{"id":21289,"date":"2026-07-29T20:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21289"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:36:23","slug":"the-emmy-nominated-actor-on-bait-bond-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21289","title":{"rendered":"The Emmy-Nominated Actor On \u2018Bait\u2019 &#038; Bond Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/riz-ahmed\/\" id=\"auto-tag_riz-ahmed\" data-tag=\"riz-ahmed\">Riz Ahmed<\/a> is used to taking chances. In 2012, he thought he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, having co-starred with James Gandolfini in the pilot for HBO\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/the-night-of\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-night-of\" data-tag=\"the-night-of\">The Night Of<\/a><\/em> series, playing an ostensibly clean-cut college student accused of a brutal murder. The following year, the <em>Sopranos<\/em> star unexpectedly died at the age of 51 and the show was put on hiatus for the foreseeable future. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anything else going on at that point,\u201d Ahmed recalls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThings are obviously different now. In 2016, John Turturro stepped in to take Gandolfini\u2019s place in <em>The Night Of<\/em>, bringing Ahmed his first Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Series Or Movie. Then, in 2019, Darius Marder\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/sound-of-metal\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sound-of-metal\" data-tag=\"sound-of-metal\">Sound of Metal<\/a><\/em> brought an Oscar nomination. But in the early years after he first became an actor in 2006, the former British rapper had been working on a much smaller scale, with starring roles in the likes of low-key indie drug drama <em>Shifty<\/em> and Chris Morris\u2019s controversial jihadi comedy <em>Four Lions<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe future wasn\u2019t looking great, and when an audition for Tony Gilroy\u2019s dark media satire <em>Nightcrawler<\/em> came up, to play Jake Gyllenhaal\u2019s sidekick Rick, Ahmed put everything he had into it. Literally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cThere was no work for me in the UK,\u201d he says. \u201cI spent my last \u00a31,000 to get on a plane and do the screen test for <em>Nightcrawler<\/em>. I cleaned out my bank account to fly to LA. I was absolutely on the brink.\u201d It paid off, and a key role followed shortly after in Paul Greengrass\u2019s action hit <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/jason-bourne\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jason-bourne\" data-tag=\"jason-bourne\">Jason Bourne<\/a><\/em> (2016), which opened up the American market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAhmed took a similar gamble when writing <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/bait\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bait\" data-tag=\"bait\">Bait<\/a><\/em>, a six-part mini-series about a struggling actor in his native north London. Perhaps stubbornly, Ahmed refused to be cowed by the fact that he had no Plan B, and the future of the show would be decided by one woman, and one woman only. And if she said no, there would be no point in going forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe crux of the show is that Ahmed\u2019s character \u2014 Shah Latif, like him, a former rapper turned actor \u2014 is under consideration for the part of British super-spy <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/james-bond\/\" id=\"auto-tag_james-bond\" data-tag=\"james-bond\">James Bond<\/a>. Time was a crucial factor, given that Bond producers Eon were in talks about handing over the reins to the 007 franchise to Amazon MGM Studios. \u201cThere were just so many obstacles,\u201d Ahmed recalls. \u201cI mean, when we had the idea, everyone was like, \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/barbara-broccoli\/\" id=\"auto-tag_barbara-broccoli\" data-tag=\"barbara-broccoli\">Barbara Broccoli<\/a> will never let you do this.\u2019 We were about three and a half scripts in and we still hadn\u2019t spoken to her, but it was just a leap of faith. I had a gut feeling. Everyone \u2014 my agents, Amazon \u2014 was telling me, \u2018She never lets anyone do anything like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe meeting, however, went swimmingly. \u201cI met her, sat down with her, explained to her what it\u2019s about \u2014 what\u2019s really the heart of this show, and why I wanted to tell it \u2014 and to her credit she said yes. I\u2019m really indebted to her. She did what she\u2019d never let anyone do before. But that was one huge hurdle. Making a show like this that has so many different elements is very hard to pull off. It was like a layer cake of high-security safes that we had to hack to get through to even get it made. It\u2019s a scrappy, smaller budget, half-hour show, hyper-specific, multilingual, genre-bending. It just felt like there was one thing after another that could have meant that this all came crashing down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBond, however, was the one truly immovable object. More people have walked on the moon than have played him, and \u2014 as we\u2019re about to see with