Egyptian actor Amr Waked says he is happy with his new series of “Marco Polo,” which premiered this month in the United States on Netflix, the subscription-based online movie and TV provider.
Waked, who plays Vice Regent Yusuf under the Mongolian emperor Kablai Khan, said he has received positive reactions from Arab audience based in the United States as well.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Waked marveled at the filming of the series, which has been the most expensive Netflix production yet. Waked traveled to Malaysia and Kazakhstan, filming in some extremely remote locations. “We had to travel four hours from the airport to the hotel, and then two and a half hours to the location. It was very tough to film it,” he said.
Waked says the actors participating in the filming of “Marco Polo” were from all over the world. “The amount of nationalities and languages spoken [on the] set was crazy – 26 nationalities and 30 languages, I think. I was very stimulated by the massiveness,” he said.
The series, starring Lorenzo Richelmy as Marco Polo and Benedict Wong as Khan, debuted on Netflix on 12 December.
In line with previous Netflix-original series, such as “Orange Is the New Black” and “House of Cards,” Waked said each of the ten episodes of the Netflix-original series is equalivalent to a movie.
The series is not the first big role the Egyptian actor has played for US audiences. Waked also costarred with Scarlett Johansson in the 2014 film “Lucy.”
