Yasmine Al Masri

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

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.

I never had planned for my life and my career.

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.

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