JEDDAH: Academy Award-winning US actress Marisa Tomei turned heads at the Red Sea International Film Festival red carpet on Tuesday night, following a talk she gave at the Red Sea Souk earlier in the day.
“It’s been fantastic,” Tomei said of her time so far in Jeddah in an interview with Arab News. “I’m looking forward to going into the Jeddah Old Town. I’m looking forward to being at the gala. I’m very curious about this film about this opera singer. It’s a comedy,” she said, referring to Saudi filmmaker Abdulaziz Almuzaini’s latest film “Lail Nahar,” which premiered at the festival.
Marisa Tomei on the red carpet in Jeddah. (Getty Images)
She went on about being in Saudi Arabia: “It’s just beautiful. It’s just a dream. It is one of the best parts of this career and being part of this business — to be able to travel, meet new people, see totally interesting, different approaches to life.”
Tomei also took a beat to praise the Kingdom’s efforts to support the growing film industry.
“And what’s going on here in terms of the labs that they’re doing and growing these film studios, and what they’re doing for women in film is really, really, really exciting and paying dividends back. And I mean, only in four years … It’s really, really impressive and exciting, and I’m excited to see what comes, just what continues to come out of here, and it’s just being done in such an elegant, thoughtful way. I’m blown away by that,” she said.
Tomei, who was last prominently seen in the “Spider-Man” trilogy as Aunt May to Tom Holland’s titular character, said she loved working with director Jon Watts on the popular Marvel project.
“I loved being with Jon Watts. I think he’s a great director. He always was saying to us, ‘Let’s do this like an independent film.’ So even though it was this giant film, he kept it really intimate, and he was always open to ideas,” she said.
“Jon always felt, or we felt together, that (Aunt May) really raised Peter Parker and so that her influence would have really been the most massive in his life, and I think that’s also why she gave the classic Uncle Ben line in that pivotal moment. Jon just really had his hands around that. And it was really fun. And it was also fun to do some of the little bit of action scenes that I got to do. And, you know, have my hair really long,” she added.
