We embraced Mena Massoud as Aladdin and apparently the world did, too since Disney has raked in a great big wad of cash with its live action rendition of the cartoon classic.
Aladdin grossed $355.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $695.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.051 billion, against a production budget of $183 million.
Yes, Aladdin was just like the cartoon, but with its fleshy version of the street rat, we were a little more intrigued. And, of course before and after the film, we Googled the heck out of Mena Massoud. We’ll share some more pics of him at the end, but with a couple like these, we’re stalking his socials for more peeks at those big brown eyes, epic smile, and that Egyptian sexiness.
Massoud has done more than wearing the Fez hat for that Floridian mouse, like his small role in Amazon’s Jack Ryan (shown in the Instagram post above), but that was completed before meeting his costar Will Smith on the set of Aladdin.
He’s also been honored recently with more accolades than the box office results, like when he received the SCAD Savannah Film Festival 2019 Breakout Award. But Massoud shared with The Daily Beast recently that he has struggled to find roles that aren’t terrorists, and fighting to gain access to audition rooms where the waiting area is blanketed by all white actors.
Mena goes on to mention more about not booking an audition since Aladdin was released.
“It’s wild to a lot of people,” he says. “People have these ideas in their head. It’s like, I’m sitting here being like, OK, Aladdin just hit $1 billion. Can I at least get an audition? Like I’m not expecting you to be like, here’s Batman. But can I just get in the room? Like, can you just give me a chance? So it’s not always what you think.” – The Daily Beast
Like the Jack Ryan work, his newest role in this Friday’s release of Reprisal, was done before Aladdin’s release.
Reprisal follows “a relentless femme fatale who, after being left for dead, leads a vengeful campaign against a bombastic gang of gearheads.”
Were looking forward to binge watching this dark exciting gift.
https://youtu.be/Usiz8IDnv8k
A little bit of Revenge, dontcha think? But we didn’t get a good glimpse of what Mena’s role will be in Reprisal. Fortunately, he brought those big brown eyes and infectious smile to Jimmy Kimmel to talk about his new role and more.
People seriously have not hired this sexy nugget of yumminess? Is the Disney role keeping him from doing more? We’re thinking this new role will break him free of the faux prince popularity.
No matter what he does next, we’ll have his Insta to browse. Thanks, Mena. We’ll be watching.
And we also like to think we’re who he’s talking about in this clip from Open Heart TV back in 2015.
https://youtu.be/r5Iio6BElOA
Source: Instagram @menamassoud , The Daily Beast