My kids had a very specific reaction when I told them I was interviewing Mena Massoud: Absolutely not. This interview is ours.
After all, this is the face they know and love from Aladdin—the actor who brought a street rat, a prince and one very memorable Disney hero to life. So naturally, when I told them Mena was joining me to talk about his newest role, they begged to stay home from school and conduct the interview themselves.
But this time, Massoud is trading Agrabah for Babylon and stepping into the role of Daniel in a story that asks some much bigger questions: What happens when your faith is tested? How do you persevere when the impossible is staring you in the face? And how do you hold onto what matters most when the world around you is pulling you in every other direction?
For my junior-high-aged son, who watched the film with me, the transformation was especially fascinating. His reaction said it all: “How can he go from street rat to prophet?”
That may be exactly the journey worth watching.
In our conversation for Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, Massoud opens up about stepping into Daniel’s shoes, the relevance of faith in a world saturated with social media and technology, and the powerful message he hopes young audiences take away from the film. We’re also joined by Elijah Alexander, who takes on a dramatically different kind of challenge as King Nebuchadnezzar—and together, the two reveal what it really takes to portray characters whose faith, courage and convictions are tested to the limit.
Because sometimes the most compelling stories aren’t about having all the answers. They’re about what happens when you’re tested—and choosing to keep the faith anyway.
Interviewed for Family Entourage
Family Entourage: Mena, I have to start with you. When I told my kids that I was going to be interviewing you today, they asked. No, I will say they begged and pleaded to stay home from school so that they could be the ones to do the interview because we so loved your portrayal in Aladdin.
My son is actually in junior high now and was old enough to watch Daniel with me, and he was blown away your performance. He was like, “How can he go from street rat to prophet?” So talk to me a little bit about stepping into this role of Daniel.
Mena Massoud: That’s so sweet, Kelli. Thank you. Yeah, I’m blessed to now have having done Aladdin almost eight years ago, seeing kids that were eight or nine now in their teenage years getting to watch this film, which is really relevant to them because it is a film about these young adults, these teenagers that are really being tested in their faith. And so I think it’s a really relevant film today.
I also think it’s a film made for young people like your son who are living in a world that’s so crowded with social media and artificial intelligence and all this tech that surrounds them everywhere. And you can lose sight onto your faith, onto what really matters, which is your relationship with your community, your relationship with your loved ones through Christ, your relationship with God. And this film I think will hold a mirror up to them to really answer those questions.
What’s really important to you? And like I said, I think now more than ever, your relationship with God, your relationship with your faith is more important than ever because we can really lose sight of that very easily.
FE: I agree with you. And to just see these men in these roles, Elijah, King Nebuchadnezzar, I mean, what an arc that he goes through, and it was so fun to see you go into all of these places so well. You took us on the journey with you, which I know is probably super exciting, but very difficult, and you just danced through it so well.
Elijah Alexander: It’s a great gift as an actor to enter into that space, but a challenge as well and a challenge I love to have. It’s interesting. You’ve got to use your best judgment in terms of how far you want to push things, how deep you want to go into it, but ultimately that’s an actor’s responsibility. So a deep sense of responsibility was at the center of all of it. I played a particular function in the telling of this particular story. So it was important for me to provide the right friction for these young men because I’m a catalyst in part of that refining of these and testing, testing and refining, and it goes back and forth in between those two. There’s a deep sense of responsibility and a deep sense of joyfulness in being able to experience what it must have been like. And the way we do that as actors is we have to fully go there in order to get the truth of experience.
FE: I thought you guys played so well opposite each other. One of my favorite scenes that just keeps continually getting you to question and to think is when Daniel’s asked the impossible to explain another’s dream and then to interpret it.
I love that Daniel says, “We need to pray like our life depends on it.” The people he’s surrounded with say, “Oh, so it’s just like any other day.” So both of you talk to me a little bit about faithfulness and trust in God and nothing’s outside of his control and just this idea to persevere. We do it every day with the most little things and sometimes large things, hopefully never to this scale, but an amazing lesson than the least.
MM: Everyone goes through things in their life where it becomes difficult and they think that it’s too much for them to handle, but something I was taught growing up is that God never throws anything at you that he knows you can’t handle. And it really goes to another quote in the film, which Daniel says something to the like of, “God will not put you in the fire to break you, but to refine you, refine who you are.” I think that’s very true. When you encounter something that you think is incredibly challenging that you’re not going to be able to persevere through, just remember that God is there with you by your side and you’re going through this thing to come out a better person, to come out a stronger person. I think that’s something that we can take away from this story as well.
Mena Massoud and Elijah Alexander in Daniel and the Fiery Furnace
