YOUSSEF NABIL

In conversation with Faten Hamama

Faten Hamama: There is a serenity to your portraits. I love the ones you did of me. There is a certain subtle drama in them. You know how to present people in a different way.

Youssef Nabil: This comes from the old movies that I grew up watching on Egyptian TV, and which I loved. The actors in those movies looked very different to the actors we see now. So actually, this quality in my work comes from the way I saw you in the movies you acted in! Did you always dream of being a star?

F.H: I started very young. My family told me that, as a child, I was always imitating what I saw. I used to get on top of our dining table and imitate things for them. So they noticed that there was something in me…

Y.N: Did your family encourage you?

F.H: Yes, they did, although it was very difficult at that time to encourage your kid to be an actress, especially for my grandparents on both sides of our family. I was six years old then. And did your family encourage you to become an artist?

Y.N: They were very worried initially; they didn't understand what I wanted to do. They asked me to go to university first, then do whatever I wanted after that. I studied French Literature at Ain Shams University, took my degree, and gave it to them … You were very young when you made your first move, A Happy Day (Yom Said), with Mohamed Abdel Wahab.

F.H: Yes, I was nine years old. I had a contract with Abdel Wahab's company, but they never created a story especially for me, as they did in Hollywood for Shirley Temple. They were always preparing the next Abdel Wahab movie … In my second movie, A Bullet in the Heart (Rossassa Fil Alb), they created a role for me in the middle of the story. After that I no longer had an exclusive contract and I was free to work in Youssef Wahbi movies and many others.

Y.N: Was it easy for you to choose the right roles? I sense that this was difficult at the time.

F.H: In the beginning it was not really possible to choose. Sometimes I was really happy about my role; in other films I was very sad, even hating the movie and my role in it. In the beginning it wasn't possible for a young actor to choose. When I was twenty-one, I started saying yes and no.

Y.N: I think the roles you played in the fifties were very different from the ones you played in the seventies, as were the kinds of stories.

F.H: In the fifties, you had to prove that you were serious about what you were doing as an actor. This was always a challenge for me. Some people had very negative perceptions about the profession. Even my friends at school would make comments that I didn't like about my being an actress, or would just say, "She's an actress," in a negative way. So I had this personal challenge to make them respect acting, to see it as an art. And I think that I succeeded in changing the way people viewed being an actress.

Y.N: What do you think about cinema then and cinema now?

F.H: Previously there were many taboos and we simply couldn't do many things. Now we are freer. But cinema has also changed—it is a reflection of the period we live in. If we take women as an example, in the fifties she was presented in movies as weak or powerless—she would need to consult her father before doing anything, and if not her father then her brother. She was always suffering, not only in Egypt but generally in the Arab world. Then in the sixties, she was able to continue her studies, not like in the fifties when she had to stop studying and get married by the age of sixteen. In the sixties she worked and was more independent. Cinema has always reflected the time we live in. When I see recent movies and how the actors behave and talk today, for me it is a bit shocking, but for the new generation it's very normal. So I've learned not to judge any generation. This is normal, things change, and we have to accept this.

Y.N: But I feel that Egypt was a better place before, that people were better then than they are today.

F.H: It was calmer, and definitely people were better than today. I find that people are more inclined to hate each other now. There is an atmosphere of hate, and everything is so stressful and busy. You see it in the streets everywhere. I believe that the reason people hate each other is because of overpopulation and traffic jams! They just can't stand each other. There are too many people everywhere. Yesterday it took us an hour and a half to get somewhere, whereas it usually takes us fifteen minutes. There are too many cars in the streets, it's suffocating! But once you get outside Cairo, if you go to Luxor, Aswan, Red Sea, you see a much more relaxed people, funnier, simpler, and calmer.

Y.N: Yesterday I saw a movie of yours for the first time, on TV. I think it was done in the fifties with Omar Sharif, River of Love (Nahr El Hub).

F.H: Actually, this was based on the story of Anna Karenina. The director succeeded in making people love my role, which was a woman who betrayed her husband.

Y.N: Do you like watching your old movies?

F.H: I like to watch them from a different point of view. I like seeing how we used to be, how I looked, how I was dressed, the way we used to act—sometimes I say, "How come we spoke that way?" [Laughs]

Y.N: Which movies do you enjoy watching, aside from those you starred in?

F.H: The films of Naguib El Rihani, Laila Morad. I love Laila Morad—I used to love her voice.

Y.N: Do you miss that period?

F.H: I miss people I worked with, especially Henry Barakat. And Waheed Farid, my favorite cinematographer, because we were like family, we worked a lot together.

Y.N: My favorite movie of yours is Mouths and Rabbits (Afwah We Araneb). I really love it.

F.H: Me too, I love it so much. The message of the film is perhaps the best of all my movies. It was initially written for radio, and I said yes immediately—it was perfect because the story would be heard in every little village in Egypt, and it was targeting poorer people who were having lots of children and all the rest of those problems. It was also very funny and the message wasn't overly direct. I remember that during Ramadan they used to play it on the radio at Iftar [the evening meal after the daily fast], and in my building, going up to my apartment on the twelfth floor, I used to hear the song being played everywhere in the building!

