Deaf drummer in metal sound Just making him hungrier for more. in a face.. accomplish Riz Ahmed plays a former marine who wants to protect his children at all costs from an alien danger.
Don’t ask Riz Ahmed where he is from. Or not before listening to where you are from. In that song on his album The Long Goodbye, released last year — the actor doubles as a rapper, in his own name, as Riz MC and with the Swet Shop Boys — makes firewood of racists asking “Where are you really from?” The implying he’s not from Wembley , and did not study at Oxford, is not a well-known British actor whose name is like all the widely acclaimed British actors in the quest for a new James Bond. “Where you come from is not your problem,” the rap sings. “I’m Mowgli from The Jungle Book, I’m John Barnes in the Box.”
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Don’t ask Riz Ahmed where he is from. Or not before listening to where you are from. In that song on his album The Long Goodbye, released last year — the actor doubles as a rapper, in his own name, as Riz MC and with the Swet Shop Boys — makes firewood of racists asking “Where are you really from?” The implying he’s not from Wembley , and did not study at Oxford, is not a well-known British actor whose name is like all the widely acclaimed British actors in the quest for a new James Bond. “Where you come from is not your problem,” the rap sings. “I’m Mowgli from The Jungle Book, I’m John Barnes in the Box.” Ahmed worked in Hollywood films such as Nightcrawler (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Venom (2018), his first film role was immediately one of the key parts in Summit Festival The Road to Guantánamo (2006), as He played a major role in the award-winning HBO series The Night Of. In 2017, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine’s annual issue where the magazine lists the 100 most influential people in the world. At the end of April this year, the son of a Pakistani Muslim who immigrated to England was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor with his star role in Sound of Metal. In Meet Michael Pearce, he now plays a former Marine who wants to protect his young sons at all costs from strange little creatures. At first, this sounds paranoid sci-fi, but that’s just appearances. “It’s a psychological thriller,” explains Riz Ahmed. “It’s a mystery game with the excitement typical of genre films, but at the same time you get a father-son story embedded in the here and now.” His Beast (2017) was a great debut movie so I can understand that you really want to work with director Michael Pierce. But shouldn’t you be chasing bigger roles in movies like StarWars and Venom now? Isn’t that better for your name, fame, and bank account? Riz Ahmed: I don’t know yet. It must be a serious word. If I asked ten people what to do next, I would probably get ten different answers. I trust my gut feeling and creative curiosity. The monster stunned me. Michael Pierce is an amazing talent. Encounter seemed like the perfect cocktail to me: leaving my comfort zone, undermining the genre, throwing something inconspicuous, working with a great director, saying something about contemporary society, being able to find a character to play. I focus on growth: I want to continue to make progress as an actor, for example by challenging myself. Sometimes it’s in smaller films, sometimes in larger productions. Why choose? This is an interesting turn. You no longer have to sell pre-sale movies before you can start working on them. Movie distributors rely on ticket sales, but streamers, like Amazon, take care of other things. Instead, they look for movies that grab people’s attention. The best way to get attention is to create something special, different, that dares to subvert. Oh! Good. or unique. This is a great time for those who dare to make outliers. How is Encounter included in Here and Now? Ahmed: The movie was shot in California in September 2020, in the midst of a pandemic and in the run-up to the US presidential election. Behind the camera, everyone was wearing gas suits and stuff. Severe, you know. It’s about a guy who wants to save his family in a very uncertain world. Journalists describe the encounter as science fiction but now science fiction. It’s an honest movie about the day, about a world in which we are afraid of infection, and even worse, of others. In a polarized world, we urge you to demonize or portray the other as untrustworthy. Instead of letting the world in, we block ourselves from it. My character makes this mistake and this is a lesson. In the award-winning film The Road to Guantanamo, she played a prisoner in the notorious American prison for terrorists fifteen years ago. Today you play as a former Marine with ten rounds of duty on the table. Beautiful road. When have you been happiest? Ahmed: Now I am happier. I’m about to turn 39. With a bit of luck, I’ll be