In Prime Video’s Bait, Shah Latif (Riz Ahmed) sees an unexpected uptick in his popularity after frequently being mistaken for fellow actor Dev Patel when he learns that he may be the next James Bond. As he tries to stay one step ahead of PR nightmares and other unexpected developments, he finds eager – if not always welcome – support from his overenthusiastic, well-meaning cousin Zulfi (Guz Khan).
Awards Buzz spoke with Khan about watching Ahmed get to do something that isn’t necessarily part of the trajectory most people had for him:
“It’s incredible because me and Riz are very different. I thought I would be doing this for like three months ten years ago and then get back to normal life, be raising these kids, be messing around in the city that I grew up in. It’s incredible how your journeys work out and, you know, for us, and I say us in terms of the community or the diaspora. Riz has been doing this for a lifetime. And so to see him spread his wings a little bit away from maybe what the industry expects from him but to show the world that he likes funny, he likes to perform funny, I think it’s really freeing. And I, as his boy, I was really glad to see. Comedy’s a very freeing thing. I’m spoiled that I get to do it all the time. That’s my job. I do comedy. But when you see somebody whose expectations are that Emmy guy, the Oscar guy, and is very serious performing, it was real fun to do the project and kick it with him, so I’m really happy for him.”
He also celebrated the uphill battle and unlikely result that was this show getting made at all:
“It’s hard, bro. For ten years, I’ve fundamentally worked within the comedy sphere, and there’s one thing you know, whether you go out on stage to perform standup or whether it’s working with Judd [Apatow] during the pandemic, you never really know. Comedy’s such a subjective thing. I think I know quite well what the rhythms of comedy are. People often say, oh that person’s got it, from a comedic point of view. You can make people laugh. But that’s only part of it when it comes to something like this. And this project, to give Riz and his team huge props, was different. It’s not a traditional sitcom. It’s not, I would say, even a traditional dramedy in a sense. It’s something quite new, and it really encapsulates, I think, how Riz has felt for most of his career. In and amongst the chaos, the madness, the pig’s heads, the really surreal stuff, humor is part of life. When me and him talk offline, we’re just shooting jokes at each other constantly. It’s just two friends riffing all the time, and for him to be able to bring that energy to this show and see him really enjoy it, it was fantastic.”
Watch the video above to hear his take on Ahmed’s actual odds to be cast as Bond and how he’d like to be brought along for the ride if that did happen.
Season one of Bait is streaming on Prime Video.
