DUBAI: British-Egyptian actor Amir El-Masry is having the busiest year of his career. With two films set to make major debuts on the festival circuit and a slate of projects across cinema and television, El-Masry is taking 2025 by storm.
His new film “100 Nights of Hero” debuts at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 6, and will close the London Film Festival in early October. The project — adapted from Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel (which was itself based on the Middle Eastern folk-tale collection “One Thousand and One Nights”) — caught El-Masry’s attention immediately.
“First and foremost, what drew me to the film was the passion of the director, Julia Jackman,” the Cairo-born, 35-year-old actor tells Arab News. “I really love her style. I’d seen her short film ‘Pigs’ and it was great. I couldn’t wait to have a meeting with her.”
The second attraction was the chance to try something new. ”It’s based off of a graphic novel — something that I’ve not actually done before,” El-Masry says. “I always try and do something that’s untouched waters for me.”
Masry plays Jerome, a newlywed whose apathy towards his wife leads to a dangerous gamble.
“He sets a wager with his friend to say, ‘Listen: I’m going to be away for 100 nights. If you are able to woo my wife, you get to keep her and the castle,’” El-Masry explains.
Apart from the director, the impressive ensemble cast — which includes Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Nicholas Galitzine, Felicity Jones, Charli XCX and Richard E. Grant — was also a huge draw for El-Masry.
“On paper, with a cast like that, you’d assume it’s a multi-million-dollar project, when in actual fact it wasn’t,” he says. “But this is the power of Julia and the whole team. The script was hugely sought after, and they were able to draw amazing talent. Emma Corrin is just mesmerizing. And I’m a big fan of Richard E. Grant — I was lucky enough to work with him in ‘Star Wars.’ And Felicity Jones, I was in ‘Rosewater’ with, and now she’s become a household name in Britain. I feel very privileged to be amongst them.”
The London Film Festival will be getting a double dose of El-Masry this year. Aside from “100 Nights of Hero,” the actor also appears in “Giant,” which screens the day before.
Amir El Masry (left) and Pierce Brosnan in 'Giant.' (Supplied)
Directed by British-Indian filmmaker Rowan Athale, “Giant” tells the true story of legendary British-Yemeni boxer Naseem Hamed (aka Prince Naseem), with El-Masry in the demanding lead role. Preparing for the part meant months of physical and emotional training.
“It was intense,” he said. “I trained for about five weeks, pretty much in a camp, 12-hour-day sessions. I’d wake up at 6 a.m., go to the gym at 7 a.m., and finish working out at 7 p.m.”
The process included strict dietary plans and intensive movement coaching.
“I had the best trainers… my diet was very high in protein with a lot of carbs, because I was working out the whole day. And I had an amazing choreographer, Polly Bennett, who also helped Rami Malek in ’Bohemian Rhapsody.’
“It was a lot of research — watching videos of Naseem, interviews of him. Because it’s one thing to do an impression of someone, but it’s another thing capturing their essence.”
The film also stars Pierce Brosnan as his trainer. Brosnan’s professionalism left a deep impression on El-Masry.
“He’s just a consummate gentleman and professional,” El-Masry said. “He treated it like it was his first job. He’d give 100 percent off-camera for my close-ups. We have a very intense scene towards the end of the movie, and he really gave. He was a real father figure in this whole process. Honestly, I love that guy.”
For El-Masry, the story goes far beyond boxing. “It’s a human story. Expect to see a film that is more like ‘Billy Elliot’ than ‘Creed.’ We have the exciting fights, but it’s also such a grounded, gritty British drama.”
Even with two major film releases to promote, El-Masry isn’t slowing down. He is currently filming the second season of “The Agency” for Paramount, starring alongside Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, and Jodie Turner-Smith.
“I’m a series regular in the new season,” he reveals. “Again, that’s new territory for me.”
He is also reprising his role in the comedy “Faithless,” about a half-Irish, half-Egyptian family living in Dublin. “It’s a super-fun show about a family trying to navigate life and raise three girls with no skill whatsoever. I love doing it, and I love doing the Irish accent — it’s one of my favorites.”
Alongside his international projects, El-Masry continues to champion Arab stories on screen too.
In the 2020 comedy-drama “Limbo,” he won acclaim for his performance as Omar, a Syrian musician hoping to settle in the UK who finds himself placed on a remote Scottish island with fellow asylum seekers waiting for their applications to be processed. In the 2019 Danish film “Daniel,” El-Masry played a member of a Daesh group who kidnap a photojournalist. “This man was so interesting as a person — how can someone become so vile? I wouldn’t ever be inclined to play a terrorist at all; I remember being worried what people would think of this representation of Islam,” he says. “But a journalist who had met him told me, ‘Don’t you worry, Islam will always defend itself. This man does not represent Islam.’ That gave me confidence.
“I think a lot about Arab representation when I pick scripts,” he continues. “I always go towards the truth. We have to give the audience the benefit of the doubt — they are intelligent enough to decipher the difference between fact and fiction. So I always go for something that speaks true to me, but also speaks true to others.”
He cites “The Stories,” by Egyptian-Austrian director Abu Bakr Shawky, which is due to premiere on this year’s festival circuit. “It’s an international film, with French, Austrian, Belgian and Egyptian producers. It has that universal story about love and how, even if two people don’t speak the same language, they can be connected in so many ways,” he says. “Those are the kind of stories that I wish to promote more.”
