Riz Ahmed on beating Fahadh Faasil, Vir Das to Digger role: ‘Hope we get to work together’

Riz Ahmed played an aspiring actor who wants to be the next James Bond in Prime Video’s satirical show Bait earlier this year. He referred to it in jest as an “official audition” for the coveted spy role. While neither he nor his character may have landed that part (yet), the Academy Award winner did zero in on the role that several Indian actors were vying for. He plays Ganesh, a scientist and a chief advisor to Tom Cruise’s titular character of an oil tycoon in Alejandro Inarritu’s upcoming satire, Digger, slated to release in cinemas this Friday on October 2.

Riz Ahmed’s response to bagging the Digger role

The Indian actors vying for the role of Ganesh included the likes of ace Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil and International Emmy Award winner Vir Das. While the former passed on the role because the filmmaker didn’t deem his accent to be accurate for the character, an American of Indian origin, the latter gave two auditions, but failed to make the cut. When SCREEN asks Riz if he had any message for both the actors, he replies candidly, “Sorry. Thank you for your incredible work, and I hope we get to work together.”

Along with Fahadh and Vir, Riz has a long list of Indian actors he wants to share screen space with. He’s already worked with the likes of late Om Puri and Shabana Azmi, who played his parents in Mira Nair’s 2012 political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Sheeba Chaddha played his mother, and Soni Razdan his aunt, in Bait earlier this year. “One of my real heroes was Irrfan. I really looked up to him. He bridged different cultures with his work. He had such a depth and sensitivity to his work,” says the actor. Irrfan Khan died of cancer in 2020.

Another actor Riz picks is Irrfan’s co-star from Ritesh Batra’s 2013 romantic film The Lunchbox. “I’d really, really love to work with Nawazuddin Siddiqui. That’d be fantastic! We messaged once or twice, but maybe one day, we can make it work. Let’s see if that’s possible,” he says, before quickly adding Siddiqui’s Gangs of Wassseypur co-star to his wish list. “And Huma Qureshi as well! I like Huma, she’s a friend. I think she’s carved out a really wonderful journey for herself,” he says. Huma notably featured in the dance song “Maintenance” from Michael Winterbottom’s 2011 romantic film Trishna, in which Riz played the lead role.

Riz Ahmed as Ganesh in Digger.

Riz Ahmed on his experience on Digger

In Digger, Riz brings an enormous amount of pragmatism and humility to his role of Ganesh in a film otherwise filled with hysterical, dialled-up characters. At one point, when Ganesh flags potential irrevocable calamity, a White House senior member asks him, “Where are you from?” When he responds he was born in America, they shoot back with a raised eyebrow, “No, where are your people from?” Riz, a British-born with ancestry from Pakistan, admits that as a brown actor navigating Hollywood for the past two decades, he’s had his share of raised eyebrows, though he’s far more determined to prove them wrong now.

“I think everyone has this baggage with them. There are some people who make you feel that baggage is heavier than it is. And there are some who help you carry that baggage, and help you forget it. And that’s why what I love about storytelling is that people connect as human beings, and you feel don’t baggage anymore. Everyone leaves their baggage at the door, and gets lost inside the story,” says Riz. He asserts that particularly in today’s time, “when there’s prejudice and people do feel divided”, stories like Digger gain even more urgent significance.

“It could be very easy to make a divisive film about an oil tycoon, but this is outrageously entertaining. This is actually a really healing film that brings people together. So, I don’t know, I feel more committed than ever to the power and purpose of storytelling to heal some of those divisions,” adds Riz. The oil tycoon in question is Digger Rockwell, played by Tom Cruise, who looks unrecognizable under layers of prosthetic and a thick, drawling Southern accent.

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Thankfully, unlike their co-star Sandra Huller, Riz didn’t meet Tom for the first time when he was in costume and prosthetic. “There’s a moment when you feel, ‘Oh, wait! That’s Tom Cruise!’ But there’s an aura around him that’s not there just because he’s Tom Cruise. It’s not because of how we react to him. He actually gives off a certain image. He’s one of those people who give off a radiant, intense positivity that can be unusual and unsettling. I remember feeling, ‘Wow! There’s really something about this guy.’ It’s no wonder he is who he is,” shares Riz.