Riz Ahmed’s ‘bait’ journey included training Patrick Stewart in dirty slang.

Oscar and Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, and producer Riz Ahmed He knew he had to give it his all. prime video series bait. “We’re all presenting ourselves publicly,” he said during Deadline’s Contenders TV panel.

The revelations were further complicated when he was banned from a local supermarket on suspicion of shoplifting the same week as the photo he took the following week. star wars outflow.

So when someone shared the idea with Ahmed: “The distance between your public self and your private self is the amount of shame you have.” bait was born Ahmed was so moved that he realized “either I need to get treatment or make a TV show about it.” This gave us Shah Latif, a neurotic struggling actor who auditioned for James Bond and drew heavily on Ahmed’s own real-life experiences.

relevant: Full coverage of Deadline’s Contenders TV event

One experience that is fortunately not based on real events is when Shah was given a consultation with a decapitated pig’s head. A dead pig’s head offers him the wisdom that can only be conveyed through Sir Patrick Stewart’s iconic voice, but how could anyone convince Oscar-winning Sir Patrick to do such a thing? “We wrote him a letter expecting him to say no, but he said yes,” Ahmed said. “I’m still pinching myself.”

What came next was Ahmed sitting down with Stewart and teaching him Urdu swear words. I remembered the actor’s reaction: “behenhot – Oh, fuck, right? It’s fantastic. There’s logic to it. Great culture. Do you want me to sing or say the lyrics?”

coming together bait It was full of magical moments. It was real kismet when Ahmed’s co-star Guz Kahn came on board to play the Shah’s cousin Zulfi. Kahn had to remind Ahmed of their chance meeting 20 years ago. It was an encounter that Ahmed had completely forgotten but Kahn never could.

“I was doing a spoken word poetry show in Coventry, an English city that was like a post-apocalyptic Detroit,” he said. “I go out on the street and say, ‘Please come see what I’m talking about,’ and while the transaction is going on, I see a group of men in a dark alley.” The people down the alley were Khan and his friends.

“Guz’s legal team asked me to explain the situation in which I was selling tulips: ‘Hello, brother, would you like to see me write a poem?’ Out of pity, he and his men come and watch me speak. Guz said it was the first time he had seen someone who looked like me do something like that in a space like that. And that inspired me to get on stage more, and that led him on his journey.”

The finale leaves audiences guessing as Shah is offered a role that almost destroys him and his family when he is asked to deliver one of the most iconic lines in film history: “The name is Bond, James Bond.” Was it real? Was it a metaphor? Prime hasn’t picked up Season 2 yet, but Ahmed is at peace about it all.

“All the amazing geniuses, teachers, and mentors who raised me through my first showrunning experience. Whether we made it or not. bait “Once again, I want that family with me.”

Check back on Monday to see the panel video.