Riz Ahmed

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Riz Ahmed is back on Bullseye! He chats with us about his role in the new Hamlet film and his personal relationship with Shakespeare’s work. We also get into his early days as a battle rapper, if he plans to keep rapping as he gets older, and much more!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We've got such an amazing interview with Riz. I'm Ed coming up. I wanted to let you know that it is the Max Fund Drive. That is the two weeks a year when we ask for your direct support of Bullseye by going to MaximumFund.org slash join. Bullseye is produced by the worker-owned cooperative maximum fund. I'm a worker owner. So are my colleagues on Bullseye.
0:21.8	And we need your help.
0:23.6	So please become a member right now at maximum fund.org slash join.
0:29.5	And enjoy Riz.
0:31.9	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximum fun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:38.4	It's Bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. My next guest, Riz Ahmed. He is, of course, an Oscar winner,
0:58.5	the star of The Sound of Metal. You might have seen him in Nightcrawler, in Jason Bourne,
1:04.3	The Night of, or one of my absolute favorites, the stunning satire, Four Lions.
1:28.1	That's a drone. Hide! It's flying low. It's going to attack. Let's go, let's go. Where are we going to go, watch? We've got to take it out. Take it out with what? We ain't got no bullets. This is my mistake, bro. No, no, no. My mistake. Watch. Listen, listen. I think about it. It's God's plan.
1:29.6	He's put us here to defend the camp, isn't it?
1:30.5	This is a jihad.
1:31.9	Think about it.
1:33.7	My mistake, no, no, no, listen. That's the devil. He's in your brain giving it the wassa, what's her. Don't listen to him. God's in your heart, bro. Ahmed is also a rapper and a good one.
1:41.4	Better than you would think if you heard actor who is also a rapper.
1:45.2	Actually, a lot better than you think if you heard that.
1:47.7	He's released... rapper and a good one. Better than you would think if you heard actor who is also a rapper.
1:45.2	Actually, a lot better than you think if you heard that. He's released two LPs under his own
1:49.7	name, including The Long Goodbye in 2020. Ahmed also co-wrote and starred in a short film,
1:56.6	also called The Long Goodbye, based on that album. That won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2022.
2:04.7	Ahmed is at an interesting point in his career now.
2:07.6	When I last talked with him in 2016, he'd just shot a couple of his biggest breakthrough roles,
2:13.1	including one in Rogue One, a Star Wars story.
	...

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