Denis Villeneuve\u2019s <em>Bond 26 <\/em>gearing up for production \u2014 no other movie character provokes the same fervent speculation. \u201cThat\u2019s absolutely right,\u201d says Ahmed. \u201cAbsolutely right. Nothing carries that kind of cachet. Nothing is the epitome of cinematic achievement, alpha masculinity, and Britishness. And it\u2019s that bullseye that my character is chasing as he seeks to try and be something better than what he is. Anything but what he already is and who he already is. It\u2019s that mask he\u2019s trying to hide behind as he runs away from himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIt\u2019s certainly a strange show, which made Ahmed all the more surprised to be nominated again for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie. \u201cHonestly, I feel kind of shocked and extremely happy that we\u2019ve been recognized in this way,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not your usual kind of TV fare. Particularly in this category, which is often big budget, hour-long stuff. We always knew this was very risky, something that didn\u2019t quite fit into any of the usual boxes. It\u2019s a drama with a very heartfelt family story at the heart of it, it has a kind of surreal psychological element, it\u2019s a comedy, and it\u2019s half hour. It was very deliberately genre-bending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAhmed is 43 now, two years younger than Roger Moore and five years older than Daniel Craig when they took the mantle of Bond. A call from Villeneuve seems unlikely, then, but the lure of Bond is hard to resist. Indeed, it was a mild case of Bond envy that gave him the idea for the show. \u201cMy neighbor had been mentioned in the Bond conversation,\u201d he recalls, \u201cas has everyone and their uncles, by the way. But him being mentioned really triggered a series of conflicting thoughts in me. Feelings of excitement, but also cynicism. What <em>if<\/em>? Wouldn\u2019t that be cool? Or would that actually mean abandoning a more important project, one that had a deeper personal meaning?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cIt threw up really interesting questions around identity,\u201d he continues. \u201cAnd I feel like my whole life, I\u2019ve had to contend with questions of identity \u2014 sometimes because I wanted to, sometimes because I haven\u2019t. And so, I thought, Bond is such a perfect way to talk about stuff that\u2019s super-personal and super-scary and super-vulnerable. Actually, yeah, I <em>do<\/em> want to be that guy. We all do. We all want to be Bond. And on the other hand, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m good enough. Every actor has that, probably every human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBut the reason <em>Bait<\/em> works is that there\u2019s so much more to it than an actor in crisis. Away from the supposed glamor of the movie industry, Shah leads an otherwise perfectly normal dysfunctional British Asian family life in North London. \u201cSo much of this show is pulled directly from my life,\u201d he says. \u201cAcross the board, this just felt like such a scary show to make on a personal level. This is definitely the most vulnerable, scary creative swing I\u2019ve ever taken. To put my whole psyche, insecurities, anecdotes, family, community, insanity out there in a show in this way. It just felt very, very scary. It was the kind of thing where, once we\u2019d finished it, I was like, \u2018OK, great. We made it. Do we have to put it out now? I\u2019m not sure I really want anyone to watch this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:100%; max-width:1024px;\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((553\/1024)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"'Bait'\" data-lazy-srcset=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg 3900w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=150,81 150w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=300,162 300w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=1024,553 1024w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=1536,829 1536w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=2048,1106 2048w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=185,100 185w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=60,32 60w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=352,190 352w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=110,59 110w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=285,154 285w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=320,173 320w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=640,346 640w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=800,432 800w, https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/QTLF_S1_FG_103_00234022_Still443-1-copy.jpg?resize=1280,691 1280w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(min-width: 87.5rem) 1000px, (min-width: 78.75rem) 681px, (min-width: 48rem) 450px, (max-width: 48rem) 250px\" height=\"553\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-font-size-12 lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\" lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-font-size-14@mobile-max lrv-a-font-body-m u-font-style-italic lrv-u-font-weight-bold lrv-u-font-family-primary u-line-height-20 u-letter-spacing-0 