Top 45 Mena Massoud Quotes

We immigrated when I was 3 1/2 years old, to Toronto. But I’m still very, very close to my culture and – back home in Egypt.

Canada‘s a small market. I think sometimes we do too much of supporting American stories in Hollywood and not enough supporting our own.

I’m predominately an actor first.

We’re – we’re Coptic Christian.

Aladdin is a good soul. He is very selfless and usually does things for other people, but as he falls in love, he loses himself a little bit and starts to become someone that he is not. But he is a person with good intentions and has good people surrounding him who lead him back to where he is supposed to be.

When we uplift artists who reflect diverse perspectives their stories not only tell us how people view others, but how they view themselves.

I was very different than everybody else growing up. I spoke a different language at home, I ate different food, and I looked different. So I could always relate to Aladdin in that way, being the outcast.

I think the first time I watched ‘Aladdin’ was when I was still in Egypt, because I was born in Cairo.

I’m trying to be a voice for the North African Arab community. We’ve got to continue to fight for our place in the industry.

I don’t like the word ‘vegan‘ on its own, and the reason I started Evolving Vegan, is because the people associated with that word can be very militant.

I went to schools that had a significantly large Caucasian population and I feel very fortunate because I was able to compare that perspective with my family‘s. It allowed me to create a wider world view on things.

Guy Ritchie likes to ground things in realism.

It’s a funny thing that’s happening online. The Middle Easterners want ‘Aladdin’ to be a Middle Eastern story, and the Indians want ‘Aladdin’ to be an Indian story. The truth is, it’s really a folk tale from the 1800s, and Agrabah is a fictional place that’s a culmination of India and Asia and the Middle East.

I grew up loving okra.

The beautiful thing about art is that there’s always somewhere to go. There’s always something new to explore and, as an artist, that’s just what I want to do. I wanna keep exploring new things with different directors with different producers and different styles and tones.

I was in AP chemistry in high school, and I really liked it.

I always view auditions as the first and last time I’ll ever do a character, so that’s how I like to see the joy in it. Assuming I don’t ever book this, I get to play this character this one time and give it my all because I’ll never play it again.

Ryerson helped me because I was around acting all the time. It was pretty much all I thought about, even if I didn’t really get to practice every day; I definitely thought about it. Actually a lot of it was just sitting and watching, especially in my last year, but I think a good actor learns from everything.

I can’t compete for roles that require me to be Caucasian or African American, even if those characters really connect with me and intrigue me.

I would wish we would get to a place of colour-blind casting, where it didn’t matter what colour skin you are, where you came from, anybody could play anybody and we didn’t judge it.

We’re trying to give back to artists of colour and make the journey for them a little easier.

I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like ‘Aladdin.’

I grew up in a culturally different household.

I’m pretty good at going incognito.

I get really quiet when I’m nervous. I don’t freak out.

I put in my time, I worked hard and I followed my dreams.

How often do we get to go to the biggest cinemas in the world and see diverse actors make up the majority of the cast?

Growing up, I didn’t see anybody with my skin color or my background. I didn’t know it was possible to have a Middle Eastern actor in a lead role.

In the industry, artists of of color struggle the most. Caucasian artists have really solidified themselves in the industry, and with African Americans now we see directors and producers who vow to only produce work that shines a light on African American artists. But everybody in the middle gets lost.

I have two older sisters.

We’ve got to be able to get to a point where we represent everybody equally.

My parents saw certain things differently than other people.

I shocked my parents with a lot of things, whether it was becoming an actor or when I was dating someone outside the Egyptian community or when I moved away from home before getting married.

I grew up not really seeing a lot of leads in the industry that weren’t like – and I look up to these people – but like Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale.

In fact, in the original folk tale, Aladdin was actually of Chinese descent. So what we wanted to do with this was represent as many different cultures from that part of the world as possible.

I grew up speaking Arabic at home.

There’s always a wild card or two when you’re casting. I’m usually the wild card. In a room of Caucasian guys, a director might be like, ‘OK, let’s see, like, two guys who aren’t. And maybe they’ll be the wild card choice.’

I can’t change what casting directors do or what producers do. I can only change what I do.

A lot of the Egyptian community is made up of doctors, pharmacists and engineers. All throughout high school I took sciences, but eventually I chose to pursue what I truly want to do.

I went to theater school in Toronto for four years and grew up around actors, and things like headshots could cost you from $500 to $1,000. That can be a big deal for a struggling artist.

We don’t tell Canadian stories enough.

I think since ‘Aladdin’ my expectations for things releasing and what they’re going to do in my career, I’ve had to really pull them back.

A good learner learns from everything!

My parents knew about the story of Aladdin far before the animation film. It’s a folk tale that is very prevalent in Egypt.

Actions speak louder than words, and the best way to set an example is to just go out and do a good job.