Actor Mena Massoud says the upcoming live action adaptation of Aladdin is important with respect to the representation of people of colour in Hollywood. Mena, who was born in Egypt and lived in Canada, will be seen as Aladdin in the Disney film.
“I don’t feel a lot of pressure but a lot of responsibility. I think things are changing with Rami Malek winning an Oscar for doing an incredible job as Freddie Mercury. There are a lot of Middle Eastern actors coming up,” he said.
“I think this film is important for representation. Hopefully, if it does well in cinema, Hollywood can have confidence in the fact that you can put a Middle Eastern in a lead role or in iconic role and it will still do well,” he added.
He said Princess Jasmine will be empowering women all over the world. “We really focused on making this an empowering role for women all over the world seeing it and Naomi does an incredible job with that,” added the actor.
Most people will have first heard of Mena Massoud from having watched the trailers for Disney’s live-action remake of ‘Aladdin’. But in reality, the 27-year-old star has been working away diligently for almost a decade.
