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" 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
Through
Roll
Up
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" It's interesting that we assign the label 'political' to art that doesn't just fit a mould of status quo. Is 'Downton Abbey' not political? That's political! Every piece of art offers a perspective on the world. And what is politics if not a perspective on the world? 'Downton Abbey' is about class. It's also about race. "
Riz Ahmed
Perspective
Politics
Race
" The multiculturalism of Britain is one of our greatest strengths in music, literature, and visual art, but the TV and film industry doesn't tap into the multicultural talent pool in the U.K. as much as they do in the U.S. "
Riz Ahmed
Art
Talent
Literature
" 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
Me
Music
People
" Since the Greek myths, the greatest stories are premised on the idea of, 'A stranger arrives.' "
Riz Ahmed
Idea
Stranger
Stories
" I think that with piracy and tighter funds being around, people are realising that the game to play is to try and win people's respect with bold film making and then win a special place in people's collections, rather than just having the biggest opening weekends. "
Riz Ahmed
People
Win
Think
" 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
Work
Done
Feel
" What's interesting about the U.K. is that it celebrates an alternative voice. It's up for telling new stories. "
Riz Ahmed
Up
Voice
Stories
" It's interesting - what are you willing to give up in terms of your privacy for access to other people? For access to things you think you desperately need. Ultimately, it's that old saying, isn't it? If the service is free, then the product is you. The thing being sold is you. There's a product for sale in you and your data. "
Riz Ahmed
Saying
Think
People
" I like the idea of being caught between things, always being a bit of an outsider, having an outside eye on things - almost like a Shakespearean fool. "
Riz Ahmed
Outside
Like
Fool
" The 'Bourne' films totally reimagined and elevated the action genre. "
Riz Ahmed
Action
Elevated
Films
" Sadly, I have disappointed the surveillance capitalists myself by not yet downloading 'Pokemon Go.' But I'm addicted to my phone enough as it is, and I don't necessarily need that helping hand. "
Riz Ahmed
Need
Phone
Enough
" 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
Side
World
Society
" The music I make and the process of acting, for me, are both about trying to understand people and get inside what makes us tick. That's the main thing that excites me. Our sense of who we really are and what drives us. "
Riz Ahmed
Music
Us
Process
" You can read a character that feels amazing, but if the world around it and all the writing around it - even the way the stage descriptions are written - don't feel just right, then you know there's no point in doing the project. No character is ever bigger than the whole film. "
Riz Ahmed
Amazing
Writing
World
" Rehearsing a scene beds a role into you. But sometimes, if you over-rehearse it without unearthing any new meaning in it, you can suddenly forget your lines. You realise that you are on a stage, not in the real world. The scene's emotional power, and your immersion in it, disappears. "
Riz Ahmed
You
Real
World
" The fact is, I've been releasing records longer than I've been releasing films, or at least exactly as long. "
Riz Ahmed
Fact
Been
Exactly
" My parents, man, they're just the most loving, encouraging... They're like those people who define themselves through their role as parents before people in their own rights. "
Riz Ahmed
Parents
Own
Man
" Anyone driving great social change, willingly or not, is going to be a fascinating contradictory mix of idealism and ego. "
Riz Ahmed
Driving
Mix
Great
" I'm used to doing U.K. indie films, like, six weeks of filming, tops. "
Riz Ahmed
Six
Indie
Filming
" No-one gets a job at 16 and stays in it until 60 any more; we're connected to more people simultaneously than ever before, whether online or on our phones. We wear so many different hats within one day, one week, a lifetime. "
Riz Ahmed
Job
Hats
Day
" Growing up in the mid-to-late '90s in London, you start seeing the explosion of drum'n'bass and then the birth of U.K. garage and grime. I decided to focus a lot of my energies as an aspiring MC. It was a very natural way to express yourself as a kid from a certain kind of neighborhood. "
Riz Ahmed
Yourself
Growing Up
Start
" I think that in an Internet age, content is content. As long as you can stand up on the merits of what you're doing right at that moment and aren't just relying on your success in doing something else, it's all good; people will respect you. "
Riz Ahmed
Good
Moment
Respect
" I'm not in a 'starry' position to be able to pick and choose, but I am interested in telling stories of substance with great directors - that's my only guiding principle. "
Riz Ahmed
Position
Principle
I Am
" I'm always trying to slip out of those labels everyone tries to put round your neck. We all have multiple selves. "
Riz Ahmed
Your
Everyone
Always
" In terms of negotiating a career - I've always grown up being an insider and an outsider to different worlds, across different classes and cultures, so I have always naturally liked making films or music that puts things in unexpected places. "
Riz Ahmed
Always
Unexpected
Up
" 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
Believe
Saying
Eyes
" I don't think any of us like to be reduced to just one label. "
Riz Ahmed
Like
Just One
Us
" There's no black and white in this world; it's all grey. That's what people are like! No one think they're a baddie. Everyone thinks they're trying to do their bit to make the world a better place. "
Riz Ahmed
Black And White
World
Think
" No one's of Pakistani origin in any British show. That's why every actor of color is here working in the States. It's true. "
Riz Ahmed
Why
Show
Color
" When I was growing up, I felt like I had to qualify it and say I'm British-Pakistani. But now I kind of feel like, in this day in age, this is what British looks like. It looks like me; it looks like Idris Elba, and hopefully through Nasir Khan, people will see that that's what an American can look like as well. "
Riz Ahmed
Growing Up
American
People