Yasmine Al Masri

“I have a baby that is 21 months old, and I watch Disney Junior with him. A lot of those shows are about pirates. Even the T-shirts and pajamas I buy for him have pirate themes like, 'Aye-aye, argh and mate.' But, I definitely grew up watching pirates.”

“I am a contradiction myself. I'm always looking for something that scares me because when I'm not scared, I'm not stimulated.”

“To be a veiled Muslim woman on screen is a very scary minefield for me.”

“I didn't want to be an actress. I wasn't trying to be in film or an art gallery for me.”

“I never had planned for my life and my career.”

“I come from a family of refugees. I'm used to surviving and going with the flow, and what happened to me was just life.”

“I think Hollywood makes the mistake of mixing all these identities and cultures, mostly from the Middle East.”

“I am part of this generation with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'Peter Pan.' I think we all grew up in this culture of pirates.”

“In TV, you don't know everything. The writers only give you scripts before you shoot the episodes. They keep you on your nerve.”

“Although I come from a family who are Muslim - my mother is Egyptian, my father is Palestinian - my mother only puts a veil on her head when she has a bad hair day.”

“I am especially fascinated with mermaids, and they are always coming out in pirate stories.”