Amir El-Masry on Becoming Prince Naseem Hamed in Giant
Amir El-Masry opened up about his role as Prince Naseem Hamed in Giant, a part that meant taking on the story of someone he had long admired.
To make the portrayal feel authentic, El-Masry studied countless interviews with Hamed, paying close attention to everything from his walk to his mannerisms. He also reunited with a collaborator from The Crown to help bring the finer details of the character to life.
Playing one of his own heroes came with its own pressure. El-Masry had to transform physically in a short period, losing weight while building muscle, all while finding the balance between having enough self-belief to embody Hamed and staying grounded in the reality of the role.
From the interview
Full transcript · English
Yeah the moment we we had a rehearsal process so when Pierce came and we sat and we had a little one-to-one session together but there's a specific scene away from the cameras away from the noise away from the fighting where it's just me and him and it's a beautiful beautiful scene it's the scene that actually made me want to do the film Growing up watching him and being a massive fan of his I had to make sure that it was as real and authentic as possible and the only way to do that was to incessantly watch countless videos of him being interviewed video home videos and I was really lucky that I got to work with Polly Bennett who I'd worked with before on the crown and we worked on the way he walks the way the way his mannerisms are little intricate details the things that maybe new and I wouldn't notice on the day-to-day I think one of the most daunting prospects is just playing one of my heroes you know I grew up watching him I idolized him I wanted to be a boxer when I was a kid you know so so to be able to play him was the most daunting prospect and to lose weight in four and a half weeks to get into that into that shape and gain muscle at the same time man that was that was like a proper proper military camp you know I was delulu I was completely delulu about my about anything I could do anything okay any role no one's gonna tell me no I'm the best I'm the fucking best that's how that's how I like I had it in my head and I had such a hard hard hard shell and I think it's important to have a degree of delusion but also realism as well and rationale because and be human and have humility as well at the same time because at any point in turn you're gonna get a thousand nose you're gonna get knocked down several times but it's about using that as fuel to wake up the next day and go how can I be better
