After his career breakthrough in the titular role of the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin, Mena Massoud is learning to say no. Appearing on Saturday’s opening day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the Egyptian-Canadian actor recalled that, despite the growing profile and critical acclaim earned from his role in the blockbuster – partly shot in Jordan and starring alongside Will Smith – he is still being offered roles that exacerbate harmful stereotypes of the region.
“My first ever paid role in America was playing Al-Qaeda Number Two. But I had just graduated from theatre school – I didn’t know any better. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do it.’ I wasn’t at a stage where I could say no to things,” he recalls.
“More recently, there was a show being developed with a character that portrayed the Middle East negatively, and I told my agents, ‘I’m not auditioning for it. I don’t even want to see it. And quite honestly, I can’t believe productions are still telling stories like this.'”
It's partly for this reason that Massoud co-founded Press Play Productions in 2021, with offices in Dubai and Los Angeles.
All projects under the banner, he says, will feature globally resonant and multicultural stories, aiming to create the kinds of chances he lacked at the outset of his career nearly 15 years ago. The company has already co-produced two seasons of Massoud’s food travel series Evolving Vegan (based on his cookbook) as well as the coming Egyptian thriller, In Broad Daylight.
"I think the reason I started producing is because there just aren't enough opportunities in Hollywood for people who look like me and you. I believe the only way we make real change is if the people with knowledge of the industry start producing," he says. "There are executives in Hollywood who want to tell these kinds of stories, but they just don't know how, and I think it's up to us to take that responsibility and show it to the world."
When it comes to In Broad Daylight, it is also an opportunity for the region to see Massoud in a different light. Set for release later this year, Massoud’s first full Arabic-language film has him playing the role of Hamza, a globe-trotting con artist on the run from authorities. With a supporting cast that includes screen veterans Bayoumi Fouad and Shereen Reda, and directed by Kareem Sorour – who helmed both seasons of the Ramadan drama series Kalabsh – Massoud describes his first foray into the Egyptian film industry as revealing.
"What I loved about working in Egypt is that they let you do a little bit more than in Hollywood. In Aladdin, I didn't get to do a lot of my own stunts because of insurance purposes," he says. "In Egypt ... I got to perform more of my own stunts, and that was an amazing part of working there. It's very different, but I think it's liberating as well. I understand why artists are so artistic in the Middle East – because it is a little bit more free.
“You can get bound up by the technicalities a lot more in Hollywood. There's so much structure to everything, and that can bind an actor, whereas I felt a little more freedom in Egypt – maybe a little bit too much freedom sometimes – but it works to your advantage."
Massoud reveals another passion project he hopes to get off the ground - a TV series based on figures from the golden era of Egyptian music and film, such as crooner and actor Abdel Halim Hafez.
"Each episode focuses on a different character from that time," he said. "You would do an episode on Abdel Halim, and at the end of that episode, you would meet another figure and follow their journey in the next one. I think we have such a rich tapestry to tap into, and we have the means to do it now because technology has really levelled the playing field between Hollywood and other emerging industries."
Born in Cairo before emigrating to Canada with his family at the age of three, Massoud says the potential series would serve as a form of tribute to his parents, with whom he grew up watching these films – an experience that first sparked his love for acting.
"I really fell in love with acting through Egyptian cinema and TV because that's what my parents watched,” he says. “They weren't watching American TV – that came later for me. But I fell in love with Egyptian cinema, and it was always my dream to come back and act alongside these incredible artists.”
While they are fully behind his burgeoning acting career, Massoud says it took some time for his mother to come to terms with his veganism. "She made this dinner once with these Egyptian dishes – qawareh (bone marrow) and feta with meat – and I remember telling her I couldn't eat any of it," he says. "She cried because I only ate the rice. But she's an amazing cook, and she went on to contribute to the Evolving Vegan book with great recipes like koshari. It meant a lot to get her involved there."
The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is running at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre until May 5
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Section 375
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
