According to Riz Ahmed, this is the perfect Eid – the celebration at the end of Ramadan – a beautiful morning full of breaking the fast, family and peace. Unfortunately, this oath does not exist in reality.
“That’s completely unrealistic!” Ahmed tells ROLLING STONE via Zoom from London. “With the perfect Eid, everyone first agrees on which day it is Eid, and there is no back and forth about it. I picked out my Eid clothes, ironed them and got them ready the night before – and that Shalwar KameezThe one I’m wearing isn’t some item an aunt sent from Pakistan, three sizes too big, with creases in the middle that I just can’t get out. I get to the mosque on time, there is no mad rush out onto the sidewalk, and I don’t miss prayer. The rest usually goes well because you just go to the family – but this morning. It’s total chaos every time.”
It is precisely this chaotic, bursting at the seams Eid that is the starting point of Ahmed’s new Prime series “Bait”. The show follows down-on-his-luck actor Shah Latif (Ahmed) and a Bond audition that turns his British-Pakistani family’s family reunion upside down. Ahmed has spent the past week promoting the series, which premiered March 25 — and it shows. He’s excited. And dead tired at the same time. “You discovered my only flaw,” he jokes as he grabs a tissue next to his computer. “I have a runny nose – but only today!”
From rapper to Oscar winner
Ahmed has developed a reputation in Hollywood for never announcing his next move in advance. He is a British-Pakistani rapper who gained early attention with the political hip-hop group Swet Shop Boys. He then appeared in the Star Wars universe – in the 2016 blockbuster “Rogue One” – won an Emmy for the HBO true crime drama “The Night Of”, played the comic book villain in “Venom”, received an Oscar nomination for best actor for his role as a deaf drummer in “Sound of Metal” and finally won an Oscar for his short film “The Long Goodbye”. In “Bait” – where Ahmed serves as creator, executive producer and lead actor – Shah Latife’s story draws on very specific experiences from Ahmed’s own life, making the series perhaps his most personal project to date.
“As I became more popular, especially in America, the distance grew between the messy, vulnerable reality of our lives and the public version of ourselves we portray to the outside world,” explains Ahmed. “Someone once told me, ‘The distance between your public self and your private self is the measure of the shame you carry.’ Then I thought: I want to make a subversive comedy in exactly this field of shame. I want to be brave and make it as unapologetically personal as possible – no matter how scary that felt in the process.”
“Bait” begins with a monumental failure. Shah, an actor with several failed attempts to break through, gets the chance of a lifetime: he is asked to audition for the role of the next James Bond. A full costume screen test with weapons, villain and camera – aimed at the film’s dramatic final monologue. And he completely screws it up. But when a clever maneuver on his part results in his photo and name ending up in the tabloids as a Bond favorite, the ensuing chaos erupts just in the days before Eid – the most important holiday of the year for his British-Pakistani family. There are security threats, online turmoil, even a bloody pig’s head on his family’s doorstep. (More on that later.) As Shah desperately tries to get the role, public pressure and feelings of inadequacy build up. What begins as a straightforward comedy about identity and imposter syndrome turns into a violent psychological thriller about government surveillance, paranoia and the nature of the self.
Comedy as a Trojan horse
“Comedy bypasses people’s analytical thinking and goes straight to their gut feeling,” says Ahmed. “You can reach people across cultural or even linguistic boundaries with comedy because there’s something deeply visceral about it. And you can use that in such a disarming way, even when you really want to confront.”
While Shah’s story is the focus, the framework of the series supports the cultural understanding that surrounds the character of James Bond – particularly in the UK. “Bond is a symbol of longing, ambition and success,” says Ahmed. “We are waiting for new James Bonds as well as new monarchs – in this country, around the world. It is a coronation. Like the election of a new pope.” However, the Bond element only found its way into the story when the script was almost finished. Ahmed says that as he thought more deeply about the specific experiences of immigrant life, he realized that his own story – and the story he wanted to tell – was not just a comedy. It was a spy thriller.
“Surveillance, distrust, paranoia, being persecuted by enemies or critics, the endless mission for recognition and validation by institutions – these are the organic ingredients of ours [Immigranten-]of life,” he says. “And it just happens to fit perfectly into the vessel of James Bond.”
Barbara Broccoli says yes
The Ian Fleming character is fiercely guarded by his notoriously cantankerous producers – so much so that all of Ahmed’s friends and collaborators told him it would be impossible to put 007 on the show. “I put my own flesh on the line and hope that the universe gives me some of it back,” remembers Ahmed. After he sent an email and the script to longtime Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, the two met for lunch. “She said, ‘You know what? I love it,'” Ahmed says. “She understood that Bond is a symbol in that. She’s really in a class of her own.” It was a yes – on one condition: the series was not allowed to show or mention her. The deal was perfect.
In addition to Bond, “Bait” also features another British institution: Sir Patrick Stewart. The legendary Star Trek, What initially appears as a disrespectful threat quickly becomes the ever-present soundtrack of Shah’s fears of failure, arrest and death. The role was written for Stewart’s voice from the start, but again, Ahmed was convinced the legendary actor would turn it down. Instead, he got to add Stewart’s name to an ensemble that feels like a family – with Guz Khan, Ritu Arya and Sheeba Chaddha – and even taught him British slang in the process, like the word “mandem” for a close clique or crew.
“It was another moment of grace and incredible luck and generosity – of the universe and Patrick Stewart personally – that he said yes,” says Ahmed. “I really appreciate this man.”
Soundtrack as a link
Thanks to Ahmed’s musical background, the series’ soundtrack was a particularly important process for him. He describes the music as a “tonal high-wire act” that reflects the free-spirited, genre-hopping energy of the story. Inspired by the soundtracks to Black Panther, Uncut Gems and Birdman, it is full of references and influences from late 70s Pakistani psychedelic funk and early 80s Bollywood disco. (“We’re really in an era where drugs must have been amazing.”) There are tracks from British rapper AJ Tracey, the late electro-pop icon SOPHIE, an Urdu version of “Sweet Dreams” recorded by Bay Area Punjabi producer Talwiinder, and an original Bond-esque theme – “The Price of It All”, written and sung by Jorja Smith.
“The series is constantly shifting gears – from comedy to drama, from romance to action to thriller – and weaving it all together with surreal elements. That’s why the music was so crucial in putting a kind of glue around it all,” says Ahmed. “Such scores work like a Greek choir. You feel that a fable is being told here. And they elevate the story into something fabulous.”
With its zigzag course through tone and genre, “Bait” may not be for everyone. But Ahmed is justifiably proud of what he’s created, and is already moving on to his next big project – filming Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger alongside Tom Cruise, whom Ahmed describes as “one of the most unique people with the most consistent work ethic.” Now that Bait is out in the world, he has one clear hope: that the show’s very existence and the intention behind it from first thought to last image will make positive waves in the TV industry for other creators willing to bet on themselves.
“The industry is sometimes risk-averse,” says Ahmed. “But I believe that those big throws, the subversion of expectations, the breaking of the norm, are often what gets through. And if we’re willing to do that, every story has the potential to drown out the noise.”
