Riz Ahmed

You know, we all feel like we have to perform this version of ourselves that knows the script that, as you said, is commanding and decisive and desirable, the best public version of ourselves.

We're performing that.

But actually, the gap between that public self and the messy vulnerability of our private selves.

um, is often huge, you know, and that's true whether you're talking about how your life is actually going versus the Instagram post you just got up, put up, or that you saw of someone else, or like how professional and put together you're seeming on, on a zoom call when actually you're not wearing any pants, uh, you know, just out of the frame.

Uh, and, and so there's, uh, there's this, uh, just to answer your question, like, I feel like I'm playing, I'm trying to draw on a feeling that is personal to me, but I think it's personal to a lot of people.

Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, the show isn't really about James Bond, but James Bond is a very important symbol because he is the ultimate symbol of success.

Yes, sure, as an actor he is, you know, the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.

And yet it's also...

just, you know, for any of us.

He's this archetype of like, like I said, decisiveness, desirability, being in control, being unflappable, being invulnerable.

And so I wanted the character of James Bond to serve as this symbol of aspiration, this unattainable kind of self that Char is hunting down almost.

And in chasing this symbol, is he abandoning himself?

Is he abandoning where he's from?

Is he abandoning his family?

Has he forgotten actually who he really is?

And so the show is trying to deal with that.

And I think that that's something that, you know, we all kind of go through where we're often pulled between the people we were and the people we want to be.

And actually the healthy equilibrium is probably somewhere in the middle.

You know, probably that thing you want to be is like an attempt to escape reality.