Created by and starring the Oscar winner, the Prime Video series centers on Shah Latif, a struggling actor in the United Kingdom who suddenly finds himself presented with the opportunity of a lifetime as he begins a series of auditions to become the next star of the 007 franchise. However, this dream shot quickly devolves into a nightmare when his life begins to spiral out of control, becoming a target for online harassment, devolving into an existential crisis.
Alongside Ahmed, Bait features an ensemble cast that includes Army of Thieves‘ Guz Khan, Sheeba Chaddha — who previously worked with Ahmed on his adaptation of Hamlet — Raised by Wolves‘ Aasiya Shah, The Umbrella Academy‘s Ritu Arya and Sajid Hasan, among others. Having made its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, followed by an appearance at SXSW, the show has garnered universal acclaim from critics thus far, currently holding a rare perfect 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Riz Ahmed’s Shah standing confidently in a suit in Bait
In honor of its latest festival showing, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed Riz Ahmed in our SXSW media suite to discuss Bait. When asked about the show’s central premise, the Oscar winner explains that while it is a meta look at the film industry through the James Bond franchise, it’s also “a family story,” “a love story” and a “spy thriller” all mixed into one, particularly as his awareness of auditioning for the part leading to his life changing “in bizarre ways.” He further shared that the six-episode series is “a reflection of all the different genres that I love watching.”
When asked about the show’s James Bond connection and the rare timing of it coming as the search is underway for a new leading star, Ahmed chuckles as he shares the Bait team is “not that smart” to make the series now. However, he recalls that when he set out to pitch the series, everyone agreed that it was a good idea, but that it “was not going to happen,” believing the Broccoli family — still holding the rights to the spy franchise at the time — wouldn’t go for it:
Riz Ahmed: Barbara Broccoli, at that time, was the decision maker around this stuff, and rightly, she was very protective of this IP, right? And I said, “No, I think it works. In a way, it’s not really about James Bond. It’s about success.” My character is chasing James Bond because he wants to be successful, he wants to be accepted, he wants to be sexy and decisive, and alpha male, all these things that he feels like he’s not. And so, when I met with Barbara Broccoli, I showed her the script, I told her about it, and said, “Look, this is really a story about self-love, and Bond is a symbol in it. It’s not really about …” And she totally got it, to her credit, and she loved it. And she let us do it, which, to be honest, I’m still a bit surprised about.
Riz Ahmed’s Bait Pulls From Many Elements In His Life
ScreenRant: I’ve read this described as like a personal story for you. So what are some of the elements that are personal to you?
Riz Ahmed: I mean, so many elements are pulled from my life. This scene in episode 1 happens in a nightclub. I won’t give too much away, but a version of that scene happened to me, where I was supposed to perform in front of a crowd, and I got booed off stage, and we filmed it in the same venue, on the same stage. There are these scenes from my childhood. We went back and shot them in neighborhoods — that literally is the neighborhood I grew up in, the park where I would grow up hanging out with my cousins. There are so many kinds of elements like that. I don’t want to give too much of the show away, but I think the part of it that is most deeply personal to me is hopefully something that a lot of people relate to, and that’s how life sometimes feels like one big audition. We’re constantly seeking validation, approval, and acceptance, and that’s really what the show is about. And then that’s true for me, not just as an actor, but just as a human being, living today, right? Online or whatever. We’re constantly trying to, kind of, present a version of ourselves that people would like. It’s like we’re always auditioning or something. And inside, we feel like a mess.
ScreenRant: I was thinking about this the other day. Do you remember we used to go to concerts and no one would have phones, and I didn’t have to worry if anyone was going to film me?
Riz Ahmed: It’s crazy. And it forces us all to kind of wear this mask. And so, the show is exploring what happens when a mask doesn’t fit anymore. What happens when it’s time to show cracks? What happens when you have to take it off?
ScreenRant: There’s this element, too, of the campaigning, and the mask that you mentioned when you’re going for a role, or maybe you’re playing a role that means a lot to people. Have you had that experience? I don’t know if when you were doing Star Wars, you were very aware of how you were presenting yourself.
