Palestinian-American comedian Mo Amer has been in this business a long time. The 41-year-old first stepped behind the mic on stage as a 14 year old in Texas, and Black Adam marks his first blockbuster not for a lack of opportunity—but for a lack of the right one.
For the thriving performer, who just also released his own Netflix series Mo, Black Adam is not just the latest superhero movie, it was a revelation, full of people who genuinely wanted to do right by the film’s Arab roots, and lift each other up both on set and off.
Dwayne Johnson came on his Netflix comedy special. Noah Centineo shows up to his house at 5am with coffee to take him to his latest movie. Quintessa Swindell bought a motorcycle to ride with him. They’re so bonded he can’t believe it.
And in his next film entitled ‘Sweet Dreams’, directed by The Peanut Butter Falcon helmer Lije Sarki, he plays a dude named Pete, a milestone in itself, according to Amer.
“It’s all about believing in artistic vision, being patient, understanding that destiny is destiny. Whenever it’s time, it will be timely and timeless. And that is worth all the agony, all the years of painstaking work, of people not getting it. People saying, what are you talking about? I don’t understand. All these questions will eventually get answered. If you are focused on your objective or what your artistic expressions are going to be it’s going to be a beautiful thing when it comes together. And that’s what I’m feeling right now. It’s coming together.”
Ahead of the release of Black Adam across the Middle East, read our latest conversation with Mo through the link in our bio.
Read Esquire Middle East’s interview with Mo Amer below
This is such a great moment for you. The world gets to hear your own voice with ‘Mo’ on Netflix, and then immediately you follow it up with this gigantic blockbuster, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Absolutely ridiculous.
Mo Amer: He’s too big man, we got to bring him down a notch.
We’ll heckle him like Stone Cold with a ‘what’ chant.
He’s so good, man. He’s such a special dude. It makes sense why he has all this success. He really is a special person.
Well tell me about the conversations of you getting involved in this in the first place? Like, how did they approach you? How did they pitch it to you? What questions did you have for them?
Mo Amer: For the movie, it was really, really interesting story. My agent brought it to me last minute, and so I put a quick tape together to send in and see if I’m even right for the role. When I read the script—well, not the whole script, everything’s really tight with the superhero movies—it felt really refreshing.
I don’t audition, number one. Like, I barely do it, because I have to really connect with the material. I usually opt out. And if I’m playing a character named Karim, if it has an Arab name, it can go either way. But this was different. When you get something different like this, you just get excited. I’m like, oh, man, I really want to do this. This is great. I put a tape together, I sent it and I went on tour. I literally had to cram it into a 40-minute window, memorize and record and send it out. I then left to go do a big show in Dubai, and I forgot all about it.
I was in the middle of writing my series, which was a massive undertaking. I just was too busy to even wonder what’s happening. And then I get a random call, like oh, congratulations, you’ve been offered the role. I was like, this is amazing! Like, it’s awesome. I got really excited about it. And then the dates conflicted because I was supposed to be filming my show.
I was just like, man, this sucks. This is a horrible position to be in. Do I push the series that I’ve been literally working towards my whole life? And literally writing for the last 10 years? Or do I pass on blockbuster movie? I just thought we have to figure out a way. But I couldn’t. I had to pass on the movie.
We couldn’t push the show—it was a huge production. It would affect a lot of people to do so. I was devastated. My stomach was sick when that happened. But then, because of Covid my show ended up getting pushed. I was just devastated. I was like, oh my gosh, I could have done the movie! This is awful. It didn’t just get pushed a little bit, either, it got pushed it to the fall, till October. I was like, oh my gosh, what did I just do? It was one of those things. I told myself, it doesn’t matter, I wanted my show to be right.
But this tells you how things are truly written for you, because I got a call a month or two later, saying, ‘your replacement is not working out. We wanted to see if you’re available, as we’d like to offer you the part again’. I was like, let’s go.
At the time I was going through a lot personally. You know, it was no secret. I talked about it in my last Netflix special that I had divorced. I was just like, everything professionally is going amazing. But personally, it’s just not so good. I was in that weird Covid era where it was just like everybody was like shedding something that would be from their heart, their mind or literally going through a breakup or whatever else happened. That’s what I was experiencing. It was a true rollercoaster.
It’s one of those things that was absolutely written for you. If it’s meant for you, it’s really going to come around and man, I’m so glad it did because I love this character. I think he’s so sweet. He’s there for his family. He’s there for the world. He doesn’t want to be necessarily, but when he’s in it, he fully commits. And I just used whatever I was going through personally to just mold this character. So it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun.
Yeah, as you’re saying, don’t want him to feel like the token Arab guy—you have to be provide the laughs, but you have to be very conscious of where those laughs are coming from, make sure that you’ve made him a real person.
Mo Amer: And absolutely, and this is, I’ve got to give it up to Jaume, the director, he did a phenomenal job in the story. The writers did an incredible job is just like, understanding how to mold the story in the world because Black Adam is fictional, it takes place in Kahndaq which is a fictional Arab-Middle Eastern world. So we all kind of adopted a particular accent but it’s not identifiable. We didn’t want to make it like, ‘oh, he’s Egyptian or Lebanese’, it’s just our own world. And Jaume definitely was very conscious.
So was everyone on set honestly, not just the people of colour. Everyone was truly conscious of making a great film and not grabbing the lowest hanging fruit. We’re really, really trying to make something that was fresh. It was truly amazing. I never had to step in and say something, everyone was on top of it from the jump.
