religious person. She wants to believe in UFOs, so she says the Koran mentions that Earth will be invaded by aliens from outer space very soon. Because she believes in reincarnation, she tells me I am disabled because I was very evil in my past life - and that I will be even more crippled or come back as a tail-less tadpole in my next life. My own attitudes? Well, as I don't subscribe to any religion, I have an open attitude to my disability. Maybe reincarnation is true. I don't know. I certainly can't remember any past lives I may have had. Although, I have met people who claim to have known me from a past life. One woman reckons we were lovers in Ancient Egypt and she murdered me. She still keeps asking me to forgive her. Perhaps, if reincarnation is the system, then I might have become disabled because it was my choice - perhaps my previous existence was just too boring being an able-bodied person. Nothing was a challenge. Perhaps, as many Hindus believe, being born disabled is a fast track to enlightenment and Nirvana. When I was in Calcutta, this old man kept bowing down to me. My non-disabled friend asked him "Why" (I think he was a bit jealous) and the old Hindu said it was because I was a God. I guess he meant that this was probably my last incarnation, that my disability was a sign of my coming to the end of my cycle of lives.

Tuppy: How do you feel about about reproducing and having your own children, with a genetic disability?

Nabil: I have Osteogenesis Imperfecta (or Deogenesis Perfecta, if you believe my Hindu story). It is inherited via a recessive gene but not automatically manifest, because for that, both parents must carry the inheritance. So, if I don't shag a relative, I am unlikely to reproduce the disability in any of my offspring. However, I'm not worried if I do produce a child with brittle bones. It would be a negation of my entire life if I sought to prevent my child being born with brittle bones.

Tuppy: Has your upbringing or the attitudes of your family spoiled your ability to enjoy guilt-free sexual pleasure?

Nabil: My cultural background is Protestant Christianity - Methodist variety. And I think it gave me a lot of guilt about sex. The first time I put my hand inside a girl's vagina I was 15, and afterwards I felt dreadfully unclean. I spent hours in the basement toilets of the special school, washing and scrubbing my hands. I was convinced the staff could still smell the sinfulness and I would be expelled. For years, I didn't believe in pre-marital sex. If I was going to sleep with a woman, and have sexual intercourse then if I made her pregnant, then I must marry her. I must only marry someone, I truly love. So, to avoid a wrongful marriage, because of unwanted pregnancy, I avoided sex, and to avoid sex, I avoided getting into relationships. But all this changed in 1981 when a determined woman wanted seduce me and get into my knickers. Suddenly, she allowed me to discover the joy of sex - sexual experimentation. Since then, I have had love affairs with about nine women. But I still don't find it easy to have sex without guilt.

Tuppy: What is your dream?

Nabil: Wet - very, very wet.

Tuppy: Thank you Nabil, I hope this hasn't been too boring for you. I haven't taken the opportunity to express much of this before. So, thanks for giving me the chance.