Bandwagons roll through our lives. It’s up to you whether you jump on them unquestioningly or jump on them to overturn them and subvert them. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
The reality of Britain is vibrant multiculturalism, but the myth we export is an all-white world of lords and ladies. Conversely, American society is pretty segregated, but the myth it exports is of a racial melting-pot, everyone solving crimes and fighting aliens side by side. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
Maybe I don’t ever fully switch off, but I think the way I offset that is by splitting my time between film and music. I always want to challenge myself and grow, fail, self-flagellate, and then try again. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
The camera or the microphone in the booth is merciless. If you don’t believe what you’re saying, it hears it. If you don’t believe it, it sees it in your eyes, it hears it in your voice that there isn’t the conviction there. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
I don’t feel that any kind of narrow stereotypes are representative of the work I’ve done, nor the range of the audience that work has found. I’ve played lots of different roles, and they’ve connected with lots of different people. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
Hollywood is an image. We project these fantasies on to it, but people are just people. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
I get good references from a wide range of music. Something who’s been a good influence in the last few years is Qawwali music. If you listen to a Qawwali singer like Aziz Mian – he’s like James Brown. Qawwali is like Pakistani gospel-jazz. It’s emotional, but it’s also improvised, and it’s all about that sacred-and-profane tightrope. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
The only people who have doubts about the sincerity of my music are people who come to it relatively late, off the back of having seen me in a film. Acting is about being other people, and music is about being myself. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
Being South Asian in the U.K. is like being Latino in the U.S., I would guess. It’s a bit more hood. You see things; things happen. I was bouncing between worlds. You’re acting from a very early age, when you have to code-switch like that. I’m a hybrid, a mongrel. I think many people live that life. Riz Ahmed Read Quote
Since the Greek myths, the greatest stories are premised on the idea of, ‘A stranger arrives.’ Riz Ahmed Read Quote
