EXCLUSIVE: Riz Ahmed on the best kebab in London, playing Bond and the best smelling man in showbiz

If there’s one person who can turn real London life into something as gripping as a Bond blockbuster, it’s Riz Ahmed - and with his new comedy-drama-thriller Bait, which he not only stars in but wrote and created, the London-born Oscar and Emmy award winner does exactly that.

In the real life-inspired London drama (streaming now on Amazon Prime Video) Riz stars as Shah Latif - a struggling actor in the midst of auditioning for Bond, as he navigates rejection, identity, family and modern life - as well as trying to secure the role of a lifetime.

The result? A genre-hopping, critically adored series (yes, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes) that moves from Wembley to Brick Lane like its own 007 cinematic adventure.

Bait - Official Trailer | Prime Video - YouTube

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Shortlist sat down with Riz to get candid on mining his own life for the story, where to get the best kebab in London, his dream of starring in a horror movie next and why his co-star Guz Khan might just be the best smelling man in showbiz…

Let’s talk about the London setting, which is a huge part of the series - can you tell us a bit about why that was important to you?

Riz Ahmed: Well, it's set in West London, but also East London. We've got an entire episode that takes place in Brick Lane. We go all over, and you'll see text on screen every time we enter a new neighbourhood: ‘Kentish Town,’ ‘Ladbroke Grove,’ ‘Brick Lane’.

The thinking behind that is that in the Bond movies, it will say on screen the location in the Caribbean, Mexico City. I wanted to elevate our day to day life and settings to that same level of drama and epic importance that you see in a Bond film, when they change locations. In a way, that's kind of what the whole show is - It's a love letter to home, and it was so important to me.

Tell us about that personal touch and what’s inspired by real life…

I mean, my character has a panic attack in Kentish Town O2 Forum - that happened to me in the Kentish Town O2 Forum! A character gets jumped in a park near my parents’ house in Wembley - that literally happened to me in that exact Park in Wembley. There's so many aspects that I tried to pull from my life, not just because this is a therapy session for me, but because I thought, if I'm as honest as possible, people will feel that, and they'll relate to it more.

And luckily, that's the feedback that we've been getting so far - even though it's so specific, people are feeling, ‘Actually, that's my mum! That's my cousin! I've got that dynamic as well!’ So there's a lot of me in this character, but hopefully there's a lot of this character in all of us.

Speaking of being a London Boy, where are some of your own personal favourite places in London? When you're here, where do you always want to make a trip to?

Oh man, well, I love going back to Wembley and seeing family, being in the old neighbourhood and going for kebabs at Kebabish on Ealing Road. They’ve got amazing garlic mayo sauce there. But also, we've shot in one of my favourite restaurants, Needoo Grill, in East London. I wanted to shout out all those places that mean something to me.

Where would you go after a busy day of shooting in the city?

After a day of shooting, I'm going home, getting in the bath and trying not to fall asleep in the bath!

Fair enough. Speaking of your real life, in Bait, your character Shah is an actor in London. What are some of the brutal truths about that which people might not realise?

There's a lot of rejection. I think that's the big thing. Often it's hard to not take it personally when people are like, ‘Nah, this person's not right because I don't find them sexy,’ or ‘They’re too short,’ or whatever it is. It can land.

One thing that I'm feeling personally right now is that actually we could all relate to that, because we all live our lives on social media. So in a weird way, I feel like a lot of people can relate to what it is to be an actor, because we're all almost performing a public version of ourselves online the whole time.

Shah’s also auditioning to be Bond. Is there a dream role that you haven't taken on yet that you would love to do?

I've never done a horror movie. I would love to do horror.

Why does a horror movie appeal?

I'm hoping it will help me get over my own fear of horrors because I can't watch them. The reason I can't watch them is because I would think I was traumatised as a six year old watching Nightmare on Elm Street. My uncles were supposed to be babysitting us, and they just put on the Freddy Krueger films. I shouldn't have watched it as a six year old. Now I can't watch horror films, so I think to get me over the fear, I've got to do one.

That would be awesome.

Yeah, let's workshop an idea, man, let's do it!

So, speaking of celebs, the inner world of acting - who is the best smelling celeb you've ever met?

I have to tell you guys, Guz Khan does smell exceptionally good.

What does he smell like?

He smells like expensive wood mixed with flowers and manly seaside flavours. Many seaside flavours he's got, bro! He smells great. Guz - hit me up with whatever you're using, bro! I need some of that in my life. It's fantastic.

Bait is streaming now on Prime Video

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