{"id":2915,"date":"2016-12-09T21:12:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T21:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=2915"},"modified":"2023-05-31T18:48:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T17:48:22","slug":"riz-ahmed-vocal-living-scary-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2016\/12\/09\/riz-ahmed-vocal-living-scary-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Riz Ahmed: \u2018We have to be vocal. We\u2019re living in scary times\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was pulled aside at Luton airport and says he was illegally detained, questioned and threatened.
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\"PoweredThis article titled “Riz Ahmed: \u2018We have to be vocal. We\u2019re living in scary times\u2019” was written by Carole Cadwalladr, for The Observer on Sunday 4th December 2016 14.00 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

One thing about Riz Ahmed<\/a>: he is not boring. We\u2019re in a central London hotel room as part of the massive media blitz for Rogue One<\/em><\/a>, the latest multimillion dollar incarnation of the Star Wars<\/em> franchise. And maybe one day he\u2019ll become boring, or learn how to be boring, but even though we\u2019re at the very heart of the Hollywood publicity machine, surrounded by soft furnishings in all shades of beige, Ahmed is not boring. In the decade since Michael Winterbottom cast him in his first film, The Road to Guantanamo<\/em><\/a>, he\u2019s built up a critically acclaimed body of work, including his breakout performance in Chris Morris\u2019s jihadist satire Four Lions<\/em><\/a>. In addition, he has a sideline as a musician, and has just brought out a hip-hop album as one of the Swet Shop Boys called Cashmere<\/em><\/a>. Sample lyric, from a track called \u201cT5\u201d: \u201cTrump want my exit, but if he press a red button\/ To watch Netflix, bruv, I\u2019m on\u2026 Oh no, we\u2019re in trouble\/TSA always wanna burst my bubble\/Always get a random check when I rock the stubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has always been someone with something to say. Earlier this year he appeared in Jason Bourne<\/em><\/a>, but in many ways Rogue One <\/em>marks the apotheosis from plucky indie actor to mainstream Hollywood player. But it hasn\u2019t shut him up. If anything, it\u2019s done the opposite, and now he\u2019s getting the chance to say it on the back of a Disney blockbuster playing an imperial cargo pilot in the Star Wars<\/em> prequel. In an essay for The Good Immigrant<\/em><\/a>, a book of essays about race and immigration in the UK, he wrote about his experience of being racially profiled in airports. And how he came to realise that his experience of being interrogated was not unlike his experience of being auditioned \u2013 \u201cwhere the length of your facial hair can be a deal breaker\u201d.<\/p>\n

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He defined the career stages of any minority actor: \u201cStage one is the two-dimensional stereotype \u2013 the minicab driver\/terrorist\/cornershop owner.\u201d Stage two challenges the stereotype. And stage three \u201cis the promised land, where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to their race. There I am not a terror suspect, nor a victim of forced marriage. There, my name might even be Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n

His name in Rogue One <\/em>isn\u2019t Dave, it\u2019s Bodhi Rook. But still. Is this the promised land?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve got an action figure. I didn\u2019t realise that there\u2019s a holy grail\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the promised land?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe action figure is like an extra level you didn\u2019t know was there. It\u2019s like the power-up in Mario. It\u2019s just weird, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a miniature figurine of you. I mean it\u2019s not you. It\u2019s about the character and the film. But\u2026 it is you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gareth Edwards<\/a>, the director, another Brit, asked him to audition for the film. \u201cAnd he made Monsters<\/em>, which I loved, so I just put myself on tape. And I can be quite obsessive. I just kept sending him tapes of the scene that he sent me. I think I sent him like 11 or 12 different tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ahmed
\u2018I\u2019ve done classic films and people ask: What\u2019s it like being a Muslim? That\u2019s offensive\u2019: Ahmed in Four Lions.<\/span> Photograph: Everett Collection\/Rex<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you really want the job?<\/p>\n

\u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to be in Star Wars<\/em>? I kept on obsessively sending him more tapes. And eventually he emailed back and said: \u2018Hey Riz, thanks for the tapes. I think that\u2019s enough now. And, I was like: \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve definitely screwed it up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In The Good Immigrant <\/em>essay, he wrote how, \u201cYou are intermittently handed a necklace of labels to hang around your neck.\u201d Becoming an actor was a way \u201cto stretch these necklaces\u2026 to breathe a little easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

So are you breathing more easily now?<\/p>\n