Aladdin star responds to Princess Jasmine casting controversy

Aladdin star Mena Massoud has responded to the controversy surrounding the casting of Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine.

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, Massoud addressed the offended response from followers on social media who thought the function ought to have gone to somebody of Arab heritage, slightly than Scott, who’s British and of Indian descent.

“It’s a funny thing that’s happening online,” stated Massoud. “The Middle Easterners need Aladdin to be a Middle Eastern story, and the Indians need Aladdin to be an Indian story.

“The reality is, it’s actually a people story from the 1800s, and Agrabah is a fictional place that’s a fruits of India and Asia and the Middle East.

“In reality, within the unique people story, Aladdin was really of Chinese descent. So what we needed to do with this was signify as many alternative cultures from that a part of the world as potential.”

Recently, Scott instructed Digital Spy that persons are changing into extra “open-minded” about range on display screen.

She stated: “We’re busting these myths of ‘this may not promote’ and ‘this may not promote’, it is like, ‘No it would… Beauty and the Beast made this a lot, Wonder Woman, Black Panther‘.

“All of these examples that are breaking those ceilings which I think is really important because I think people want to see themselves, and there’s a whole big world out there so there’s lots of different people to represent.”

Aladdin is in cinemas now.

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