Interview: Run This Town’s Mena Massoud on navigating from Aladdin to the morally complex world of Rob Ford

Before Trump became the world’s most recognizable bumbling politician, former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford held that position for a fleeting moment at the start of the last decade. A big and boisterous presence in Toronto politics, Ford was known for having a severe drinking problem, which was often blamed for his erratic public appearances and outbursts. Then came the video. In 2013, a video showing Ford smoking crack began being offered up to Toronto media organizations. The video became a global scandal, with Ford as the punchline as he continued to serve in office (the video was officially released by the police in 2016 after Ford’s death).

First-time feature director Ricky Tollman tackles the scandal and its ramifications in Run This Town, a white-knuckled look at a young journalist named Bram Shriver (Ben Platt) trying to expose the video and Ford’s assistant Kamal Arafa (Mena Massoud) trying to protect Ford (played by a prosthetics-laden Damian Lewis) even as he becomes increasingly more unstable and volatile, including towards his own staffer Ashley Pollock (Nina Dobrev).

While Run This Town is ostensibly about Ford’s downfall, Tollman really focuses on the lives of Bram, Kamal, and Ashley, three ambitious millennials struggling to succeed in the cut-throat worlds of journalism and politics without losing their souls.

We caught up with Mena Massoud to discuss his complicated character in Run This Town, starring in Disney’s blockbuster Aladdin and not being able to land an audition afterward, the launch of his Ethnically Diverse Artists foundation to support Canadian artists, and much more.

Run This Town is in theatres on March 13. Massoud also stars in the new thriller Reprisal, streaming now on Hulu, while Aladdin is currently streaming on Disney+.

Bad Feeling Magazine: What was it like living in Toronto when the Rob Ford scandal broke?

Mena Massoud: I think it was very polarizing, you know? I was in theatre school at the time, I went to Ryerson. People in the arts community weren’t big fans of Rob Ford, but I had a lot of other friends who were big fans of him. So, I think the city was just polarized. You know what? It’s a lot like what’s happening with Donald Trump now. Everybody you talk to doesn’t seem to be a fan of Trump, but obviously there are a lot of people that like him and vote for him.

As much as the movie is about Rob Ford, it’s also about Millennials trying to survive in a difficult city; is that something you responded to in the script? They’re balancing expectations from their families, but trying to succeed.

Of course, I think you hit the nail on the head. That’s really what the film is about, it’s about Millennials and how we’ve basically inherited society from our parents and the older generation. I think Millennials get really bashed on for not being educated enough, spending all their time on the internet, things that aren’t necessarily true, and this really focuses on a different side of that. And also the immigrant experience. This film, especially my character Kamal, really talks about the immigrant experience and living up to expectations. There’s two sides of the coin with Kamal and Bram. Bram basically gets his job because he has connections and his parents hook him up with the job, and Kamal works towards everything he achieves in life because he’s an immigrant and comes from nothing essentially.

You’ve said that this was the hardest acting job of your career; what made this role such a challenge?

Yeah, I believe what I actually said was that it was very difficult in certain ways. I was coming off of Aladdin doing this film. The hardest part of Aladdin wasn’t so much the dialogue, with this film it was, the dialogue was incredibly difficult. Ricky Tollman wrote for both me and Ben these long monologues that we then had to basically perform at super-speed because politicians and journalists talk very fast. So it was difficult in that way.

Kamal is the most complex character in the film; he’s enabling Rob Ford, who’s doing these reprehensible things, but that’s what his job calls for. What spoke to you about the character initially?

I think he’s kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. I think he sees the good in Rob Ford, which a lot of people did by the way in Toronto. So, he sees the good, but he also sees how he’s behaving and how he’s affecting people around him, like Ashley, who’s played by Nina Dobrev. I think that’s one of Kamal’s biggest regrets and it’s something that we can all relate to when you see someone being bullied or something happening that shouldn’t be happening, and you don’t speak up, you don’t say anything about it, you kind of just let it happen. I think that’s Kamal’s character flaw if you will. He sees this happening, but he ultimately doesn’t do anything to stick up for Ashley or make it right. So, that really attracted me. Whenever you have a character that’s seemingly a good character but then they have a flaw like that, that’s the kind of character you want to play.

What was the transition from Aladdin to Run This Town like? I can’t imagine two more different productions back-to-back.

Yeah, that’s what I’m really trying to do with my career right now, I’m trying to do as many different things as possible, as many different genres. I really liked that this was kind of the polar opposite of what Aladdin was. I shot this two months after I wrapped Aladdin, so that’s what I was looking for. And it’s the same thing with Reprisal on Hulu. I shot that after [Run This Town], and I wanted to do something completely different. It’s tough, but it’s what I love about being an actor. The more experiences I can have like this, and the more different things I can do, the better I’ll be for it five, ten years from now.

You had a big article in The Daily Beast last year where you spoke about not being able to get on audition even after Aladdin made over a billion dollars; was it difficult to be open about that process in the media?

My parents taught me to always be truthful, and I’m a pretty truthful person, so I don’t think I was doing anything wrong. I was just telling people my personal truth, my personal experience. It’s what I’m all about, it’s the same reason I started the EDA Foundation, my non-profit here in Canada, it’s to be able to help Canadian ethnically diverse artists so that it’s easier for the future generations. When I look at other groups in Hollywood that have done really, really well, the reason that they’ve gone to the place they are now is because they had generations and generations before them fighting for them. So, I want to be able to do that for the younger generation of ethnically diverse artists.

What’s the response to the foundation been like so far?

We actually just opened up applications a couple of days ago. We were really working on the infrastructure before that, so the infrastructure is in place now, we’re officially a non-for-profit. We’re really there to help all artists, not just actors. Dancers, musicians, painters, all artists are welcome to apply if they know exactly what they need help with, and we’ll try to help and aid them.

What do you having coming out next that people can look out for?

I have Reprisal out on Hulu. As far as what’s next, I’m still trying to figure out what my next job is. Obviously, we just talked about the news that came out at the end of last year; that wasn’t fake news, it was very much real. [Laughs] So, I’m still trying to figure out what my next job will be, and we’ll see what happens over the next few months.

Is there a certain director you’d love to work with or a specific type of project you’d like to pursue?

You now…how do I say this? I’m not really in a position where I can be very particular about things, so I’m open to any and all projects. The one thing I always look at is the script. If the script is good, then I don’t really care if the director is a first-time director. I mean. Ricky was a first-time feature director, so if the script is good that’s where it all starts for me. Obviously I’d love to work with Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson and Tarantino, but I think I’ll have to build my way up to that point for a little bit.

Run This Town is in theatres on March 13.