The Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Masoud was cast in the lead role of Disney’s live action adaptation of Aladdin, and most impressively of all, Egyptian-American actor, Rami Malek won Best Actor at the 2019 Academy Awards for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
#What do egyptians think of the mummy movies full
The critically acclaimed and award-winning series Ramy, centred around a modern Egyptian-American family, features a full Egyptian and Arab cast, and is created by Egyptian-American comedian Ramy Youssef. In the last few years there have been tremendous achievements coming out of the Egyptian community in Hollywood. Is there a shortage of talent in the Egyptian community? Perhaps there are simply no Egyptian actors out there? Israeli-born actress actress Gal Gadot has been chosen to play Cleopatra, Sadly, all of these actresses have one curious and vital trait missing from their portrayal of an Egyptian Pharaoh: None of them are Egyptian.
But this certainly wasn’t the last time we saw the Queen of the Nile on the silver screen: Leonor Varela played Cleopatra 1999, Monica Bellucci played her in 2002 and Virginia Madsen played her in 2005. With her chipped trans-Atlantic accent and WASPy features, a more inauthentic portrayal of the Mediterranean royal there could not have been.
Donning the serpent headed crown in 1963, Taylor cemented herself in the public imagination with the name of the Egyptian queen. Perhaps the most iconic portrayal of Cleopatra to date was performed by Elizabeth Taylor. To put it simply, our diversity doesn’t make us less Egyptian, our diversity is Egyptian. In my own case, although I identify as Egyptian, my results tell me that I have West African and broader Middle Eastern heritage, including Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi descent. Yet, like the fabled Queen, we claim and celebrate our Egyptian identity. Mixed heritage is a common reality for modern day Egyptians, who are as ethnically complex as our ancestor, Cleopatra. Yet the moment we have a chance at royalty, our ethnicity becomes ‘too complicated’ for just an Egyptian to play. To me, this raises the question: ‘What is an Egyptian?’ To me, this raises the question: ‘What is an Egyptian?’ Yet the moment we have a chance at royalty, our ethnicity becomes ‘too complicated’ for just an Egyptian to play. There’s no doubt that we are Egyptian enough to play terrorists, criminals and grave robbers. I’ve read all the excuses for this decision, including the argument that Cleopatra was part Maltese and Greek, and therefore not ‘Egyptian’ enough to require a woman of North African decent to play her. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the recent announcement that actress Gal Gadot, who is of European Jewish heritage, has been chosen to play Cleopatra in a production led by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.
Within this context, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the recent announcement that actress Gal Gadot, who is of European Jewish heritage, has been chosen to play Cleopatra in a production led by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.
In relatively recent films such as The Mummy (1999) and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), the heroes were always played by white actors like Brendan Fraser and Christian Bale.Īctual Egyptians, and Arabs more broadly, usually performed the roles of a bumbling sideshow act in these movies: stealing treasures from ancient tombs or summoning evil spirits with the help of the occult typifying the very worst stereotypes of Orientalist fantasy. On the silver screen, Egyptian stories were more plentiful but these too were problematic: played by non-Egyptians in bronze face. These Arabs were involved in dangerous underground violence and drug-use in shows such as East West 101 and Underbelly: The Golden Mile. The nearest I came was stories about criminals and ex-criminals. Growing up in Australia as the son of Egyptian migrants, I longed to see Egyptians in mainstream television productions.