Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook – #RogueOneEvent Press Interview!

Our second interview of the Rogue One Press Junket was with Riz Ahmed.  Yes THAT Riz Ahmed, the recent Golden Globe AND SAG Award nominee, for his role in HBO’s The Night Of, Riz Ahmed.

What a fun, down to earth guy Riz Ahmed is and I am excited to share with you the his thoughts on Rogue One and his role as Bodhi Rook.  

Asked to tell us a bit about his character;

So my character is called Bodhi Rook. And he actually works in the Empire.  He’s a cargo pilot.  And he’s from this planet called Jedha which is occupied by the Empire.  He’s just trying to earn a living.  The main employer in town.  The only show in town, really, is working for the Empire.  So he’s a cargo pilot.  But the… the name Bodhi means awakening.  So he goes through a kind of awakening, and realizes that that’s not the way.  He’s got to try and stand up for what he believes in to make a difference.  So he takes a big risk and he defects from the Empire to try and help the rebels.”

Can you tell us a little bit about the relationship with all the actors and the cast?  How was that to get to work together on something that you all love so much?

We ended up spending a lot of time together because it’s quite an ensemble and quite a story.  So it’s really about this kind of gang.  It’s about myself and K-2SO, Cassian, Jyn, Baze, and Chirrut.  We’re like this little troop.  We spent a lot of time together closed off into sweaty space ships.  We got to kind of keep each other alive, and awake, and we just would cracked a lot of jokes, you know?  We definitely had to make each other laugh, and keep each other’s energy up.  So it meant we bonded, for sure.  Definitely.”

What was the most difficult part about being a part of Star Wars and what was the most difficult part for you?

It was interesting – the difficult thing wasn’t so much of ‘My God, I’m in Star Wars’, because that was a joyous thing.  That was something that was exciting and makes you want to work really hard.  If you love a job that’s not a bad thing.  The thing that was difficult is when I’m playing a character, I like to try and interview people who are close to that character. 

But you can’t interview anyone who’s an Imperial cargo pilot.  None of them wanted to speak to me.  So I didn’t know what to do and that’s confusing!  You don’t really know what the reference points are, where starting points are.  And in the end I realized that the reference point is the world that is around you. 

When you turn up on set and they’ve built these mountains and space ships, and there’s alien creatures walking past you, the preparation doesn’t have to be in your head.  It’s right there in front of you.  And you just have to soak it up.  So that was like quite a big exercise in letting go when I can be a bit of a preparation freak.  You know?”

So what character traits, if any, do you share with your character?

I’d like to think that he’s quite a relatable character for a lot of people.  He’s just an everyday man and an average Joe.  He finds himself in a crazy situation.  He’s not like Cassian, who’s a rebel spy.  He’s not like Baze who’s kind of a hardened assassin, or Jyn who’s a kind of criminal rebel.  He’s just like a truck driver, basically and he finds himself in the middle of this crazy intergalactic heist movie.  He freaks out a little bit!  So I think I’d freak out in that kind of situation.  I think most of us would.  So hopefully that’s kind of relatable.”

I can easily say that this was one of my most enjoyable celebrity/cast/talent interviews I’ve participated it in four fun trips to cover Disney’s amazing movies.  Riz Ahmed was so much fun to sit down with and his answers were so insightful, but also so humorous that Riz might be my new favorite actor.  When he was asked what physical training he had to do, as we had asked Diego Luna in the first interview of the day, his response was hysterical.  

Joking he said that; “I was so muscly, I had to lose weight, so that Diego didn’t look too bad, you know.”   Trying to be more serious he continues that the issue was that his character isn’t a soldier and therefore not super physically fit.  When running through war zones with a 50kg backpack he needed to be out of breath, so his preparation was to get really OUT of shape – just kicking back.  He joked again that he watched a lot of Netflix and ate donuts, “That was my preparation.”

What words would you use to describe your character?

He’s full of regret.”

Lighthearted banter back and forth we said that that response was ‘deep,’ to which Riz continues;

That was deep!  I think it’s true for a lot of the people in this film.  A lot of the people in this film have got quite a dark history.  Or have got a past that they’re not proud of.  And they’re trying to make things right.  And that’s what drives ’em to take big risks.  And to link up with other people who you’ve got nothing in common with to try and fight a cause that’s bigger than any one of them.  It’s about redemption.  People trying to make things right for themselves and for people around them.”

Given the fact that your character was an Imperial pilot, we saw in the trailer that you essentially name the team – Rogue One.  So without telling us too much about that moment what would you say the impact on your character is that he was the one that named the team?

“They are requesting a call-sign.”   “It’s um, Rogue. Rogue One.”   

Well, I can tell you about filming the scene.   It was the last day of shooting, in the re-shoots.  So this was the very, very last day of shooting.  Just kind of last minute – that wasn’t one of the lines that was scheduled for the day or anything.  It was just last minute, I think John Swords, one of the producers said can you do a take when you, when you say this?  It was just a very last minute thing they threw in.

It wasn’t like I got to read the script and  I was like ‘YES!’  I get to name the team in scene hundred, it just happened!  It’s really interesting, a lot of the film kinda took shape like that. It evolved.   My character started out as a totally different character with a different name.  With a different job.  With a different relationship to the other characters.  Comes into the story a different time, and by the end, it was just a totally different guy.

