Venom Made Riz Ahmed Stop Acting In Blockbusters

Riz Ahmed has admitted that his experience making 2018’s Venom convinced him to focus on smaller projects rather than blockbuster films. The Venom franchise, which is part of Sony’s continuity following Spider-Man villains, has consistently broken box office records. Opposite Tom Hardy as down-on-his-luck reporter Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote Venom, Riz Ahmed appeared in the original 2018 film as Carlton Drake, a tech mogul who was experimenting with the symbiotes. He eventually becomes bonded with his own symbiote, Riot, and attempts to bring more symbiotes to Earth, but is defeated by Venom and Eddie.

Riz Ahmed’s career came to prominence a few years before Venom. This happened first with the HBO series The Night Of, about a man charged for a murder he doesn’t believe he committed. He won an Emmy for that role, and then completed the one-two punch with a role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which hit #2 in the yearly box office, quickly making him a hot commodity for franchise films. However, after starring in Venom he retreated back into the world of indie films and series and has finally discussed what it was about that experience that changed his trajectory.

Speaking with Variety, Ahmed explained that blockbuster filmmaking wasn’t for him. He explained he “had not learned yet how to bring [himself] to those movies.” He says that big-budget special effects films are more focused on technical craft and “it is a skill to be able to eke out your artistry in that setting. Look at Javier Bardem in Skyfall.” In addition, he has had a personal revelation about the nature of his acting. Ahmed said he wanted to focus less on putting on a mask and more on using his acting to reveal his true self. Read the full quote here:

I’m not saying I don’t like those big movies. I’m saying I had not learned yet how to bring myself to those movies. Those films teach you stamina, technical craft, and it is a skill to be able to eke out your artistry in that setting. Look at Javier Bardem in Skyfall. I just hadn’t developed the skill set at that point to do the technical thing and the emotional thing.

The idea of making masks and wearing masks is something that came very naturally to me, as someone who grew up code-switching between different cultural environments and class environments. Shape-shifting to fit into other molds. Acting became an extension of that, and more recently what I’ve thought about it is taking masks off. Of course, if you believe on some deep internal level that you aren’t the right type — the right color, shape, size, accent — then you will start instinctively wearing masks. So it’s been a shift in self-perception for me to say, ‘You know what? I am enough. We are all enough.

Ahmed’s next projects certainly reflect this new direction. After Venom, his next significant project was the film The Sound of Metal, a drama about a rock musician losing his hearing that earned him an Oscar nomination. His next film Mogul Mowgli covered similar ground, telling the story of a British-Pakistani rapper’s career being derailed by an unexpected illness. The projects Ahmed is currently working on include a modernization of Hamlet and Exit West, a sci-fi-tinged drama about a refugee couple.

The Venom star has certainly made good on his promise to draw more on his own personal experience. In addition to being an actor, Riz Ahmed is indeed a musician, performing as Riz MC in the group Swet Shop Boys. Their song “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” for the Hamilton mix tape even won an MTV Video Music Award. It will be interesting to see if he eventually does feel he develops the skill set to return to popcorn blockbusters or if his two-year stint in the big leagues was enough to last him a lifetime.

Source: Variety

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