Mena Massoud in Dubai: World has changed for Arab actors | tabloid - video Dailymotion

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The Aladdin actor gets candid about how tough it is to get a job in Hollywood. Gulf News tabloid  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.

Mena Massoud in Dubai: World has changed for Arab actors | tabloid

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