Star Wars star Riz Ahmed wouldn’t stop sending in Rogue One audition tapes – even when he had the part
Now that’s dedication
While most actors maintain a certain professional distance from the projects they’re starring in, sometimes a genuine enthusiast will find themselves starring in their favourite franchises – and just like any of us, they get a little overexcited.
At least that’s what happened to Rogue One: A Star Wars story star Riz Ahmed, who was so keen to play pilot Bodhi Rook that he sent in a ridiculous amount of audition tapes – even when he’d already got the part.
“He kept cranking out different version of Bodhi,” co-producer John Schwartz recalls in a new behind-the-scenes clip on the Rogue One DVD, alongside clips of Ahmed’s various video interpretations of Bodhi.
“Then obviously then I started kind of… the obsession starts, where you start doing 50 thousand takes of something as you’re left to your own devices,” Ahmed added, with various takes on the character (which you can watch below) including homemade costumes and dialogue he recorded himself.
“And they were like ‘Great, cool, we need…’ but I didn’t stop there!” Ahmed went on.
“I just carried on recording more takes and just e-mailing him. I was like ‘Screw it, I’ve got his email address now!’”
And the deluge of clips began to get a bit much for Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, as he also explained in the footage.
“'He could be like this. Or he could be like this. Or he could be like this!’” Edwards recalled of Ahmed’s various interpretations.
“And it was like, ‘OK anyway you’ve got the part…’ and then got another like, eight clips saying ‘or this or this or this or this or this.’”
“I was like ‘OK, I’ve kind of totally screwed this up now…I’m like spamming the director!’” Ahmed laughed.
Luckily, Edwards looked past the bombardment and we still got to see Ahmed’s Bodhi Rook in Rogue One last December. If anything, we appreciate his performance all the more now we know how much went into it…
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download on 10th April
