Mena Massoud Shares ‘Mentality Shift’ After ‘Aladdin’ (Unique)

Mena Massoud is reflecting on the “ups and downs” of working within the movie business as he celebrates his newest challenge.

The 33-year-old actor, who stars in Julia Stiles‘ directorial debut Want You Have been Right here, revealed to PEOPLE at a New York Metropolis screening of the romance film that there is been a “mentality shift” in the best way he appears at issues since he beforehand revealed that he had hassle touchdown auditions following the worldwide success of 2019’s Aladdin.

“I feel it is a mentality shift greater than something,” Massoud says. “I feel we will get caught in issues in a damaging approach or a constructive approach.”

“At the moment, I used to be youthful. I filmed Aladdin in 2017, so it has been virtually eight years now. And, I feel you mature as you undergo this business and also you notice like, I imply, look, we’re fairly fortunate to do what we’re doing. There’s ups and downs in every thing, and I feel so long as you retain that keenness for what you are doing, that is an important factor.”

Massoud, who stars alongside Isabelle Fuhrman, Jennifer Gray and Kelsey Grammer in Want You Have been Right here, has appeared in a number of movies for the reason that launch of Aladdin, along with his newest described in an official synopsis as a “fascinating film about leaving the on a regular basis world behind to take an opportunity on true romance.”

Massoud tells PEOPLE, “these sorts of films aren’t actually made that always anymore.”

“I actually wished to play this arc, you understand, about this character who finds out one thing devastating about his life and has to seek out the enjoyment in it, has to seek out the wonder in it and that basically attracted me to the function,” Massoud says of his character Adam.

“Julia is the queen of those sorts of movies. She’s finished so many, I feel she’s mastered this style, so to get her to have the ability to direct it, I wished to leap on the alternative to study as a lot as I might from her, so I could not cross that up and attending to work with Isabelle as nicely, that was a dream come true,” he provides. “So, every thing form of lined up.”

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In a late 2019 interview with The Each day Beast, Massoud revealed that no new alternatives had come his approach for the reason that launch of Aladdin months earlier, during which he performed the titular live-action character. On the time, he hadn’t “had a single audition” since the Disney film. He added that his Center Japanese background usually made him the “wild card,” with casting administrators on the lookout for white actors to fill roles.

“It’s wild to lots of people,” he mentioned in 2019. “Folks have these concepts of their head. It’s like, I’m sitting right here being like, okay, Aladdin simply hit $1 billion — can I not less than get an audition? Like I’m not anticipating you to be like, ‘Right here’s Batman.’ However can I simply get within the room? … Are you able to simply give me an opportunity?”

Since then, Massoud has appeared in Neflix’s The Royal Remedy in 2022, the 2023 horror movie The Sacrifice Recreation, and most not too long ago, Want You Have been Right here, which is now in theaters.

When requested what recommendation he’d have for himself as a younger actor, Massoud tells PEOPLE that he’d encourage his youthful self to “begin earlier” by way of the craft.

“I take a look at Julia on this business and even Isabelle, who I feel began when she was a younger lady,” he says. “There’s such a bonus to doing that. And for no matter circumstances, I did not get into it professionally till I used to be a little bit older,” he provides. “So, you understand, I might inform myself to perhaps go for it a little bit sooner. However I feel every thing occurs for a purpose.”