It was really amazing. You really know that’s true when Pierce Brosnan tells you as he’s walking around, ‘gosh, this is impressive’. I’m like, bro, you did four bond movies. You’re impressed by this? That is incredible. Like, you’re my Bond, bro. What are you talking about? When he’s telling you something like that, you’ve got to get ready and step your game up to that standard.
What’s Pierce like?
Mo Amer: He’s another really special human being that was so blessed to work with. I was so excited to work with Pierce, I forgot to memorize my lines. I was too excited.
Really?
Mo Amer: I’ve read them honestly. Like, we’re professionals, you can just look at it.
You got lost in his eyes?
Mo Amer: I got lost in his eyes.
That’s fantastic.
Mo Amer: It was just one of those things where we worked the night before, and then they push the scene up. And then they say tomorrow, you are doing your scene with Pierce. I was just so excited to work with Pierce. Just loved him so much. And then, and then the next day, I only slept like four hours. But I was just like thought about that. I was just so happy. And I get there. And I like, oh, I’ve got to go memorize. And I’ve read it many times before so it’s in there. But I really need to go.
I was just so happy to work with him. And you know, you have to be careful when you meet people you look up to. And Pierce truly surpassed it all. He’s such a professional sweet and kind man. What a privilege.
Was Pierce really the standout in terms of personal relationships you forged
Mo Amer: The whole cast is like that. I feel that way about everybody. They’re fantastic. Like sincerely. No bullsh*t. We all are like family. I’m filming a movie right now in LA. And Noah Centineo was just like, ‘I’m picking you up tomorrow bro, and I’m taking you to set.
I said, what are you talking about? I’m going to have to get up at five o’clock in the morning. BeHe said, I’m coming. I said there’s an out, I’ll set up a car either way. But then at 5:30 in the morning, he’s here. He wanted to have coffee in the morning and take me to work just because we truly like care about each other. It’s that kind of vibe, man.
And that’s why I believe this movie is going to be such a banger. Not only because the story is great. And the world is so new to everyone. Although it’s old, the comic book has existed for many, many years. it’s really special when you have a cast like this that has actually this close, genuinely care about each other. We think about each other, check in with each other. Yeah, let’s go. It’s incredible.
Dwayne, for example, is someone we both grew up adoring him as The Rock, when you meet him as a person I’ve always found he’s focused on you, he’s there with you. And he cares what he’s doing. If he’s giving his time to something, he’s giving himself to that thing.
If you’re with people like that, that have that energy, if you surround yourself with enough people like that, it elevates things.
Mo Amer: It’s incredible and he genuinely cares. He’s in an industry where you really don’t have to. I’ll give you an example. He contributed that video to Netflix special, right? That wasn’t my idea. I just wanted him to send a video to surprise the audience, to make it fun before I go up on stage and rip it. I was just thinking like, how can I spoil my hometown audience? How can I do something special for them? And I was like, hey, man, would you do this video because it’s a special taping and he said yeah, and then when he sent me the video, he’s like, I got filmed this properly so you can use it in your special. That’s something I would never ask him to do. Like, that’s a lot. I just met you, you know what I mean? He volunteered. It just tells you how generous he truly is. How he wants people to do well. If he believes in it, which is awesome, that tells me like, okay, great. I got another co-sign. That’s awesome. But it feels it feels good. That you feel vindicated. You feel seen. And that’s amazing. I don’t know what else to say. I can’t even believe it’s real.
Just don’t tell him I have a Black Adam doll. He’ll know I’m a dork.
Mo Amer: I want the doll.
Honestly, I just want to say it’s sincerely wonderful seeing the Palestinian community supporting you, the Arab community supporting you, and people you grew up idolizing having your back too. That means you’ve earned that. With your comedy, with ‘Mo’, with the film, and with everything. You’ve worked so hard for that. And it’s beautiful to see.
Mo Amer: Thank you. It is crazy. I don’t even know what to say. I’m just stumbling over the words, because I don’t even think is like truly sunk in, because everything’s just moving so fast. It’s a beautiful thing. It really, really is. It just makes me feel so humble.
I love our people. I work very hard at nurturing our community and making sure that it’s represented well. You’re still going have weirdos comment weird stuff. But in the end, the the community knows where I where I am. In my heart, it’s always with them.
And I love the artists community as well. They really are supporting me. People I was idolizing, and I did look up to artistically, are supporting me. It’s really cool, man, because I love them. I love to be in their orbit. I think it’s just really special. And it tells me the trajectory of how I cultivated my career.
We’re not rushing, and trying to do things too fast. And being patient truly pays off. It really does. Whenever you meticulously work on something and really believe it and put the time in, people will see that, and it will resonate with them and make a true impact. And that’s what I feel like is happening. I’m surprised every day when I look at my phone and see who’s messaging me, who’s reaching out or who’s posted about the show. It’s really incredible.
It’s also great to see Arab creatives be able to be embraced as their full selves when 10 years ago this was impossible in a very real way for some really great artists.
Mo Amer: I started standup as a child in the 90s. I was a baby doing stand -up in the south, pre 9/11. Now I’m in a movie where I’m where my character ‘sname is Pete. It took me 26 years to play a guy named Pete. I’m truly picky about what I do and how I mold my career, and my artistic expression is everything. It’s so special being able to play this guy. People named Muhammad Mustafa have been waiting a long time for these kind of opportunities. It’s all about believing in artistic vision, being patient, understanding that destiny is destiny. Whenever it’s time, it will be timely and timeless. And that is worth all the agony, all the years of painstaking work, of people not getting it. People saying, what are you talking about? I don’t understand. All these questions will eventually get answered. If you are focused on your objective or what your artistic expressions are going to be it’s going to be a beautiful thing when it comes together. And that’s what I’m feeling right now. It’s coming together.