Reacting to Riz Ahmed’s call for diversity targets, Manick Govinda warns that focusing on ethnic representation can blind us to artistic qualities.
Riz Ahmed, the star of Four Lions (2010), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and the mega-hit Star Wars prequel Rogue One (2016), is an excellent actor. He also wrote a powerful, hard-hitting essay for the Guardian last year, called ‘Typecast as a terrorist’, which was a credible and sharp attack on the limited range of roles Asian actors are often offered – ‘minicab driver/terrorist/cornershop owner’. Ahmed offered an alternative vision of the casting process, ‘where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to his race. There, I am not a terror suspect, nor a victim of forced marriage. There, my name might even be Dave... Keep reading on Spiked
Riz Ahmed, the star of Four Lions (2010), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and the mega-hit Star Wars prequel Rogue One (2016), is an excellent actor. He also wrote a powerful, hard-hitting essay for the Guardian last year, called ‘Typecast as a terrorist’, which was a credible and sharp attack on the limited range of roles Asian actors are often offered – ‘minicab driver/terrorist/cornershop owner’. Ahmed offered an alternative vision of the casting process, ‘where you play a character whose story is not intrinsically linked to his race. There, I am not a terror suspect, nor a victim of forced marriage. There, my name might even be Dave... Keep reading on Spiked