The Aladdin actor gets candid about how tough it is to get a job in Hollywood. Gulf News tabloid
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#MenaMassoud #Aladdin2 #Hollywood
Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/2Q3sVnB
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
#MenaMassoud #Aladdin2 #Hollywood
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00:00I grew up in Canada and I was 10 years old when 9-11 happened and I think that
00:04really changed the landscape for Arabs around the world, obviously, but
00:09especially Arab actors. I think we started getting viewed a little differently.
00:15Yeah, I'm pretty good at being incognito.
00:18Honestly, not much has changed. I gotta be honest with you. It's the same old,
00:22same hustle, same grind. Yeah, not much has changed. I think I was even surprised
00:26by how little it's changed. I hope so. I mean, no one's formally spoken to me
00:32about it. I actually had a friend send me the article. That's how I found out, so
00:35I'm hearing everything for the first time, like everyone else is, so I hope
00:39they, you know, write the script and, you know, do a good job and see what happens.
00:46And you're in for that?
00:47Yeah, definitely, yeah. I grew up in Canada and I was 10 years old when 9-11
00:52happened and I think that really changed the landscape for Arabs around the world,
00:56obviously, but especially Arab actors. I think we started getting viewed a little
00:59differently. My whole experience, just as a kid before 9-11, after 9-11, was
01:05drastically different, so, you know, I think that's definitely made things more
01:10difficult. I barely got to work with Ben because we basically lead two separate
01:14storylines, really, in the film, but I got to work with Nina a lot. We really bonded
01:18and I was excited to work with her because she's a pretty famous Canadian
01:22actress and I hadn't worked with her before, so that was a lot of fun. I play
01:28Kamal and he basically is the right-hand man to Rob Ford, who this film kind of
01:35revolves around, and Kamal runs his life, his day-to-day. He protects him from the
01:41media outlets and runs his whole life, so I think it's a good narrative on the
01:49millennial experience, the immigrant experience, the character I play is an
01:53immigrant, he takes care of his grandmother. I think it's got a lot of
01:56very relevant thematic messages to portray.
02:01Do you think it's tough to get Canadian stories noticed?
02:04Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. Canada's a small market and I think sometimes we do
02:12too much of supporting American stories in Hollywood and not enough supporting
02:17our own, so yeah, I think it's a little difficult to get Canadian stories out
02:22there. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out my next job, you know, beggars
02:26can't be choosers, is what they say, so I'm open to anything and everything. I
02:32started my production company, we're trying to produce a few things, get that
02:36off the ground, so it's a pretty wide open landscape and I've probably got a
02:41book tour coming up for my book that's coming out in September, so you know,
02:46things here and there.
02:47And just completely off-topic, how did you feel about the Raptors win?
02:51Haha, ecstatic, I'm sad Kawhi Leonard left, but we're doing well this season
02:57without him, so hopefully we'll make it back to the finals again.
03:01Amazing, thank you so much, Meena.
03:03You're welcome, thank you very much.