May Calamawy On Stardom, Working With Bella Hadid, And Becoming The First Egyptian Marvel Superhero

The Golden Globe-winning actress speaks to Bazaar Arabia on being an Arab woman in Hollywood, growing up in the Middle East, and her success story…

For better or worse, May Calamawy’s career has been framed by the idea of representation. As one of the few Arab women making it in Hollywood, she has become a point of reference when it comes to how modern Arabs, and more pointedly Arab women, are portrayed on film. A fact that has taken on an interesting new wrinkle as May not only returns to her character of Dena Hassan for the third season of the Golden Globe-winning dramedy Ramy on Hulu; but also plays the first-ever Egyptian superhero, Scarlet Scarab, in the Disney + Marvel series Moon Knight.

“I have realised that it’s kind of impossible to not be written about as an Arab doing a certain level of work, because there aren’t many [of us],” says May. “If you compare different cultures, there aren’t many female Arab actresses in Hollywood that have come from the Middle East, and are doing this. So I understand that probably whatever I do is going to be attached to an Arab label. I do sometimes think about how I can motivate people back home who aren’t just Arab but who simply want to enter the industry and are scared to or told they cannot. I’m still trying to figure out the way to do it,” she adds.

In Moon Knight May plays Layla El-Faouly, the wife of Marc Spector (aka Moon Knight) and in the season finale is transformed into the Scarlet Scarab of comic book lore. When May found out she had landed the role of Layla, she was both excited and cognisant of the high superhero bar her predecessors had set. Having watched Scarlett Johansson as Black Window saving the world with one flying kick at a time or Natalie Portman in the latest Thor: Love and Thunder film wowing the crowd with her spectacular action scenes, May knew she had to step up her game.

“I went to Budapest in March, and I was thrown into a lot of physical training, which was a lot of fun, but challenging,” recounts the actress. “I learned a lot about myself, from meeting this incredible stunt team that really took care of me… to breaking my finger in one of the scenes, it was definitely an experience.”

Truth be told, May didn’t realise until a month after she found out that she had gotten the role of Layla that the story would have a climactic ending where her character would be transformed into Scarlet Scarab. Thus making her the first woman to play the Egyptian superhero on film. But that news was only the icing on the cake in terms of landing the part of Layla. Already the scope of the project and the lead actors she was getting to play off of provided a huge opportunity to grow as an actor.

“Filming it was a whole new experience as with Marvel productions, everything’s bigger, and you really have to use a different muscle. There’d be scenes where I was crying with a ball, not an actor, you know because that’s CGI,” explains May. “During the process, I’d watched Oscar and Ethan [Hawke] and they would share so much. If an idea was taken, great, if it wasn’t taken, they have another [one] to share,” adds May about her time on set.

Jump cut to season three of Ramy, which premiered at the end of September on Hulu. In the series, May’s character Dena is the youngest in the Hassan family. And a central theme of her story arc is how she rails against the double standards and favouritism shown to her brother Ramy – played by actor and lead producer Ramy Youssef – as they make their way in New Jersey as a first-generation American Muslim household.

“Ramy is a genius. I admire how he’s a leader, and pioneer and just goes for something whether or not people will like it. He will listen to his gut and do what he feels is right and execute it,” recounts May. The award-winning show received rather mixed reviews during its initial release, arguably due to the braveness and realness of the storyline. But this is exactly what May believes an international audience needs to see right now, unexpected or alternative depictions of Muslim people and families.

“I think a lot of viewers get irritated sometimes and are like, ‘that’s not my story, that’s not every Arab’s story’. And it’s not because there aren’t many stories told. Sometimes we just want the most realistic… or [a] story that encapsulates every Arab in it. [But] this is just his [Ramy’s] story. We don’t have to put the onus on this show to represent every single Arab person. But [Ramy] has opened doors; he’s definitely made people more curious about the Middle East and about Muslim culture. So I’ll give him that,” reflects May.

This season May has a new co-star on Ramy, supermodel Bella Hadid. This marks her acting debut and will come as quite a surprise for most of the world that only know the twenty-six-year-old as the fashion muse that has been dominating international catwalks for years. “I didn’t have any scenes with Bella, but I was on set when she was working,” recounts the actress. “She is so wonderful and grounded. And she’s like a funny dork in a way, like she’s just quirky and makes fun of herself and doesn’t take it seriously and is cute and very open. She’s just a delight to have around. So it was great to have her there.”

Leading by example, May has skillfully shown her acting range with her two latest characters. Characters that on the surface at least, seem very different. But the actress, who has nearly half a million followers on Instagram, has found a commonality between both of them and her own personality. While delving into the characters on screen, May felt a deep sense of familiarity between her upbringing and her personal journey to self-awareness and the character arcs of both Dena and Layla.

“With Dena, she holds herself close, similarly to my life. I’m a very private person. I am open with my closest friends and people around me but sometimes I don’t know how I come off to a wider group of people. Dena and even Layla for that matter, hold themselves close, [which is] something I can relate to,” confesses the actress. “Layla was just a strong force. She started this journey on the show, trying to find her partner, and then by the end of it realises that she doesn’t need anyone but herself. And that seems to be a theme that I enjoy,” she adds.

Since the tender age of five, May, who was born in Bahrain to an Egyptian father and a Palestinian mother, knew she wanted to be an actress. But it took years for her to win over her family, and overcome her own sentiments about leading a life that was expected of her, to finally follow her childhood dream. A dream that would find her getting an undergraduate degree in acting at Emerson College and then going on to study at the renowned William Esper studio, which counts Kathy Bates, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Kim Bassinger and Jeff Goldblum as alumni.

It seems that May has always been a strong pioneer in doing things ‘outside the norm’. When asked how she believes she contributed to a larger mission of breaking stereotypes for Arab women she smiles, no doubt this isn’t the first time a journalist has asked her this sort of question. Nonetheless, she replies by linking her impact to a lack of knowledge in certain parts of the world about the richness of the Middle East, its culture, heritage and faith.

“People are only going to create and write about what they know. And a lot of people in the States or in the West, haven’t experienced living in the Middle East… at least a lot of writers… so what they know is limited,” says May. “I always used to get frustrated. And now I’m like, ‘it’s not on you to write these stories. It’s on us to write these stories’. And we’re at a really great intersection where more Arabs, and people in the East too, are using their voices more and sharing their stories.”

Photography: Jamie Nelson. Styling: Anna Castan. Images: Getty Images, Courtesy of Marvel Studios, Supplied.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s November 2022 issue.