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" 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
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" I'm an actor. Since I was a teenager, I have had to play different characters, negotiating the cultural expectations of a Pakistani family, Brit-Asian rudeboy culture, and a scholarship to private school. The fluidity of my own personal identity on any given day was further compounded by the changing labels assigned to Asians in general. "
Riz Ahmed
School
Culture
Day
" 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
" I've been very lucky to have played a variety of characters, and they weren't defined by their race. "
Riz Ahmed
Variety
Lucky
Been
" Reshoots are par for the course on any film. For me, I kind of love it because, as an actor, you always feel that there was a way you could have done it differently. Being able to go back and do some stuff again is always a blessing in my eyes. "
Riz Ahmed
Feel
You
Me
" 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
" My music is a very personal reflection of me, whereas, acting a role, that's a reflection of another character. "
Riz Ahmed
Character
Acting
Me
" Multiculturalism isn't just a buzzword; it's not just something to debate - I am multiculturalism. "
Riz Ahmed
I Am
Am
Something
" The 'Bourne' films totally reimagined and elevated the action genre. "
Riz Ahmed
Action
Elevated
Films
" 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
" 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
" First, you have stereotypes, and that will be the black drug dealer, the east Asian kung fu master, the Middle Eastern terrorist in 'True Lies.' Then you have stuff that takes place on culturally specific terrain, that engages with it, but actually subverts assumptions. 'Smashes' stereotypes. That's where I've come into the game. "
Riz Ahmed
Black
Place
Stereotypes
" 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
" 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 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
" As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it's taken off you and swapped for another. The jewellery of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels. "
Riz Ahmed
You
Learn
Crown
" Trajectories aren't linear. Life's just a roller coaster. If you're getting a chance to do cool stuff, and it's varied stuff, just enjoy it. I guess I'm a believer in the randomness of life rather than it being a linear trajectory or an arc, a consistent smooth arc, towards anything. "
Riz Ahmed
Enjoy
Smooth
Cool
" 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 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
" Since the Greek myths, the greatest stories are premised on the idea of, 'A stranger arrives.' "
Riz Ahmed
Idea
Stranger
Stories
" 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
" 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
" I'm not trying to project any persona. Often people don't know where to put me. I don't fit comfortably under banners, and that's fine. I'm not worried about not making sense to people. That's probably my best asset. "
Riz Ahmed
Know
Project
People
" 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
Life
You
People
" 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
" I grew up listening to a lot of early '90s hip-hop. I had the debut Wu-Tang album, Biggie, Snoop, that kind of stuff. Hieroglyphics, the Gravediggaz. I remember D.O.C.'s 'The Portrait of a Masterpiece' was something that had a big influence on me. "
Riz Ahmed
Kind
Influence
Listening
" 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
" Whether you look at 'Glee' and its normalization of gay identity or you look at the work of Martin Scorsese and the Italian-American community, American culture is able to take these stories, which are seen as marginalized, and just turn them into American stories. And you don't think twice about it. "
Riz Ahmed
Identity
Work
Community
" 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
" 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