The rising British star talks his Star Wars experience and playing a defecting Imperial pilot.
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Riz Ahmed:My response was, What!
no, disbelief, shock, glee, and then utter panic.
It kind of brings out the kid in you, it has that little childlike emotional intensity.
What was your firstStar Warsfilm that you saw, in the theater?
The first movie that I saw, oh, in a theater, it wasEpisode I. I loved how they were kind of like quite political, and I enjoyed that.
Its interesting that you say that, theres a generational thing with those films.
People who first saw the prequels in the theater I think, they really love the prequels.
Yeah, its timeless, I love that.
What can you tell me about Bodhi?
Bodhis an Imperial cargo pilot, he works with the Empire because its the only job in town.
He lives on an occupied planet, how else are you going to earn a living?
Go collaborate with occupying forces, become a cargo pilot.
It was interesting, I started researching real world examples of that.
These are things that exist in the real world, so that was kind of interesting.
Translators for the American Army, Afghan nationals for example.
Its a complicated thing to do to earn a living, to risk being marked out as a traitor.
To live with a certain level of guilt.
I think hes a character who feels he has a lot of debts to settle.
He wants to makes things right.
He goes almost 180 degrees from working with the Empire to being part of the Rebellion.
I think theres a real quite dramatic evolution that takes place for all these characters.
I think thats something thats exciting.
I think the difference here is, these characters are evolving from within shades of gray.
This is a quite gritty, edgy rendition of the Star Wars world.
No ones coming to the table with a clean slate.
You mentioned how you found the prequels to be pretty political.
Does this have a political component to it as well?
I think its interesting, because the central message of this film is one of like teamwork and belief.
I think thats a poignant message for kids and adults to take home from the theater.
Because the biggest challenge we face as species, a planet, are challenges we can only face together.
There is no us and them, its just us, were all in this mess together.
Is this your first big effects-driven picture?
My first studio movie.
My second studio movie, which I shot while I was shooting this, wasJason Bourne.
Its interesting because there werent a lot of effects.
There were obviously some, but they built stuff, as far as possible really.
So it was tangible.
It was stuff you could interact with.
There were alien creatures walking past you.
It had a kind of immersive feel, because I think they wanted the movie to feel like that.
Have a bit of dirt under the fingernails, boots on the ground kind of feeling.
Gareth (Edwards, director)s idea was to kind of rediscover that esthetic from the earlier films.
They all went above and beyond.
People just do it because they love this.
Who breaks character first on set?
Whoevers doing the scene with Alan Tudyk.
The guys hilarious, and he kept throwing in random lines, makes you crack up.
Theres actually a couple moments in the film where people are almost cracking a smile.
So much of his improvised stuff is in the film.
A really wonderful actor.
Have you had a chance to meet George Lucas?
Yeah, hardly spoke a word to him.
I like to think it was that brief meeting that led to this moment.
There has been some discussion about the diversity of the cast in the film.
Do you feel its important for someone like yourself to push back on that through positive film roles?
As I said, until theres no us and them, in peoples minds, its just us.
All different kinds of stories up there in screen and in films.
More than it being important, I think it just makes sense, I thinks its just fun.
It keeps things fresh if youve got different kinds of stories being told.
I think it just makes sense in this global age that stories reflect their audiences.
These days, you tell a story, theres a global audience.
I get fan mail from like Jakarta to like, Lagos.
Yeah, I think its important to stretch our empathy in a divided time.
I also think it just keeps things fresh and just makes sense.
Rogue Onecomes out Friday (December 16).
