Riz Ahmed is busy, even by his usually hectic standards. Not only is he starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo in the critically acclaimed movie Nightcrawler, but his first short film as writer-director, Daytimer, has just been screened at the London film festival. He is also part of two musical projects: the duo Swet Shop Boys and, solo, Riz MC. On top of all this he will soon be in New York for six months to film an HBO show about the failings of the American criminal justice system. Plus he is writing a film. And a TV series. And he plans to do more directing.
Born in London to Pakistani parents, Ahmed is en route from his mum’s house in Wembley to LA when we meet in Notting Hill and he’s looking vaguely glum. “London’s my home: coming back for a few days is so relaxing before going back into the furnace,” he says. When he’s away the thing he misses the most is his mother’s cooking – especially her nihari, a slow-cooked, thick, spicy curry. In Daytimer, he fondly remembers the British Asian phenomenon of “day-timer raves”: raucous parties in suburban nightclubs that started at midday because girls weren’t allowed out at night.
Ahmed is perhaps best known for his roles in thoughtful films about race, prejudice and Muslim identity such as Four Lions and The Road to Guantanamo. In Nightcrawler, however, his character’s ethnicity and religion are neither mentioned nor relevant to the plot. “I’ve been very lucky to have played a variety of characters and they weren’t defined by their race,” he says. “But if you’re an artist of colour, sometimes America presents more opportunities. I think film in the UK has a little catching up to do.” But he isn’t taken in by the Hollywood myth. “There’s this assumption that as an actor Hollywood is always the end point, but I never thought along those lines.” While he was preparing for his first love scene with Kate Hudson in 2012’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist – “busily chewing gum” – she was breast-feeding her newborn baby. “Hollywood is an image. We project these fantasies on to it, but people are just people. It’s reassuring to see that there is no pristine dream.”
The restlessness that characterises his working schedule also seems to extend to his private life. The album he is working on is about a recent break-up: “We’re programmed to be consumers, which means we’re permanently unsatisfied, looking for the constant upgrade.” He eyes his phone warily. “The word ‘settle’ is a pejorative term in our culture. Every time I’ve seen the word ‘content’ in the last however many years it’s had the word ‘online’ in front of it.”
In a British Council film website interview, he said that the piece of advice he would give to a younger self is “relax more”. But does he? “I never did give myself that advice. 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.”
Nightcrawler is in cinemas from Friday 31 October