I think that’s kind of cool, you know?  When you do these big movies, there’s a lot of people think that it’s quite stiff and everything has to be planned out beforehand.  Actually, this was kind of the opposite, at least with these guys.  They’re willing to move around as much as they have to, to make things work. “

How does an Oxford graduate become a Star Wars star?

It’s a lot of groveling.  A lot of begging.”  

Riz continues to tell us about how he met Gareth Edwards, who both come from a background in British independent film-making.  Gareth won awards at the British Independent Film Awards and Riz was talking about how he wanted to meet him one day because he [Gareth] was so talented in all he did, writing, directing, producing, shooting, and doing the VFX on his movie, and it was really good! 

Seeing as how both came from the same ‘circuit of really low budget British films’ [those were Riz’s words] – Gareth had seen Riz’s work and called him up to ask him to audition for the movie.  Riz tells us the extremely funny story as it unfolded below;

But he made the mistake of giving me his email address.  I literally emailed him one version of the scene.  And then a few hours later, I had another idea, and I sent him another version and then I did that again.  The next morning I didn’t have a reply, so I thought, oh!  I should maybe send him some more!  In four days I sent him 12 takes of the scene.

He finally mailed me back and he said; “Hey Riz.  Just wanted to say please don’t email me any more.  I’ve got your auditions.  Thank you.”  So I was, like, oh man!  I screwed it up!  And then he then called me like a month later when I assumed I’ve screwed it up, to say yeah; “Come and do this.  But I was just glad it wasn’t his lawyers calling me with a restraining order. “

As Riz explains he can be kind of obsessive with his work and he is thankful it didn’t cost him the job.  Asked if he knew which take it was that had convinced Gareth he said it was the first one and every take after that made him [Gareth] think maybe he didn’t want to work with him.

So what big differences were there coming from independent films to a big budget film like this?

It’s a lot of differences in terms of scale.  You know, I remember turning up on the first day of shooting, and cranes were carrying palm trees, and inserting them into the ground.  We were in a field in Buckinghamshire in England.  It’s like a hundred/two hundred stormtroopers stood around taking a break with their helmets off, just talking to each other.  And everything about that is surreal. 

The stuff you play acted as a kid.  There’s loads of things that are different.  But in a way it’s a remarkable how much is the same.  In terms of just being surrounded by a bunch of people who really care about their work, and they’re just working really hard.  I’ve heard a lot of stories that on these bigger blockbuster movies, people are there just for the money.  They don’t care and maybe that is true for some of these films, but for this movie, almost all the crew have grown up watching Star Wars.

So this is their childhood dream to be doing this.  So if you pick up just any random prop that’s on set you’ll see they’ve got alien writing on it.  And  touch screen things, and buttons and dials, and you’re [thinking] ‘This isn’t even gonna be on camera!’  You just realize, people just love their job.  And they loved being a part of this world and helping create this world.  So that sense of going above and beyond that was almost felt like being on an indy film.”

How do you go into these TV interviews, or these talky interviews and discuss the film without the fear of, oh my god, what if I reveal something

It’s interesting in a way, because with Rogue One, there was a lot more that was revealed to the public in advance of the film coming out than there was for Force Awakens.  Because you’re dealing with a familiar kind of story line, which is the Luke Skywalker kind of saga, they wanted to keep the details under wraps. 

But with this; it’s new characters, it’s a new kind of story line.  So they want to educate people about it.  So, apart from spoilers in the movie, you know, they want you guys to know that I defect from the Empire.  I’m an Imperial cargo pilot. 

They want you to understand who these different characters are to some extent, so I don’t think there’s it’s as intense as it was for Force awakens. 

But what was intense is they didn’t even give us scripts.  We had to, like, log into an online website to read our scripts, and then, finally, I think Felicity was, like, ‘dude this is ridiculous.  I need a script on set.’  So they gave us all scripts.  But at the end of each day, we had to give back the day’s pages. They had to collect them, you had to sign for them.”

Riz jokes that he’d sit on set making origami with his pages – just kidding he says, you have to sign them back in and he was worried they’d put Darth Vader on you if  you didn’t turn the back in at the end of the day.

What do you want people to get from your role?  I mean, ’cause this is an epic film.  What do you want people to get out of your character?

I think I want them to understand that even normal people can make big contributions.  You might think that someone else is gonna stand up for what you believe in.  But actually, at some point, it’s on you to stand up for what you believe in.  And try and make a contribution for what you think is right.

After reading this Riz Ahmed interview be sure to read my recap of the Rogue One Press Event & previous interviews;

• Rogue One Press Event Recap – Experiencing Skywalker Ranch & Lucasfilm HQ
• Discussing Jyn Erso with Felicity Jones
• Diego Luna – an ordinary man on an extraordinary journey as Captain Cassian Andor
• Mads Mikkelsen & Alan Tudyk on Rogue One
• Donnie Yen on Rogue One, playing a blind spiritual warrior & more
• Sitting down with Rogue One’s ‘Director Orson Krennic’ – Ben Mendelsohn

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY arrives in theaters TOMORROW in 3D, Real D 3D and IMAX 3D!!!

You can get tickets to see it TONIGHT – go now, run, don’t walk!!!

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