halfway there, but I feel creatively like I’m just getting started. The excitement is greater than ever. I have more to give, more to say than ever. I am grateful and hungry for more at the same time. How is your hearing? Ahmed: Please? This is almost as lame as my question – excuse me for that. Is there a movie before and after Sound of Metal, a movie about a deaf metal drummer that earned an Academy Award nomination? Ahmed: I really misunderstood you. Sound of Metal was a very special experience. Director Darius Marder is a unique man. Crazy brilliance, artistic flair and inspiring leadership are rare to combine. I owe him a lot. I learned a lot from him as a person and as an actor. I plunged into worlds I had never known: the realms of the metal drummer and the realms of the hearing impaired. I discovered new communities, new people, and a new way of working. A new way to work? Ahmed: I do not memorize texts. I have a photographic memory and can see the page when I have to recite my text. What I’ve learned is that it’s not just about text. This is the British approach to acting that comes from the stage. The dread of text and text analysis is self-evident. What do you want from our Shakespeare history and all that? But since Sound of Metal, I’ve been more open than ever on the physical side. The rendering of the text is more important than reading or analyzing the text – does that make sense? Also in Encounter, she attached great importance to the physical aspect of the transformation that the role called for. Muscular body, military training: for me this is also a text. In February I was on the cover of the glossy movie magazine Sight & Sound. The title said you want to be the change. What exactly does that mean? Ahmed: About five years ago I was still talking passionately about change and the need for change. More variety, more inclusion, you name it. Totally legit, but for some reason I feel different at this point in my life. I want to contribute to change by embodying it. I can’t do it alone, but I’m not alone. Many now think this way: Don’t talk about change, be the change. I’ve also been into hip-hop for a long time. Can we describe The Long Goodbye as a disjointed album addressed to your country and with Brexit in mind? Ahmed: It is more widespread than that. The Long Goodbye is not so much about breaking up with my country. It is about my separation from me. Do you understand the difference? I made this album and short film of the same name in an atmosphere of bloated drums and xenophobia. Unfortunately, this monster appears not only in the UK, but everywhere: in the West, in India, in the Philippines, everywhere. Sometimes anxious and insecure people come back on their own. They form tribes and unleash their lower instincts. The Long Goodbye is particularly an answer to that. But it is deep. Ahmed: Actually, the album came after a dinner in New York with a very diverse group of people. The substance of the conversation was, “I’m not sure my grandchildren will be able to grow up safely here. Maybe this is 1929 Berlin, but we don’t realize it. We might be terribly naive and have to get out while we still can. The shocking thing is that I wasn’t shocked. The thought was The logic is familiar to me and I found it shocking. It kept me busy. What does it mean to be in a relationship with the feeling that the other person could reject you at any time? This is toxic. That’s how I came up with the idea of a disassembled album. This is also connected to Suf poems and music (Sufi Islam, ed.). It is often about the lover and the break with the lover. In the Sufi tradition, of course, the lover is a metaphor for God. In my album, this was not an analogy to God but to my own. “I’m Mowgli from The Jungle Book, I’m John Barnes in the Box”, You sing in a song Where are you from. Mowgli knows everyone. John Barnes was a prominent footballer in the 90s with Watford, Liverpool and England. What is your team? Ahmed: What a funny question. Especially since the answer is Newcastle. I’m from Wembley but it was I have an uncle in Newcastle. I spent the summer there when I was 11. Newcastle It really is a city where everyone who wears hats, scarves and T-shirts shows that they are for Newcastle. Like everyone else, I wanted a Newcastle shirt like this. Without knowing anything about the team. Let this season, 1995-1996, be legendary in the club’s history. Kevin Keegan was coach and Newcastle led the standings all season but things went well in the final days of play and they finished second. Like the whole city, I was in her heart. I remained a supporter until they sold Colombian striker Faustino Asprilla in 1998. Twenty years later, I am no longer a fan of this or that club, but a player. You can probably guess who: the awesome Mo Salah of course! That’s fine because my group of friends is, oddly enough, made up of a large portion of Liverpool supporters.
