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Mena Massoud as Aladdin
(Disney)

Mena Massoud Has Had a ‘Mentality Shift’ After Past Disney Movie Controversy

Mena Massoud, the man who played the title character in the live-action remake of Disney’s Aladdin, has had a rough time in Hollywood. Even though Aladdin made more than $1 billion, Massoud found it difficult to get auditions afterwards.

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Understandably, he wasn’t happy about it. “I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin,” he told The Daily Beast in 2019. “‘He must have made millions. He must be getting all these offers.’ It’s none of those things. I haven’t had a single audition since Aladdin came out.”

He went on, “The big truth is I haven’t really seen a big anything from [Aladdin]. It’s wild to a lot of people. People have these ideas in their head. It’s like, I’m sitting here being like, okay, 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?”

Many people believed that Massoud was having difficulty getting roles because of Hollywood racism. He is Egyptian and that’s an underrepresented group in the entertainment industry. But now — despite the ongoing issues people of color face in Hollywood — Massoud seems to be seeing some success once more. According to a new interview with People magazine, he changed his way of thinking about life.

“I think it’s a mentality shift more than anything,” he told the publication about his past comments. “I think we can get stuck in looking at things in a negative way or a positive way.”

He went on, “At that time, I was younger. I filmed Aladdin in 2017, so it’s been almost eight years now. And, I think you mature as you go through this industry and you realize like, I mean, look, we’re pretty lucky to do what we’re doing. There’s ups and downs in everything, and I think as long as you keep that passion for what you’re doing, that’s the most important thing.”

Right now, Massoud is starring in the directorial debut of actress Julia Stiles, Wish You Were Here. But as much as some people are happy to see him getting roles again, others still bear a grudge against him for what he did during the period when he was having difficulty.

Another POC-led Disney live-action remake, The Little Mermaid, came out in 2023. It starred Black actress Halle Bailey as Ariel. This film was different from Aladdin because the title character was not originally Black, and Bailey was unfortunately subjected to racist abuse for playing a race-swapped character. And Massoud’s comments on the movie did absolutely nothing to help.

Massoud’s since-deleted comment on the movie read, “Our film [Aladdin] was unique in that audiences went to watch it multiple times. It’s the only way we reached the billion dollar mark with our opening. My guess is TLM doesn’t cross the billion mark but will undoubtedly get a sequel.”

Many people took this as an anti-Black remark and the backlash was intense. Massoud ended up deleting his Twitter account in the wake of it, and he’s never returned to the platform. And despite his change in mentality when it comes to getting roles, it’s unlikely Massoud will ever have the same fandom he had after Aladdin. People were appalled at the racist behavior that surrounded The Little Mermaid, and though Massoud may not have meant to be insulting people certainly took it that way.

Massoud has never commented on the scandal and perhaps he never will. We’ll just have to wait and see where his career goes from here… but the internet never forgets.


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Author
Image of Sarah Barrett
Sarah Barrett
Sarah Barrett (she/her) is a freelance writer with The Escapist who has been working in journalism since 2014. She loves to write about movies, even the bad ones. (Especially the bad ones.) The Raimi Spider-Man trilogy and the Star Wars prequels changed her life in many interesting ways. She lives in one of the very, very few good parts of England.