RIZ AHMED
AT ITS HEART,EVERY STORY ISABOUT TRYINGTO ANSWER THEQUESTION,“WHO AM I?”
Riz Ahmed might be one of the hardest- working British actors in the business today. Since breaking out in the mid-’oos, you might have seen him in everything from thought-provoking indies (Shifty, III Manors) to top telly (Dead Set, The Night Of, Girls), the biggest of blockbusters (Jason Bourne, Rogue One, Venom) and the talking-point comedy of the past 20 years (Four Lions). Alongside his acting career, Ahmed has revealed another side of himself as a rapper, releasing material solo and as part of Swet Shop Boys (it was his track ‘Post 9/11 Blues’ that caught the attention of Chris Morris).
In his latest film, Sound Of Metal, Ahmed plays Ruben Stone, a drummer in a band with his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke). Gigging and living out of a tour van, their free, nomadic lifestyle is upended when Ruben suddenly suffers severe hearing loss, and has no choice but to check himself into a home for deaf addicts. There he bonds with an older mentor, Joe (played Paul Raci, a child of deaf adults and sign-language expert). Written and directed by Darius Marder in his feature film debut, Sound Of Metal is particularly notable for its extremely immersive sound design. It’s a profound piece of work, providing Ahmed with one of his best roles yet.
“I just fell in love with the script without any context,” Ahmed tells TF, speaking over Zoom from the location of the currently filming (Covid-secure, of course) Invasion. “And then I met Darius, and I just really fell in love with his energy.” It was a chance to return to his acting roots. “Having spent so much of my career before The Night Of making these lower-budget, British indie films that had been tremendous growing experiences, I guess I wanted to reconnect to that energy but take it up to something more intense.” While set in a very specific milieu - the collision between the grungy travelling musician scene, and the deaf community - it’s a universal story.
Born in London in 1982 to a British- Pakistani family, Ahmed has never shied away from addressing big themes of race, religion and politics in either side of his career, and many pivotal early roles directly examined the ‘Typecast As A Terrorist’, in which he laid out three stages of portrayals for ethnic minorities. Stage one is “the two- dimensional stereotype”, stage two is “the subversive portrayal, taking place on “ethnic” terrain but aiming to challenge existing stereotypes”, and stage three is “the Promised Land, where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to his race”.