u-line-height-18@mobile-max\">Riz Ahmed as Shah Latif in \u2018Bait\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\" lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-color-grey lrv-u-font-size-10 lrv-a-font-basic-xxs lrv-u-margin-l-025\">Amazon MGM Studios<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIndeed, when Ahmed says \u201cthe whole shebang\u201d was pulled from his past, he means it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cWe filmed in a house that was modeled exactly to be the house that I grew up in,\u201d he says, \u201cexcept the dimensions were slightly bigger so the camera could move around. Remember the staircase where my character gets jumped on at the start of Episode 3? I got jumped on that staircase in the park behind my mom\u2019s house. That sweet shop that we buy sweets from? That\u2019s where we went to buy sweets. That panic attack at the end of Episode 1? I had that panic attack on that stage supporting Wu-Tang Clan at the Kentish Town Forum and burst out of that same fire escape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThat said, not <em>everything<\/em> is autobiographical \u2014 the Wu-Tang meltdown wasn\u2019t motivated by nerves. \u201cThey were two-and-a-half hours late on stage,\u201d says Ahmed, \u201cso when I went out to open up for them, the crowd were like, \u2018Why is this not Method Man?\u2019 I was signed to a techno label at that point doing experimental electronic rap, so not the right crowd for boom-bap, head-nodding rap purists. So, when I came on two-and-a-half hours late doing techno rap, 5,000 people started booing. I cut the music and I just started rapping an acapella of a track I\u2019ve got called \u201cSour Times\u201d. And they were booing through this whole two-minute acapella, and then a few people started cheering. A few more people joined in by the end of the acapella, then they all cheered, clapped, and gave me a round of applause. I thought, \u2018I\u2019ll take that,\u2019 and I left. It was the shortest set I\u2019ve ever done. Two minutes and 40 seconds. I was out of there, man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLikewise, Ahmed didn\u2019t take long getting back in the saddle: The last day of shooting <em>Bait<\/em> was his first day on <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/digger\/\" id=\"auto-tag_digger\" data-tag=\"digger\">Digger<\/a><\/em>, the mysterious new film by the famously secretive Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu (\u201cI literally left one set and drove straight to the other\u201d). Ahmed can\u2019t say much about <em>Digger<\/em>, for obvious reasons. \u201cI really want to preserve it for people,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I can say that it was a really unique and bold experience.\u201d Neither can he say much about Mark Wahlberg thriller <em>The Big Fix<\/em>, which he\u2019s currently shooting in Malaysia with Baltasar Korm\u00e1kur, although he <em>does<\/em> have thoughts about the local cuisine. \u201cIt\u2019s so off-the-chain amazing. You\u2019ve got Chinese food, Malaysian food, Indian food, and Thai food, all smashed together. My mouth\u2019s watering as I\u2019m talking. I\u2019ve put on a lot of weight. It\u2019s a problem here, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDoes this return to acting mean that Bait was simply a one-off? Could there be another series? \u201cI\u2019m not sure,\u201d he muses. \u201cI mean, it can work both ways. I really love that there was only one season of <em>The Night Of<\/em>. I really loved <em>I May Destroy You<\/em>, which was only one season. There\u2019s also other shows that I\u2019ve loved that have gone on for much longer. I\u2019m not sure yet. I mean, I think there\u2019s definitely a runway for these characters to grow, and I think these relationships are so fun to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIt must be a strange life being an actor, one minute recreating your childhood home in Wembley, the next acting alongside Tom Cruise at Pinewood Studios, then flying off to Penang. \u201cYeah,\u201d he says. \u201cI was hoping to try and capture that surrealness. But more and more \u2014 and I really do think <em>Bait<\/em> was a watershed for me in a way \u2014 what I\u2019m trying to do is really ask myself: is what I\u2019m doing really sharing something personal? Something that matters to <em>me<\/em>? I think that a lot because I don\u2019t know. With, <em>Bait<\/em> this was so direct, but in many ways it\u2019s a love letter to family. My character Shah wants to put on a mask. He wants to be this kind of archetype. He wants to escape who he really is. But the one place you can\u2019t do that is with family. For better or worse, they\u2019re the people who see through your bullshit and see you for the wonderful mess you really are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riz Ahmed is used to taking chances. In 2012, he thought he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, having co-starred with James Gandolfini in the pilot for HBO\u2019s The Night Of series, playing an ostensibly clean-cut college student accused of a brutal murder. The following year, the Sopranos star unexpectedly died at the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BAIT_S1_FG_101_00041309_Still076.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}