by Sherif Awad
-I’m French. I am born in France, close to Switzerland. I started modelling in 2010. In 2012, I moved to Paris, then to Taiwan, then to New Zealand and since 2015 I live in Madrid, Spain. My parents still live in France. They were dancers, so I have always been connected to the arts and entertainment world. When I was a child, I was particularly interested to music and I started playing the piano when I was eight years-old. Then, I discovered the painting and went to visit many museums. Now, I feel more interested in cinema, and I am rediscovering the classical movies, which particularly help me for my work as an actor.
-During my childhood and teen years, I didn’t do any role unfortunately. My parents were not interested to make me work in the area, and I totally respect that. I started being a model when I was nineteen years-old in Geneva and then moved to Paris at three years later.
-Well, when you are an artist, I think it is a big necessity to always keep updated about the new trends and this may require training and courses, especially if you want to be an actor. However, I definitely think that the biggest artists need more than just trainings and studies, but need to express something new and authentic, which you won’t learn during the classes. My main objective is not to be famous worldwide or even in my country. The most important for me is to get satisfaction with what I do in my life, to achieve new projects, to get more life-enhancing experiences, to meet new inspiring people, to learn new things and abilities and to know more countries and cultures.
-Modeling is probably one of the few works in the world where women can work better than men and get more remunerated too. However, it is true that the female models and actresses get more chances unfortunately to get influence from their agents or producers than the male models and actors. It is probably because this world is very often managed by men who may take advantage of women desiring to realize their dreams. That is sad and I always encourage women to publicly talk about their bad experiences with these men, as I think that it is the best way to get rid of this kind of people. As a message of hope, I would say that it is always possible to work with good professionals in this industry, even if you are a woman, and I know a lot around me who has always found the way to avoid this kind of problems.
-The situation of the arts and entertainment industry in Spain is more or less the same as every country. The productions are reducing more and more the costs and the remuneration of the actors. The arts need to be more and more commercial in order to be profitable. The TV is in crisis too as lesser people are watching compared to programs on the internet or on platforms like Netflix. These platforms represent also a big threat for actors as our image rights are not paid the most of the time. We are facing a big revolution in this world and as an actor, we are at the point that we can’t live without making advertises or having sponsors. I believe that this world is in kind of transition and need to find a new economic model.
-My agent is in charge of finding and negotiating every project. Of course, I always have the final decision if I want to do the job or not. There is also more and more companies and productions that contact me directly via my social media accounts or my website, which is good, but the conditions and not the same and it is always hard for me to negotiate as I am not used to that.
-Well, I think that my life is not so different from other people who have some busy days of work. I personally try to respect some working hours, to not work during the weekends and to take some vacations, as life is not only about work. I also try to visit my family every two months in France, I always try to get some days off for that as this kind of things is very important.
-Everything has been a bit stopped during the Coronavirus crisis. It is the opportunity for me to develop my own blog and to give some tips to men who want to live better, look better and be better men. For example, I published a couple of weeks ago my home workout and my diet plan that I am following during the lockdown. I hope that everything will be back to normal very soon and that we will be able to film again.
