Unless you've been living under a rock (or, uh, inside a magic lamp), you probably know that Disney released a live-action remake of Aladdin this year and it made a buttload of money — over a billion dollars, to be exact.
But the star of that remake, Mena Massoud, just opened up in a candid interview with the Daily Beast about his life post-Aladdin and the struggles he's faced finding work.
“I’m kind of tired of staying quiet about it,” he explained in the interview. “I want people to know that it’s not always dandelions and roses when you’re doing something like Aladdin.”
Massoud said most people just assume he must be super rich and successful now that he's starred in a huge box office hit:
"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 revealed.
"I'm sitting here being like, OK, Aladdin just hit $1 billion. Can I at least get an audition?"
Massoud said that Hollywood is still hesitant to give him chances, despite his first film's success:
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.
He also revealed that he's had to "pull back" his expectations for success in the wake of Aladdin:
I think since Aladdin my expectations for things releasing and what they’re going to do in my career, I’ve had to really pull them back. Because, you know, I got the same question about Aladdin and it was like, "Oh, you know, Aladdin’s coming out. How do you feel about what that’s going to do to your career?" The big truth is I haven’t really seen a big anything from it.
“As for whether people are gonna discover me from it or what it’s going to do, I literally have no clue,” he concluded. “I can’t tell you I know how things are going to work out anymore.”
You can check out Massoud's full interview with the Daily Beast here.
