Quotes from Mena Massoud

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

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.

Christoph Waltz, you know, blew up in Hollywood at a very old age. He won two Oscars back-to-back so I thought, 'You know what? Even if it happens when I'm 50, that's fine.' You know, I'll always keep going, always keep trying.

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.

We don't tell Canadian stories enough.

My parents saw certain things differently than other people.

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

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

When we represent all cultures with sensitivity and truth, we foster a society that supports all people.

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

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.

I grew up on Abdul Halim Hafez and Esmail Yassine, a great comedic actor. I think Adel Imam also changed and revolutionised the game and comedy in Egypt.

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.

My exercise regime for the film was really intense. I'd work out with a trainer six days a week, and then I had a stunt rehearsal team that would do boxing, stretching, and a little bit of parkour. And yet, people don't get to see me shirtless in this movie. I don't know if you've seen the trailer, but this Aladdin wears a shirt.

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

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'm pretty good at going incognito.

There is such a peace out in the middle of the desert. There's nothing like it.

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

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?

We've got to celebrate all diverse artists and actors and 'Aladdin' does that really well.

As artists we have an extraordinary and rare privilege to tell the stories of our people, our land, our culture. They grip us, tear us apart, and put us back together. We are our stories.

Aladdin' was one of the few things that I watched as a kid where I was like, 'Oh, that guy looks like me and has a similar culture to mine.'

I went through it in high school. It's like, 'Who am I? Am I good enough? Is my background good enough? I know I'm different, but do I have a voice?'