Ershadi has often said in interviews that he never set out to become an actor. His entry into cinema was accidental — a moment of fate rather than ambition. Perhaps because of this, his acting carries an authenticity that feels untouched by theatrical training or artifice. His background in architecture also influences his performance style: he approaches each role with the same sense of balance, proportion, and structure that an architect brings to a building. Every movement, glance, and pause in his acting has purpose and harmony.
In Taste of Cherry, this quiet intensity became a defining trait of his work. Playing a man driving through the hills in search of someone to bury him after his suicide, Ershadi built a character who reveals his pain not through words, but through silence. Critics from The New York Times and Sight & Sound praised his ability to “fill the screen with emotion by doing almost nothing at all.” This minimalist honesty would remain the hallmark of his style in both and international projects.
