Riz Ahmed in Austin, Texas on March 14, 2026
Credit: Ben Trivett/Shutterstock
NEED TO KNOW
Riz Ahmed tells PEOPLE he once received a watch as a gift from a film festival for his turn in the 2008 movie Shifty that was worth double what he had earned for starring in the movie
“That was the first time I kind of relaxed for a minute,” he says of feeling like he had obtained some financial security
Ahmed incorporated the real life experience into the new Prime Video series Bait
When Riz Ahmed was still trying to earn enough money to make a living as an actor in the late 2000s, he received a watch as a gift that has maintained an amount of significance for him in the years since.
“I had a much more humble idea of ‘making it,’ ” Ahmed, 43, tells PEOPLE while discussing his new film adaptation of Hamlet and his Prime Video miniseries Bait. The latter, in particular, features Ahmed as a young British actor desperately searching for a way to raise his profile.
“It was like, ‘Can I pay rent, really?’ For me, when I did Shifty when I was 27, I think that was a big moment for me,” he says, when asked when he first felt like he “made it.”
“My mind is going to a strange story that I’m gonna tell. I got awarded a watch at a film festival, I think in Zurich or something,” the actor adds. “I didn’t go. They just sent it to me. I remember taking this watch and, and the watch was worth more than I got paid in the film. I think I got paid £1,000 for the film and the watch was worth £2,000. I remember thinking, ‘Okay, great. I’ve got an insurance policy. Anything ever goes wrong, I can sell the watch.’ And that was the first time I kind of relaxed for a minute.”
Riz Ahmed and Daniel Mays in ‘Shifty’
Credit: Shutterstock
One of Ahmed’s earliest screen acting credits came in 2008. The crime thriller Shifty, in which he starred as a London-based drug dealer, also marked one of his first leading film roles. He broke out in the U.S. in the 2010s with movies, like Nightcrawler and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but Ahmed tells PEOPLE he kept that watch in its box until recently just in case he needed a financial backup plan.
“I’ll tell you the honest truth, the first time I unboxed that watch and wore it was last year. I think part of me was still just like ‘Man, you never know,’ ” he says. “So I guess that’s another way of saying that I’m not sure I ever feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve made it.’ You know, ‘I’ve made it’ means I can, relax, stop and kick back. I always feel like there’s a thing I need to make I haven’t made yet.”
Ahmed won an Academy Award in 2022 for his work on the live-action short film The Long Goodbye, which was a companion piece to his 2020 studio album of the same name.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Guz Khan and Riz Ahmed in Prime Video’s series ‘Bait’
Credit: Amazon Video
Though he’s now established himself as a force in the film and television industry, he notes that his experience with that gifted accessory made its way into Bait. On the show, his aspiring actor character considers selling a watch obtained under similar circumstances at the end of the first episode.
“That’s really pulled directly from my experience,” Ahmed tells PEOPLE of the scene.
Ahmed’s adaptation of Hamlet is in theaters Friday, April 10. Bait is now streaming on Prime Video.
Read the original article on People
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com ’
