Actor Riz Ahmed Remakes the Leading Man
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Higher Ground
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2026
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the better part of two decades, Emmy and Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed has moved seamlessly between worlds: indies, blockbusters, prestige TV, writing, rapping.
We discuss the long road to his new TV series Bait (3:45), what the character of James Bond symbolizes (6:00), and how the show connects to his own 80s upbringing in Wembley, England (18:40). Then, Riz describes how code-switching (inadvertently) led to acting (22:00), the childhood films he first made in his mind (26:25), the piece of advice from Idris Elba that changed his course (38:30), and how he broke out in Hollywood starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler (40:50).
On the back-half, Riz talks performing on stage with classmate (now Zeteo journalist) Mehdi Hasan (44:20), a frenetic audition for Slumdog Millionaire (45:28), nightmares from The Night Of (49:25), his upcoming project opposite Tom Cruise (53:45), the Swet Shop Boys’ hit song “Half Moghul Half Mowgli” (1:00:45), how life imitated art while shooting Relay (1:09:05), and the challenge—and freedom—of representing himself, anew, in Bait (1:13:20).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Talk Easy. I'm Stan Forgo, so welcome to the show. |
| 0:19.5 | Welcome to the show. |
| 0:36.1 | Today, actor, writer, musician, Riz Ahmed. |
| 0:38.3 | For the better part of two decades, |
| 0:41.0 | Riz has moved between many different worlds. |
| 0:43.8 | Indy films, blockbusters, writing, rapping, |
| 0:47.0 | a small but pivotal character arc on girls. |
| 0:49.3 | Ahmed can do just about anything. |
| 0:53.0 | You need only to look at the variety of performances he's delivered in films like Nightcrawler, |
| 0:55.0 | Rogue One, Sounded Metal, or the Phoenician Scheme, many of which are characters, much like |
| 1:00.4 | Riz, trying to hold on to their identity and systems determined to define them and box them in. |
| 1:07.1 | Deservingly, his work has been recognized at the highest levels. |
| 1:10.5 | In 2017, he received an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in the Limited Series for the Night of. |
| 1:16.2 | In 2022, Riz won an Oscar for the short film The Long Goodbye, which he co-wrote and also starred in. |
| 1:22.9 | His latest is in the new Prime video series, Bait. |
| 1:26.5 | In it, he stars as Shah Latif, a struggling actor who |
| 1:30.4 | improbably lands an audition for the role of a lifetime, James Bond. When news of his potential |
| 1:36.4 | casting is leaked, the internet, always merciful and generous, begins to weigh in on whether he's |
| 1:42.7 | the right man for the job. |
| 1:45.5 | Here's a clip from the trailer. |
| 1:48.7 | I've got stuff cooking. |
| 1:50.1 | I can't tell you. |
... |
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