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" I never thought acting would be a realistic job for me. Because, quite frankly, I didn't see people who looked like me doing it. I quickly realized, that's all the more reason to try. "

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" 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

" Since the Greek myths, the greatest stories are premised on the idea of, 'A stranger arrives.' "

" Hollywood is an image. We project these fantasies on to it, but people are just people. "

" I remember, growing up, you didn't wear an England shirt. The English flag was very much - and still is, to some extent - associated with the far-right movements of the 1980s that I grew up around. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I'm used to doing U.K. indie films, like, six weeks of filming, tops. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Anyone driving great social change, willingly or not, is going to be a fascinating contradictory mix of idealism and ego. "

" The fact is, I've been releasing records longer than I've been releasing films, or at least exactly as long. "

" Multiculturalism isn't just a buzzword; it's not just something to debate - I am multiculturalism. "

Riz Ahmed

I Am

Something

" I go to a lot of stand-up comedy. I find more inspiration from observational stuff than from rap. "

Riz Ahmed

Rap

Inspiration

" What's interesting about the U.K. is that it celebrates an alternative voice. It's up for telling new stories. "

Riz Ahmed

Voice

Stories

" There's this assumption that as an actor, Hollywood is always the end point, but I never thought along those lines. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

Music

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

Fool