This is an exclusive interview via Cairo to Sa7el magazine (part of Cairo West Publications).

Written by: Mariam Elhamy

Conducted by: Aliaa Elsherbini 

Mohamed Farrag opens up to us about his childhood dreams, fears and the details of how hard his role in Taht El Saytara was to play. Read on to see how the star prepares for a part and how he recovers from tough roles, and more.

Cairo To Sa7el: Describe yourself in 3 words

MF: Thinker. I’m not a philosopher but I think a lot, neurotic and reckless sometimes, and I lean towards isolation.

Are you a risk taker at work?

Although I am not a patient person and I hate waiting for something, I am very patient when it comes to my work and I don’t take risks.

Tell us about your start in the film El Gamea…               

I started acting 7 years before I got that role and I started acting professionally exactly 20 years ago. I started out at my university’s theater and a few jobs outside. I was always very invested in acting, it made me very happy. I didn’t care about how big or small a role was, I only cared about how good and important it was. I only take a role that I feel I can do something unique with that no one else can do; I like to have my own fingerprint in work and life in general. The magic of an actor is his distinctiveness.

You seem very selective in your roles, but to what extent?

Sometimes I get unsuitable roles that I might like, so I try to talk my way through changing some of its aspects.

How do you get ready for a role?

Getting prepared for a role is much harder than the acting itself. Building a character and turning it from just words on paper to an actual visualization of a human with flesh and blood is a difficult process. I start imagining how the role would look on me when I act it out and I build on every aspect of the character brick by brick. I study its history and motivation, its upbringing, relationships, and significant events.

How did you get ready for the role of Aly El Rouby in Taht El Saytara?

Taht El Saytara was one of the best and hardest artistic experiences I’ve ever had. It was the first time I ever played an addict, everyone who played an addict in this story had to meet with and study 25-30 recovered cases. Some of these cases had quit recently and others had quit 20 years ago, with a huge amount of stories that are so dark and harsh for anyone to endure.

Director Tamer Mohsen and scenarist Mariam Naoum along with Dr Nabil Elkot, one of the most significant figures of psychology and addiction in Egypt, helped us make it real because it’s not something you can just fake. Every scene was real and based on real events. Addiction is one of the hardest things a human could undergo. Drugs change your mind, they destroy it and all of your relationships as well, and that’s how you lose the meaning of life.

I believe that all recovered addicts are heroes for going through all that and coming back to live a normal life. Playing Aly El Rouby and living all his happy, sad and dark moments was an unforgettable experience. This series always touches people deeply because everyone has either been or known someone who has been through this experience. It was a huge load on the cast, crew, director and everyone to execute it well.

Do you personally know anyone who has been through this? Has playing it affected you on a personal level?

Of course! It has definitely affected me deeply. A lot of people told me that I must have been an addict at some point in my life to be able to play such a role this way. Thank God I had never tried drugs, but the way I lived, experienced and surrendered every part of me to the role enabled me to play it this way. I am very proud of this period of my life and its effect on my career was huge. It was very real and powerful.

You like to take on challenging roles and once they’re done, you detach, how do you do that?

Not every role is that hard, some roles are easy, simple and don’t require a huge amount of effort and preparation.

I love traveling! I believe it has healing powers. I travel to detach from a complex role, it rejuvenates my system and enables me to get back feeling refreshed. I also love listening to music and doing yoga to clear my mind, or watch TV and play PlayStation.

What are you most afraid of regarding acting?                      

I love my job and I try to study and advance in it honestly. God rewards you for every hard and honest effort you make. I just pray that God doesn’t put me in a situation where I can’t make a decision or need someone’s help. I pray for the success and love that I deserve for the amount of effort I make.

Do you ever fear stagnation?

There’s no ceiling for what you can do, the most important thing is to succeed first and be aware that the more you succeed the more responsibility you’ll have and that’s what I fear. Whenever I succeed at something I’m afraid of what’s next or how hard it will be. I ask myself, “Am I ready for it? Will I be able to pass it?”. I have this constant fear of failing. I’m not afraid of the challenge or to confront my fears. My fear motivates me to work harder on myself and have more confidence. Confidence and risk are two faces of one coin. You have to have both.

How do you humble yourself?

I don’t think of myself as a star. I’m a bit shy and I dislike being fake or pretentious.

Were you ever affected by a negative comment?

When I try something new and people don’t like it I feel that they didn’t understand why I chose it. I understand that people have different tastes and I try to get into different types of roles and genres but I can never please everyone. Whenever I get negative comments I try to find if I can improve myself in that area.

Do you want to grow more as an actor?

My hunger and ambition only get more with time; this is hard because I’m always aiming to become better. I try to touch people, to make them laugh and cry and that’s the best thing about what I do.

Is there a specific role you really want to play?

I love history, when I was younger I wished I could play a character from our Islamic history. I would love to do a biography to get into the details of a historical figure’s life and live it. For example, Dr Ali Moustafa Mosharafa, the Einstein of Arabs, a significant Egyptian scientist, Musab ibn Umair or Tariq ibn Ziyad.

Do you mind drastically changing how you look for a part?

I love roles that need me to change how I look or wear costumes. It’s very hard to get fat, thin or get a huge beard for a role and I believe that this affects an actor physically and mentally.

Have you ever thought about directing?

They say that every actor has an inner director, when I used to work in theater I got into a bit of directing but I found it to be very hard because you have to study every factor in the whole work. I feel I can’t attain that level of skill right now, but I write and direct in my own space of character.

