The role Riz Ahmed waited 25 years to play: “Joke’s on me in the end”
Riz Ahmed has had quite a varied career in his time, which truly kicked off when he appeared in Chris Morris’ satirical exploration of terrorism, Four Lions.
Since then, he has starred in everything from HBO’s Girls to Nightcrawler and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, becoming one of the most successful actors of his generation. While his tenure as an actor started back in the mid-2000s when he made his film debut in Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantánamo, Ahmed has admitted that he has waited decades to play a specific role, something that he always thought was a bit of a ridiculous idea.
The thing is, it’s not easy to get films made in Hollywood, and even some of the biggest filmmakers in the industry have waited years and years to bring their ideas to life. Take Francis Ford Coppola, for example, who began developing Megalopolis back in the 1970s, only to release it (to critical failure) in 2024.
It takes time to develop ideas, not just because the issue of securing funding and backing can be tricky, but also because the process of developing the perfect screenplay can hardly be rushed. I mean, Leonardo Da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa for 14 years: you can’t produce good art at the click of a finger.
When Ahmed heard that Derek Cianfrance (who co-wrote his film Sound of Metal) hadn’t given up on bringing Blue Valentine to life for over a decade, he couldn’t believe it, declaring, “I thought, ‘What an idiot! Who’s gonna stick to the film for ten years? That’s crazy. I’m never doing that'”.
However, Cianfrance’s dedication to Blue Valentine made for one of the most crushing romantic films you’ll probably ever see, proving that good things sometimes land at the doorsteps of those who toil at the wait. It’s been years since I first encountered it, but it’s so brutally tragic, I still feel a wave of sadness when I remember certain scenes from it, which often pop into my head like they’re trying to torment me.
So, Ahmed now knows that if you’ve got an idea, it’s always worth hanging onto it, and that’s where 2025’s Hamlet comes in, a modern-day interpretation of William Shakespeare’s classic play, which he has produced and starred in, 25 years on from when he first had the idea.
The actor revealed to Little Gold Men that he has had the ambition to make a film like this since he was just 16 years old, “So joke’s on me in the end”. Directed by Aneil Karia and adapted by Michael Lesslie, who penned the screenplay for the 2015 film version of Macbeth, Ahmed’s Hamlet has received positive reviews so far, although it won’t be released to the general public until February 2026.
Ahmed grew up alongside the release of many modern-day Shakespeare adaptations, from rom-coms like 10 Things I Hate About You, moving dramas such as My Own Private Idaho, and, of course, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Now, it’s his turn to bring a classic play from the Bard into a modern British world, carrying on this long-standing cinematic tradition.
