Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud, who stars in the anticipated live action reboot of Aladdin alongside Will Smith, sent a dedicated message to his Egyptian fans on social media to express his pride of being Egyptian and encourage his fans to see it.
Titled ‘Egypt, this one’s for you!’, Massoud begins the video with “Oh Egyptian people, greetings!”
“I am excited for you to see the film Aladdin that is produced by Disney. I am proud to be part of this film and I hope you love it as much as I do and you enjoy it as I much as I did filming it.”
During a press conference in Jordan, Massoud wished the Muslims Ramadan Kareem, stating “Inshallah, may God bring more happy days to the Arab and Muslim communities and Ramadan Kareem.”
Massoud was born in Cairo, Egypt to Egyptian Coptic Christian parents before immigrating to Canada when he was three-years-old.
He previously worked in television, playing roles like Jared Malik in the 2015 series Open Heart and Tarek Kassar in the Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.
Over 2,000 actors and actresses auditioned for the roles of Aladdin and Jasmine, yet finding a male lead of Middle-Eastern descent in his 20s was difficult.
After extended search, Massoud beat out other actors Riz Ahmed and Dev Patel to take on the role of Aladdin, alongside Will Smith as Genie and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine.
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