'Moon Knight' star May Calamawy says the director's wife asked her to audition through an Instagram message

• "Moon Knight" actress May Calamawy spoke to Entertainment Weekly about auditioning for the series.
• She said Sarah Goher, the wife of the show's director Mohamed Diab, reached out on Instagram.

"Moon Knight" star May Calamawy told Entertainment Weekly writer Devan Coggan that she auditioned for the show after receiving an Instagram message from the wife of Mohamed Diab, one of the show's directors.

The latest Marvel Disney+ series focuses on the comic character Moon Knight, a mercenary who became a vigilante after being raised from the dead by an Ancient Egyptian moon god called Khonshu. Calamawy plays an entirely new character, Layla El-Faouly, who is Moon Knight's wife and ally during the series.

During an interview with EW about starring in the show alongside film stars Ethan Hawke and Oscar Isaac, Calamawy recalled the audition process and the message she received from Sarah Goher, Diab's wife and a consulting producer on the show.

"Mohamed Diab's wife Sarah messaged me on Instagram, like, 'My husband's interested in you for this Marvel show,'" the 35-year-old actress said. "I asked my manager if it was real — because you get a lot of weird stuff on Instagram! She did some fishing, and she's like, 'Okay, it's real, and I got you an audition.' There wasn't much information about it."

Calamawy also said she was "really nervous" because she wanted to do well and also didn't have much information about the role.

"Two weeks later, I had a chemistry read with Oscar, and then three days later, my manager called me," She continued. "She was like, 'Have you heard anything?' I was like, 'No.' She says, 'Alright. Well, I have. You got it.' And then we both cried on the phone. My boyfriend was also there, and he cried. It was really cute."

While Layla's character is new, there have been some clues in the first three episodes that she may be based on Moon Knight's long-term lover in the comics Marlene Alraune. It is revealed in this week's episode that Layla's father was an archaeologist who died similarly to Marlene's father.

New episodes of "Moon Knight" are released weekly on Wednesdays on Disney+.