NOUR EL-SHERIF is a Ramadan staple. Following his smash hit Lan Aeish Fi Gelbab Abi (I Won’t Live in My Father’s Shoes), viewers gleefully look forward to seeing which devilishly charming character he’ll take on each year. He never fails to disappoint.

But El-Sherif is not about cinematic glitz or glamour he uses acting as an instrument to explore the world around him. With more than 167 films, 17 plays and 20 television series under his belt, El-Sherif shows no signs of becoming a stock character or taking on weak roles. Egypt Today sat down with the actor to discuss his latest role in Eish Ayamak Eish Layaleek (Live Your Days, Live Your Nights), among others.

At the beginning, I insisted on the title “Eish Ayamak Eish Layaleek,” however, both the director and the writer insisted on “Al-Ragol Allazi.” Since I am a democratic man, I gave in. We decided on the latter until we discovered that it had been used as a short story title, so I got my way in the end.

The reason I didn’t like “Al-Ragol Allazi” was because I was afraid people would associate it with Al-Ragol Al-Akhar (The Other Man), which was a suspense series I acted in. It also had a philosophical dimension to it, whereas the one airing now is completely different. I prefer “Eish Ayamak” because it manages to sound cheerful despite the difficulty of its content.

I believe Ramadan series are pioneers in portraying the mid-life crises that strike both men and women. For the most part, television series tackle parent­child problems and dynamics rather than the adults’ own problems. Even in the old films, the parents’ problems are not addressed, and I don’t know why. Maybe because the stars don’t like to look like old people that age? I don’t know.

Courtesy Nour El-Sherif The cast of Eish Ayamak Eish Layaleek

For both reasons. I’m also especially interested in and preoccupied with relationships between the sexes in oriental societies. Even in the El-Hagg Metwally series which was harshly attacked I embodied that character with this dynamic in mind.

I play the Egyptian Everyman, just like millions of men. He gets married to his cousin without being in love with her, has no financial problems and leads a very stable life. Suddenly, he discovers that he’s this 55-year-old man with unfulfilled dreams and desires, living according to his family’s and boss’s expectations.

Although Saeed [the title character] has no real reason to go through a midlife crisis, dramatic twists were added to lead him to this impending realization. It’s like when he celebrates his 55th birthday while his daughter is on the verge of marriage and the idea of a first grandchild unsettles him. Or when his friend, who is very much like him in many ways, dies of depression.

This is when Saeed decides to visit a psychiatrist friend, who advises him to enjoy his days without hurting anyone, or at the expense of others. This is when the problems really begin. Meanwhile, his wife starts to go through the same thing, which leads to clashes and conflicts that begin to affect their children. I’m not going to say how this happens because it would only ruin the suspense of the series, which is full of unexpected events and surprises.

Yes, Ghada and Mohamed Nasr, who previously worked with me in the play Ya Ghoula Einek Hamra (Ghoul, Your Eyes Are Red). Also, there’s Sherif Hamdy, who plays my daughter’s fiancé whom my on-screen character has doubts about. He manages to lend his role a comic edge. I think they all prove to be promising.

I never do that on purpose. When there’s a good idea for a series, I support it. I always consider new ideas. But I believe whatever is new or even old when tackled in a new way can become controversial.

As an artist, I’m concerned with exploring history and getting as close to the truth as possible because there’s no absolute truth. There’s no absolute history because unfortunately history is written by the victors, which always leads to a biased documentation of what really happened.

I don’t think I am going to portray any historical characters soon. This is because of the lack of potential local opportunities. Our Syrian brothers are more renowned in these endeavours because their country provides them with services that aren’t easily available to us, like horses and free shooting locations.

In the series Amr ibn Al-Aas, Ragul Al-Aqdar (Amr ibn Al-Aas, A Man of Destiny), we had a three-hour shoot in the Qaitbay Citadel. We ended up paying LE 5,000, and the same thing happens in other tourist locations like the Pyramids. And yet, if a foreign company comes to visit these places, we pay them thousands of dollars to make advertisements for us.

I believe that advertising through drama is more effective. For example, we all fell in love with America because of its films, rather than its policies. Famous locations and streets in Egypt like Mohammed Ali Street and Cinema Rivolli have become landmarks of the past, thanks to old films.

Therefore, I refuse to portray historical characters because of production difficulties and the sensitive nature of the figures and issues portrayed. The problem is that an artist doesn’t have the right to say the truth. I understand that sometimes it’s not a good time to present a series like Amr ibn Al-Aas because it could lead to friction between Islamic schools of thought.

I mean if I said the truth about what actually happened and what everybody agreed on and what was mentioned in widely accepted references like Al-Fitna Wa Al-Tahkeem, which makes a case for Amr ibn Al-Aas’s involvement in the fitna, the viewers would be confused. Due to religious censorship, artistic censorship and self-censorship, everyone poses the same question: Is this the right time?

I’m afraid that we’ll always keep saying that it’s not the right time. The problem is that the average citizen does not read. So, when you confront them with the truth especially with historical figures with religious status they panic. It also creates grounds for misinterpretation.

I hope that one day we will be able to say the truth. This will never happen unless the vast majority of the people learn to read and to try to discover for themselves. All I want for the present young generation is to not take the religious opinions that they hear for granted. I want them to seek the truth behind them.