Watch the interview on our channel:

By: Aliaa Elsherbini

We sat down with Ramy El Sokkary, content creator, writer, producer and owner of Rhyme Productions for his first appearance. We talk about his career, El Ferenga, the TV program that catapulted him to fame and his future endeavors. We get to know a little more about the man behind the funny and current cultural TV and online shows.

CTS: How did you start your career?

RS: I did not have a starting point. I didn’t really know what my talents were, what I was good at or if I was good at anything in particular. I started as a student at the Police Academy but with an inner voice that kept screaming, “I should be an actor, I should be a writer, I should be an artist” until I resigned from the Academy, a decision that really upset my family, especially my dad. My dad is a director named Abdel Aziz El Sokkary who had studied film in France and always pushed me to enroll in such a field but my stubbornness at that young age made me start at the Police Academy.

After resigning I took a French course at the French Cultural Center in Mounira where I participated in La Nuit de Molière’s festival in which anyone could present a play to the then director Madame Latifa Fahmy. I chose one of Molière’s plays to direct thinking that I was on the way to becoming a famous director. But in reality, a few minutes into the play Madame Latifa called me over saying, “Do you think that just because your dad is a director that means you have to be one too? What is that you are presenting?” and she was right, the play was unwatchable.

With my dad’s guidance I tweaked the play to Madame Latifa’s approval and ended up staying in theatre for a while until I decided on a career in journalism, at El Wafd newspaper in particular. And I did start there, I learned the craft and created hit pieces, it was then that I shifted to advertising. I went to Tarek Nour accompanied by my dad in 2005 and showed him my work as he agreed to let me work with him as a copywriter under probation for 3 months, a start of a life changing experience.

How did your experience lead you to being a producer?

My time at El Wafd and with Tarek Nour really shaped my personality and taught me a lot in both fields: journalism and advertising. Tarek Nour saw something in me so he started giving me different tasks and let me execute them on my own from start to finish until he opened the TV channel “El Kahera W El Nas” where I was appointed as head of content and head writer with Tarek’s guidance. And from there I truly understood and realized my potential and abilities in this field.

Then I was head of content at Nile Radio Productions then moved to Rotana, after that I created Rhyme Productions and started with El Ferenga which was my idea, I had a role in writing and everything to do with production so I had found the thing that would let me incorporate everything that I love to do.

How did the idea of El Ferenga come along?

Everything I see in life, everything I read and everything I interact with is artistic, journalistic material and is content that inspires and can be used. Since the creation of man, there has been only a few ideas and topics that just get reinvented and updated in time. It’s about what you choose to do with that idea and how to turn it into content that makes people engaged enough to watch.

I had come across an article in a foreign magazine about a man in Switzerland who was driving and missed his U-turn by 3 or 4 meters, so he drove in reverse to take it, and was immediately arrested and transferred to a psychiatric hospital as he was considered crazy. I thought to myself how the Swiss would feel if they came to Egypt where this happens all the time. From here came the idea of El Ferenga: to travel around the world and act in ways and use the mannerisms that are considered normal or typical in Egypt and see people’s reactions from different cultures.

We soon signed a contract with Shiko, Hisham and Fahmy and Al Nahar TV, and the El Ferenga journey began. It was the hardest yet funniest and most enjoyable experience I have had in my life. People might see El Ferenga and see laughter and travel, but in reality it was quite a challenging endeavor that we are proud of.

How many countries did you film in? And which country was the most fascinating? 

We went to around 21 countries and actually filmed in 17 of them. Some countries we just passed through like France and Switzerland. El Ferenga was supposed to be open ended, to continue with seasons in Africa, the Americas and Asia but we couldn’t due to several obstacles.

We have seen many beautiful places, but I loved Slovenia. Actually when we were filming there the episode about “Baltaga” where Fahmy had to block this narrow street, this lady wanted to pass but he wouldn’t let her. Both Fahmy and the lady were not backing down, and she started demanding we stop shooting and turn off the cameras and open the street but to no avail. Shortly after we find the Slovenian police and horses coming our way to find out that this lady was their Minister of Higher Education.

I learned from each country a new value that is now engraved in me, it was truly an enriching experience and because we spent almost 3 years living together for this project we became a family.

What inspired you to start producing content solely for digital platforms?

When everyone else was focused on TV series two years ago, I started realizing that digital is the future so I started studying it. That study lead to a gentlemen’s agreement with Tamer El Saraf specialist and media beast at DMS Company one of Shewery’s companies, to come up with a plan to put content online and to generate revenue from it. We started with El Familia by Ahmed Amin with a strong writing team, and then to a season 2 of El Familia and a project with media company Tayara.

What new projects are you working on?

We are working on several commercials with our sister company Story Tellers, which handles the creative side of things, run by my brother Hashim El Sokkary and Akram (last name). Regarding content, we started creating collaborative projects with different media entities and professionals starting with Tayara and the show Msh Mosalsal Hend Sabri that aired during Ramadan and was a fruitful project that pushed us to expand.

Now we have a new digital project with Cairo West Publications called El Fasolya and El Maestro that we can’t reveal too much about since they are still a work in progress.

Quickfire round:

• Favorite series

Alf Leila W Leila

• Movie that inspired you 

Esha3et Hob and Ragol Fakad 3aklo

• Celebrity or Star that you would like to work with 

Dr. Yehia El Fakharany, and I would love to create digital content for Ahmed Helmy. Also Abla Kamel, Mona Zaki and Nelly Karim.