Dubai: A lot can happen when you refuse to let yourself go. Not long ago, Saudi actor Mohammed Al-Shehri struggled to impress his closest friends. A year after breaking out on MBC’s Ramadan hit “Sikat Safar” (The Road Trip), the rising star is now the man calling on the region’s biggest producers to save the day. And after garnering acclaim on some of Saudi Arabia’s most high-profile projects in 2023, there is no indication his belief in himself will take him thereafter.

“My goal was never just to rise to the top of Saudi Arabia. The moment I knew I needed to change my life was the day I visited “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist” on Netflix) – a local hit that took over the world. This is the path I envision for myself. Every step I take is an attempt to get closer to the global stage,” Al-Shehri told Arab News.

Some things, of course, don’t seem destined until much later. Al-Shehri, for example, only caught “Million Dollar Land,” MBC’s hit adaptation of the globally popular reality TV show, the night before filming began. He was winding up at the gym in Riyadh, unsure of where his next opportunity would come, when his agent sent a message that an urgent meeting had popped up. Al-Shehri refused at first, and agreed to do so in his car after they refused to answer.

“They pitched me this idea, a series of about 100 people locked in a 40-day survival challenge in the deserts of NEOM, and my mood completely changed. I loved the idea. It’s you who we want this to have. And if you’re inside, we need you today. The opening helicopter scene is scheduled to be shot at 6am in NEOM tomorrow.”

He threw everything away and rushed across the country, hopped on a plane and managed to sleep for two hours before he was in the helicopter on his way to leave. There, it was like nothing he had experienced before, a crew of 180 people from all over the world. He was the main host and star, everyone on the set greeted him by name as he walked by, but he hardly knew where he was.

“They called the ‘action,’ and I delivered the lines I was given, not yet knowing what I was talking about. I had to brush off every insecurity I was feeling, telling myself the audience was looking to me for confidence. The second we drove, I looked behind me and saw 100 contestants from 15 countries for the first time, and I just asked myself, ‘How is this real?’”

Soon every question was answered, and the experience became life-changing for Al-Shehri, not only because he was able to learn a lot about human nature by watching each of the contestants band together to overcome the grueling experience, but because he learned so much about himself. For the first time, it was at the heart of a world-class production and it thrived.

“But also, it’s important to remember that the effort from everyone who worked on the show was truly amazing. The quality on every level was evident once it premiered. It ranked #1 on MBC all month, and for the first time I’m inundated with messages not only from Saudis, but from people in every country in the region,” says Al-Shehri.

Al-Shehri is always keen to see exactly how people respond to each of his projects, sifting through online feedback and looking for ways to improve. Ultimately, the person he’s shooting himself after is Tom Cruise, he tells us. And in order to be Tom Cruise, you don’t have to worry about the award winner, you need to learn how to devote your career to people.

Al-Shehri is currently starring in the blockbuster Saudi film “Tariq al-Wadi,” now in cinemas across the kingdom, and was relished at the opportunity to watch how people interact with his work in real time. He recently bought a show ticket, donned a hat and mask, and sat down near a group of teenagers to see how people viewed his work after years of only being able to gauge his success by comments online.

“I was one seat away from a group of teenage kids, and I expected them to be scrolling through Snapchat, but they were so engaged. To my surprise, when I appeared on the screen one of them shouted, ‘This is Mohamed Alshehri from Sekkah Zero’ and they cheered. Eventually, he took a screenshot and wrote his review to send to his friends, but I couldn’t make out what he was writing,” says Alshehri.

“When the movie was over, I walked out normally, but soon enough people started recognizing me. I was immediately mobilized, and the kid who was sitting next to me came asking for a picture. I said, ‘Sure, but I want to see what you wrote in that post!’ He showed me, and he was honestly so kind, a really warm recommendation. I just wanted to see his honest notes,” continues Al-Shehri.

On his way home, he thought back to the first day he heard about “Wadi Road” from his friend, director Khaled Fahd. That was before he filmed Zero Rail — before he found his voice as an actor, and things were very different.

“I will never forget when he first told me about the role, he told me he didn’t trust me. But that never deterred me. I could have told him, but instead I auditioned, got the role, and if this movie ends up on a major global streaming platform after that, it could be the role that introduces me to the world,” says Al-Shehri.

This is not to say that as of now, there are no bumps in the road. While “Sekkat Safar,” for example, premiered on MBC during its Ramadan 2022 premiere, the 2023 season was removed from its premiere just two days before Ramadan began. Shehri and the rest of the cast and crew are crushed, unsure if audiences will keep watching when it finally comes out 20 days into the month.

“We were so proud of this season. When we first got the new scripts, they were awful, so we fired them and wrote 25 episodes together in eight days. When the delay came, I thought this was the end, but the fans waited, they campaigned, and when it came out, it was a huge hit, just like before.”

It wasn’t the moment that affected him the most. Just a few weeks ago, he saw that someone on TikTok had posted a video of him, and when he clicked on the hashtag of his name, he discovered hundreds of videos dedicated to him, totaling over 630 million views. After years of dreaming, he thought the Saudi was now really behind him. After that, he promised himself, the world.