I’m really concerned about our social issues. We can’t seem to enjoy life anymore; we’d rather live through ‘coincidences.’ I want to use my work to conduct research on the Egyptian character with all its confounding intricacies. It’s very hard to describe the Egyptian character in a word or two, or even in a sentence or two. In most cases, it is very difficult to predict the reactions of the Egyptian character. This subject really intrigues me.

I support having this censorship system or any other because we are still behind in practising freedom. It is believed that even the cleverest would still misuse that freedom for spreading lies.

Art traders would exploit this freedom for their own benefit, heedless that by doing this they are destroying society. Thus, I tend to support censorship, but not the blind censorship, but rather an open-minded version of it.

Now the media is oriented to propagate a certain mode of thought to the viewers. This is actually a mistake. The people are fed up with the political programs that perpetuate lies. Some channels maintain that the US has every right to liberate Iraq. The great power that claimed to know the kind of underwear Saddam Hussein wore did not know that he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction!

This is where the danger of the modern media that comes with globalization lies. They understand how the citizen is busy trying to make a living for himself, trying to fulfill his dreams. He wouldn’t have the time to believe in a certain idea to defend it. Now the main concern for any man in the world including Egypt has become making more money for a better life.

Some channels maintain that the US has every right to liberate Iraq. The great power that claimed to know the kind of underwear Saddam Hussein wore did not know that he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction!

The media control and redundancy have begun to influence values negatively. Take, for instance, the concept of martyrdom in Palestine; the Palestinian world and martyrs are an anomaly now; as if they are an episode of a series. It was the exact opposite four years ago when we saw the televised footage of Mohamed Al-Dorra. Since then, there have been many other manifestations. Now dozens like him are killed every day and nothing happens compared to what used to happen four years ago. For all these reasons, I tend to support censorship until we have some kind of brain immunity.

There is an extremist religious trend on all religious levels, unlike what the Americans try to convince people with, telling them that extremism is only in Islam. I believe that if Bush wins the elections, it will be because of the depth of his supporters from extremist Christians. The same applies to the Israeli Prime Minister, Arial Sharon, as he supports the extremist Jewish groups.

The whole world is witnessing a dangerous time where extremism controls everything, even on the level of beliefs and religions. I was very upset when I got into a taxi, and the driver was listening to a popular preaching tape. The sheikh was talking in an offensive way about the temptation presented by women, preaching in a derogatory manner in general. He was talking about women without thinking that they are mothers, sisters, wives or daughters. What’s really baffling is that people actually listen to these tapes and actually believe them. It’s a brainwashing process in the works.

I did not object. On the contrary, I respected Al-Azhar’s point of view in saying that it’s not right to possibly create friction between the Sunnis and Shi’a. If the series were to articulate the truth, the majority of people would think that our master Ali was unfairly treated because of the conspiracy between Moawiyya ibn Abi-Sufyan and Amr ibn Al-Aas. I have hope that the Muslim sects will unite because it seems impossible that Islam should have different faces after all, Allah is the only source of all these religions.

Disputes between sects of the same religion are more serious than those between different religions. I was planning to act in a historical series one year and then a social one the next, until the poet Abd Al-Salam Amin passed away. He wrote both Omar ibn Abd Al-Aziz and Haroon Al-Rashid. I was very enthusiastic about playing the role of Haroon Al-Rashid because I offended him in one of my plays. The series came as a payback for this mistake. In the play Leibet Al-Sutan (The Sultan’s Game), I portrayed him as a Don Juan, but only because I didn’t read any books or references about him. I felt like I wanted to set things straight in the episodes after reading about him.

When I said that I wasn’t going to make any historical works soon, it was because of the problems that stem from production. Moreover, when I performed Omar ibn Abd Al-Aziz while trying to be as true to him as possible I was severely attacked. Then it just became hard to present the character as it was in reality, so why should I act it? I was also attacked for the way that my rendition of Omar ibn Al-Aziz treated his wife.

I would advise everyone who criticized me to read about how the Prophet (PBUH) treated his wives. I suggest that they also read The Prophet’s Wives by Aisha Abd Al-Rahman. Religion does not mean that one needs to be grave without humor, or to treat your wife in a bad way or be ashamed of saying “I love you.”

I believe that I’m an actor who portrayed and participated in the largest number of philosophical films. This goes back to my faith in this genre, which unfortunately does not succeed. During my experience in this line of work, I have learned that there are two things that are destined to fail: the philosophical and the intellectual films, whose viewers need to contribute mental effort to understand, more so than the realist genre.

The TV is a very dangerous tool in its undeniable effect on viewers. Besides, we are in the ‘media excitement’ age; that’s to say that any artistic work is deemed worthless until it gets a media buzz. At the beginning, I used to be nervous when someone misunderstood me, but now I am used to the idea that people react to certain characters for a little while then forget.

Historical characters actually existed in reality. I prepare by reading and researching various books and references so I can get closer to them. In cases of literary works, my major source and guide are the Naguib Mahfouz novels. The biggest challenge is when I act a role written by a scriptwriter.

We have a big problem in Egypt in that the writer gives the protagonist too much attention and importance. This is the hardest thing I come across, but I have my own way of dealing with this. I keep reading-notebooks and life-observation notebooks; in the first ones I write the features and descriptions of the character that I have read about in a novel by one of my favorite writers.

I keep this until I get back to it one day to read these tips. An actor should sharpen his sense of observation in life; he also should read. Reading and observation are the most important factors in embodying a character.  et