For his television series Bait, Riz Ahmed took a real chapter from his career to examine crises of identity that can come out of not only working as an actor, but just being a person alive in an age of social media and online life.
The Oscar winner had been working with executive producer Ben Karlin on the series and its multilayered themes, when his co-showrunner hit on what the show needed. “He kept saying, ‘We need like a vessel to put it in,'” Ahmed told Gold Derby. “‘We need a container, something that’s multidimensional enough to carry it all.'”
Creative work on the series was already underway when Ahmed shared some memories from his life after he appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, when fans began suggesting him as the man to take over the role of James Bond whenever Daniel Craig decided to retire. As soon as Karlin heard the story, he knew they had found their vessel.
“He was like, ‘That’s it,'” Ahmed recalled. “That is the symbol of success, acceptance, and masculinity that our character has to be chasing. And there’s this guy who’s trying to project this public version of success. This is the thing he wants to be, so it kind of fell into place later on in the process.”
Celebrations in the writers room were short-lived however. Everyone from the agents involved to Prime Video warned Ahmed and Karlin that the decision about whether Bait could reference Bond would ultimately fall to Barbara Broccoli, who held creative control of the series at the time.
Luckily, Ahmed found an ally in Broccoli.
“To her credit, she’d been such an amazing champion of people finding their voice, and she’s got such an eclectic range of interests herself,” Ahmed said. “She loves comedy as well. … And she got it, man. She got that this isn’t really about Bond. It’s a show about self-love. And — thank you, Barbara — she gave us her blessing.”
