DAMMAM: Sofia Boutella was scared of “The Mummy” — until she got to know the ancient Egyptian princess intimately.
“I think I was terrified to play a monster,” said the former dancer, who has worked with the likes of Rihanna and Madonna.
The Algerian-born actress’ main concern was being typecast in the role.
“I felt like every time I saw an actor play a monster in a movie, with the exception of Boris Karloff, they hadn’t done much afterwards in terms of their career,” she said.
That is why Boutella said “no” to director Alex Kurtzman the first time he offered her the part.
The actress breaks tradition in the new film as Universal Pictures’ first female Mummy.
Her co-star Tom Cruise said the move to make the antagonist a woman gives the story a “fresh and modern take.” “I thought it really made for a fresh and modern take on it that really leads us in to this new universe. Sofia is beautiful, powerful, terrifying, but very alluring; you want to be with her but then you’re scared of her,” he said.
The Mummy reboot stars Cruise as Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who awakens vengeful Egyptian aristocrat Ahmanet (Boutella) from a slumber that has lasted thousands of years.
Algerian-born Sofia Boutella ‘terrified’ by ‘The Mummy’
Algerian-born Sofia Boutella ‘terrified’ by ‘The Mummy’
Vietnam police find frozen tiger bodies, arrest two men
Vietnamese police have found two dead tigers inside freezers in a man’s basement, arresting him and another for illicit trade in the endangered animal, the force said Saturday.
The Southeast Asian country is a consumption hub and popular trading route for illegal animal products, including tiger bones which are used in traditional medicine.
Police in Thanh Hoa province, south of the capital Hanoi, said they had found the frozen bodies ot two adult tigers, weighing about 400 kilograms (882 pounds) in total, in the basement of 52-year-old man Hoang Dinh Dat.
In a statement posted online, police said the man told officers he had bought the animals for two billion dong ($77,000), identifying the seller as 31-year-old Nguyen Doan Son.
Both had been arrested earlier this week, police said.
According to the statement, the buyer had equipment to produce so-called tiger bone glue, a sticky substance believed to heal skeletal ailments.
Tigers used to roam Vietnam’s forests, but have now disappeared almost entirely.
