While every Marvel fan is busy discussing every horror-filled moment of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness this week, Moon Knight also finished up its season this past week. The popular Disney+ series hit the sweet spot for many fans with its great performances, emotional storytelling, and blockbuster quality action. One of the best new characters from the series was May Calamawy’s Layla El-Faouly, who brought a ton of adventurously fun energy to the story. Layla debuted as the Scarlet Scarab in the finale, which made Calamawy the first Egyptian superhero on TV or film. Calamawy recently sat down with The Wrap to talk about the surreal experience and what it meant to her to dawn the now iconic wings.
Calamawy began by discussing what it was like to get the news that she was about to become a superhero saying, “When I first joined this, I laugh about it, because the role description was like ’20s to 30s Egyptian, strong woman, two steps ahead.’ That’s what it was.” She continued on, saying:
“And I remember telling one of my close friends, I guess I’m just never gonna be a superhero, which is a bummer, because I would have loved to, but it’s fine. I’m happy to just be an Arab woman in the Marvel Universe. And then a month later, I got a call after I booked it, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, OK, we need to get a body scan.’ And I was like, ‘Why do you need a body scan?’ And then they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna be a superhero.’ So I just laugh about it.”
The body scan is always one of the weirder caveats of becoming a modern superhero, but it was all about the fan reaction for Calamawy. “Now seeing the fan reactions, because it’s all about the fans, and how people feel and especially how a lot of women have been responding to Layla having curly hair, and Scarlet Scarab having like, just curly hair out,” said the star.
She would go on to say, “There have been such wonderful posts with girls taking photos of themselves with their curls, writing comments like ‘I’m throwing out my hair straightener.’ And that, to me, is what makes me excited more than anything.” She would go even further, saying:
“To have an impact like that, especially in a society that we’ve grown up with, that has really told us what beautiful is and has almost forced us to want to, even if we have to erase who we are, just to fit into that. You know, it has that effect on us and to feel like we’re breaking out of that and that a role like this can make women out there feel that way or young girls? That’s like the superpower for me.”
Calamawy also spoke about her character’s connection to Tawaret and the entertaining scene where the goddess chooses Layla as her avatar. “I was like ‘You want me to mimic, like, suddenly be possessed by Tawaret?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, cool,’ and [director Mohamed Diab]…And so [Antonia Salib, voice of Tawaret] came, we went to my trailer, and I told her, just do whatever you would have done as Tawaret. I’m just going to keep copying your body language. And kind of her facial expression, she does that so well. And that’s just what I took.” Calamawy finished of by talking about the amazing female heroes of the MCU and what drew her to a role like this saying:
“I just love complex women and exploring that. And we are in a time when women are really — by “stepping into power,” sometimes I hate using that term. But it’s just like, stepping into our truth and accepting all parts of who we are, and not necessarily trying to be anyone else. And I think that’s a really special place. And that’s what I see with all these women is they’re their own people.”
Calamawy’s amazing performance has been one of the most memorable aspects of Phase 4 so far, and hopefully we will see her again in the MCU soon.
All six episodes of Moon Knight are streaming now on Disney+.
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