Y.N: You were so convincing! You played the role of an Egyptian villager perfectly.

F.H: When you play a light comedy seriously, the effect is much stronger.

Y.N: During filming, was it difficult for you to switch from the role you were playing back to your own personality at the end of each day?

F.H: It was very difficult because of the accent of the character. With some movies, like Mouths and Rabbits, the accent remained with me for two months after I finished filming. Also if it was a sad movie, I would continue to feel sad deep inside me for a long time, and sometimes I cried.

Y.N: You know, I was really surprised the first time I heard this new term, "clean cinema," meaning that an actress shouldn't play certain roles, be kissed or act in a love scene!

F.H: This is actually an old term—they've always spoken about "clean cinema," but previously they used the term to refer to films with good technique. Like Salah Abu Seif movies—these had a very good technique, not like the cheap movies and stupid comedies we see today, with actors talking in a really vulgar way. But now they use this term to criticize certain roles. I think you can play any role if you do it with a certain beauty, without being vulgar. Also don't forget that previously the actress was always taking care of her body and her appearance, so that even if she was doing certain roles or wearing any kind of clothes, she wouldn't offend you.

Y.N: So you think that how you look has an effect on the role you play?

F.H: Yes, definitely. Cinema has its ups and downs. For years it's really great, beautiful, and clean [laughs], and then for years it goes downhill, showing only very stupid movies full of vulgar dancing, with no meaning, just to entertain a certain sector of the public. I remember once they did a good, serious movie, then the producer decided to include a dance and a few songs in it, just to attract the maximum viewers. I don't know why we're going through this now. People just want to see belly dancers.

Y.N: Egyptians love belly dancers!

F.H: You know, when I look at the different Arabic satellite channels, every time I see an Egyptian channel there is always a belly dancer dancing!

Y.N: Belly dancing was also much better in the old movies.

F.H: Belly dancing is a great art if it is done beautifully, as Samia Gamal or Tahia Carioca did it, but I see something else now that is really cheap. But at the same time I am very optimistic. I think the next period in Egyptian cinema will be much better.

Y.N: Have you ever thought of working in the West?

F.H: When I was about twenty years old, I thought about going to Hollywood. Then I realized I couldn't really do the roles that women do over there. They are from a different culture and I would have needed to study how they talk and react. I didn't know them well enough to play their characters. Also I couldn't really wear their clothing. If they asked me to wear a swimsuit in a scene or something, I just couldn't do it. At that time it would have been a disaster to wear a swimsuit in a movie. The period we live in now is much more open minded.

Y.N: I see there is a lot of art in your home.

F.H: I collect art in a very personal way. I love living with art around me. My collection is very Egyptian. Even when I lived in Europe for three years, I took all the paintings I had with me.

Y.N: Where were you living?

F.H: In Paris. You also lived in Paris, but where do you live now?

Y.N: In New York. Have you been there?

F.H: Yes, it is a beautiful city, very practical, everything is so quick there. But I love Paris. For me there is nothing like Paris.

Y.N: Are you conscious of the fact that cinema will immortalize you? In a hundred years people will still watch your movies. It's a great thing when you think about it. You know, it was through old Egyptian movies that I was introduced to the idea of death. As a child I used to ask my mother about the actors and where they were, and most of the time the answer was, "They are all dead now." Later on, I wanted to meet the ones I love, to photograph them before they die, or before I die.

F.H: Don't tell me you came to meet me before I die!

Y.N: God forbid, or before I die! Personally, when I hear your name, I immediately think of you as the embodiment of Egyptian cinema. Did you ever think that one day you would become the icon that you are today?

F.H: When I was young I never imagined this. I was in love with acting, with the whole thing. Even when I was very young, I used to love going to Upper Egypt to see how the villagers there talked and moved. I loved this. I loved studying roles, as if I was studying at school. I just enjoyed it, and I didn't think about whether I would become very successful or not. I was just enjoying my imagination and was happy with that.

Y.N: You are to cinema what Oum Kalthoum is to music.

F.H: I love Oum Kalthoum. When you hear her singing, you can't stop listening until the song is over.

Y.N: Did you ever meet her?

F.H: Yes, and she told me that she liked my movies a lot. I met her at a time when I was a bit removed from cinema, and she said to me, "No artist should be away from his art."

Y.N: What was she like as a person?

F.H: She was a very smart lady, very smart.

Y.N: She was a strong woman too. I like women like her, with strong ideas.

F.H: She was incredibly strong! You know, she was the Egyptian peasant who had her feet on the ground and who knew her real values.

Y.N: I love the fact that she started out reading the Koran, then became a singer. She believed that you could be religious and be an artist at the same time. She lived life normally and didn't separate religion from art. Unlike some people today who say that art is immoral.

F.H: Art brings happiness to people. Why are we against happiness?

Cairo, July 2008

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