Egyptian actress Nahed Yusri revealed the reasons behind her 30-year hiatus from cinema in an interview where she also bashed the “plastic beauty” of today’s female celebrities.
Yusri, who began her career in modeling at 16, enjoyed a stellar career during the 1970s and became known as a symbol of seduction in Arab cinema. Her films consistently featured intimate scenes that were considered highly controversial at the time.
“Girls from our generation never waited for equality. I was a model and an actress, I was educated and when I when I got married I told my husband ‘I am not the daughter of [Sheikh Mohammad] Al-Sha’rawi, I act wearing a swimsuit, there’s nudity and kissing’ – that’s my job, I chose it, I love it,” Yusri said.
Yusri insists that female celebrities today lag far behind stars of older Arab films, such as Hind Rostom, whom she believes were the pinnacle of seduction in Arab cinema. She took a swipe at Lebanese divas Haifa Wehbe and Maya Diab, comparing their “stiff beauty” to a “cup of tea with 10 sugar spoons.”
“We were beautiful without all the silicone, fake hair, lenses and plastic surgeries. We used to wear revealing clothes, but now they just sculpt their bodies with surgeries, and of course I see – just like the rest of the audience – that Haifa and Maya are beautiful, but their beauty is stiff like a cup of tea with 10 spoons of sugar,” she said.
But her life has, since then, has taken a conservative twist.
After she got married, Yusri chose to wear the veil despite that her husband “never said anything” to deter her film career or lifestyle. Now 66, she insists she has no regrets about giving up stardom and making her marriage and family her top priorities.
Her last film was “The Prince” in 1984, when she starred alongside Ahmad Zaki and Hussein Fahmi.
However, Yusri insists she never retired.
“I haven’t officially retired until today and my husband never forced me into anything,” she said. “But producers won’t leave women with puffed-up lips and breasts and look at me.”
In May, retired Egyptian actress Zubaida Tharwat gave a rare interview in which she announced her royal roots and spoke of her admiration for toppled President Hosni Mubarak.