Why Riz Ahmed ‘wants to be’ James Bond

Riz Ahmed has never played James Bond, nor has he ever auditioned for the role in real life. However, he has made up for it with Bait, the comedy-drama series he created and stars in.
The six-episode show features Riz as Shah Latif, a struggling actor from a West London Pakistani Muslim family who desperately wants to be the next Bond. Bait cannot be called autobiographical, technically; but it’s impossible not to spot a bit of Riz — or the several Riz-es one could find in many a place — in Shah Latif.
As much as playing Bond is the audition of a lifetime for Shah, it is also an opportunity for him to escape being himself. Although he comes across as egoistic and pompous, with a cavalier attitude, the audience — having witnessed all his facets — can see that he is deeply insecure and uncomfortable in his own skin.
Even in real life, several actors have spoken about how they keep slipping into different characters to avoid being themselves. The same applies to Shah, and Bond is his opportunity to be someone he’s not. Yet, of all the iconic characters he or Riz Ahmed, as the creator, could have chosen, what made them pick Bond in particular?
In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, the 43-year-old Oscar-winning British actor-musician broke down the rationale behind the creative choice. “It’s very interesting to me, in a way, because I think we all want to be James Bond. And what I mean by that is, we all want to be invincible, desirable, decisive, and indestructible. If you don’t think you’re good enough, then who is? It’s [Bond], the symbol and icon of alpha manhood, cinematic success, and the epitome of Britishness. It’s all the things Shah feels he is not, but Bond is,” Riz says.
He explains, “Bond is a symbol of Shah wanting to be anything but himself. He just doesn’t believe he’s good enough. And that’s true for so many of us, which is what I meant when I said ‘we all want to be Bond.’ We all want to be a version of ourselves that’s almost unattainable. At the core, it’s a story about self-love. It’s about Shah going on a journey to try to accept who he really is rather than trying to be something he’s not.”