British-Egyptian actor, director, writer and psychological acting coach Mel Masry has joined NileFM with a new podcast examining the gap between romance on screen and relationships in real life.
Masry, host of NileFM&rsquo;s upcoming &lsquo;REEL vs REAL&rsquo;, joined The Big Drive with Zeinab and Sami to introduce the new podcast and discuss how films can influence the way audiences understand love, intimacy and relationships.
The podcast explores the expectations people develop from watching romantic stories, with a particular focus on relationships in the Arab world.
Masry, who recently joined the NileFM family, brings experience across acting, theatre, filmmaking and writing, as well as psychological approaches to performance. His career includes credits and appearances connected to Cannes, BAFTA and Off-Broadway.
From Cinema to Reality
Masry said the idea for &lsquo;REEL vs REAL&rsquo; came from his interest in the gap between what audiences see on screen and what they come to believe relationships should look like.
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t just watch films. We naturally absorb them,&rdquo; he said.
According to Masry, audiences can internalise the relationships portrayed in films and sometimes use them as a reference point for their own lives. This can contribute to unrealistic expectations, particularly when real relationships are compared with idealised romances on screen.
One example he wants to examine is the tendency to confuse intensity with intimacy.
&ldquo;When two people meet and it becomes quite intense, there&rsquo;s a bit of a confusion that, &lsquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m actually in love with that person,&rsquo;&rdquo; Masry said.
He noted that jealousy and obsession can sometimes be mistaken for signs of love, even though intensity does not necessarily mean genuine intimacy.
Hollywood, Egyptian Cinema And The Relationship Script
Masry also explored the different ways relationships are portrayed in Hollywood and Egyptian cinema.
While Hollywood often centres romantic stories around the familiar idea of &ldquo;boy meets girl&rdquo;, Egyptian cinema can place the relationship within a much wider social and family context.
&ldquo;In Egyptian cinema, it&rsquo;s our boy meets girl and meets mum, meets dad, dog, the whole neighbourhood,&rdquo; he said.
Such portrayals, Masry suggested, can reinforce the idea that relationships should follow a particular formula, even though real-life relationships rarely fit a single script.
He also cautioned against treating Arab culture as one uniform experience.
&ldquo;Cairo is not the same as Beirut. Beirut is not the same as another Arab country,&rdquo; he said, pointing out that even families living in the same neighbourhood can have very different beliefs and expectations around love and relationships.
&ldquo;Culture can influence love. But it doesn&rsquo;t write the same script,&rdquo; Masry added.
Why We Get Attached To Romantic Films
One of the surprises for Masry while developing &lsquo;REEL vs REAL&rsquo; has been seeing how deeply audiences can connect with particular films.
He cited films such as Titanic and The Notebook as examples of stories that have become personal reference points for romance for many viewers.
The podcast examines how audiences can become attached to the fantasy presented by these stories and treat them as representations of an ideal relationship, despite the imperfections and complexities of real-life partnerships.
Looking Beyond The Romantic Moment
Through &lsquo;REEL vs REAL&rsquo;, Masry hopes to encourage listeners to reconsider what they are actually looking for in a relationship and to distinguish between romance and genuine partnership.
Rather than focusing only on grand romantic gestures or moments of intense emotion, he encourages people to consider the everyday details that can define a lasting relationship.
&ldquo;Look 10 years ahead,&rdquo; he said.
For Masry, that means asking who listens, who communicates, who remains present during difficult moments and who consistently shows up.
Real relationships, he said, also involve accepting imperfections and working through them together, rather than expecting the instant perfection often presented on screen.
Ultimately, NileFM&rsquo;s new &lsquo;REEL vs REAL&rsquo; podcast invites listeners to question the romantic scripts they may have absorbed from cinema, and to consider the difference between the relationships&rsquo; films teach us to expect and the relationships we experience.
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