“Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.” It’s safe to say that when Vincent van Gogh spoke these words, he didn’t have an American/Pakistani Muslim superhero living in the 21st century in mind.
Sandra Saad, a first-generation Egyptian-American and voice actress, felt compelled to turn down many acting opportunities that could have gotten her noticed much quicker as the scripts depicted negative Muslim stereotypes.
“Sometimes I get these scripts that are just dangerous to play,” Saad told the Los Angeles Times, adding that she was asked to take on political roles such as a terrorist’s wife due to her background and say things that are just “horrible.”
Hence, she refused to bring to life biased stories and continued to work behind the scenes as a makeup artist.
“So I told myself a while back that I would rather not ruin my career that way, and make myself look bad and make my people look bad, to just book a couple hundred dollar job. It’s not worth it to have that trash on my resume,” the voice actress said.
Eventually, Saad’s strong will and character reaped the fruits of their labor.
Saad, who also speaks Arabic, is now set to voice the personality of a Muslim female superhero, and take the spotlight in the Marvel's Avengers video game by Square Enix.
Ms Marvel, the alter-ego of Kamala Khan, is Marvel's first Muslim character with her very own comic and will be the lead role in the video game.
“I am very similar to her — the struggles of being a first-generation American and growing up as a young brown teenager who doesn’t necessarily fit in and is a little awkward,” Saad expressed her fellings about the character.
“I’m hopeful that I can continue playing a character who doesn’t play into a negative stereotype, a character who embraces the background. Kamala is Pakistani, Kamala is Muslim. But the game isn’t about her religion because that’s not what life is.”
Saad also underlined that she always wanted to take part in a role that inspired others, and herself.
The 16-year-old Muslim-American character, Kamala Khan, is a big comic book fan and after she discovers her superhuman power - being a polymorph and able to lengthen her arms and legs and change her shape - she takes on the name of Ms. Marvel.
She made her first appearance in 2013 in an edition of Captain Marvel, and landed her own comic book series in February 2014.