Riz Ahmed: Well, let me tell you this, this show, like we were just saying, is kind of about the gap between your public and your private self, and how things might look one way on the outside, but on the inside, totally different. I remember the same week that it got released, I was in Star Wars, and they released the cast photos, and I saw it in costumes and stuff, people texting me like, “Bro, you’re killing it, man. This is amazing. This is huge.” That same week, I got banned from my local supermarket for being a suspected shoplifter, because my washing machine broke. I didn’t have any clean clothes, so I’m walking around with a massive laundry bag of clean clothes, and the only clothes I have are bright pink swim shorts and a bright green puffer jacket. I forgot to beep the pizza on the checkout. They went, “This is a crazy person and is shoplifting, and why do they got dirty underpants in a huge bag?” They banned me from [the store]. I’m like, “Dude, I’m in Star Wars!” And they’re like, “Definitely crazy for that. You’re banned from being here.” So, that just gives you an example of the gap between perception and reality. It’s experiences like that that made me want to make this show, and laugh about it.
ScreenRant: So, who does that one impression?
Riz Ahmed: So, here’s what I’ll say, Patrick Stewart is in our show. He’s in our show, but I’m not going to reveal how he’s in our show…I cannot believe we’ve got Patrick Stewart, Sir Patrick Stewart. I mean, I grew up watching this guy in Star Trek, and he’s just one of the legends. X-Men, he’s one of the greats. I don’t want to give anything away about the role he played until after the show is out, but he crushed it. I’ll be honest, I can’t quite believe that he said yes. I think it was a mistake, and his agent made a mistake or something. [Chuckles] He was our number one choice. We got him for the role, and I remember our last day of working together, he said, “You know what? I have to tell you something. The reason I said yes to this, is because I’ve never read anything like this.” I just, honestly, could have cried, man. He’s one of my heroes, and that’s really what I want people to feel about this show, that it’s kind of different to what they might have seen before. I’m really proud of that. I’m proud of the whole team for pulling something together that’s so hard to kind of pin down, in terms of what it is. He’s doing so many things, and that really attracted him to the project.
ScreenRant: What is the overall plan for the show? Is it limited, or do you have ideas?
Riz Ahmed: We don’t know yet. We’ve got plenty of ideas. I think these characters, people will fall in love with them. Just selfishly, I so love working with Guz Khan, Aasiya, and Sheeba, and Sajid, who all played my family. I would love to get the band back together, but let’s see.
ScreenRant: When I think about your career, you really make, I think, really smart, selective choices. And I’m just curious how you go about that, and is there anything you haven’t done that you’re like, “I aspire to, or want to manifest to do that something?“
Riz Ahmed and Ritu Arya standing close to each other with paint on their faces in a club in Bait
Riz Ahmed: Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, thank you for saying that, because I’d say that one of the main ways in which I choose projects is I want to do as varied a range of things as possible. It’s just exciting for me creatively, but also because I don’t know, I guess I just feel like I have all these sides to my personality, and I’m determined to express them all. And I’m determined for audiences to see that as well, and for them to be inspired to celebrate all the different sides of themselves. So yeah, that’s kind of really important to me. Something I have not done is a horror. I’m just too scared to watch horror films.
ScreenRant: Any of them? What do you think is the scariest movie for you?
Riz Ahmed: Well, I think it’s because I’m traumatized by my uncles, who, when they were supposed to be babysitting me at the age of five or six, just let me watch Nightmare on Elm Street with them. So we watched all of those films, at the age of six.
ScreenRant: They just kept putting the next one on.
Riz Ahmed: Yeah, it was so messed up. So I can’t really watch horror movies, but I would like to do one. You know what? I have seen The Ring. It’s a banger. It’s such an amazing film though. I watched the Jordan Peele movies, for sure. I’ve watched those. I love those. They feel like horror, but they also kind of got something to say. They’re very character-driven. It’s interesting, though. I had Jordan Peele on my mind a lot when I was making Bait, because of how he uses really fun genres to also comment on stuff. And I had this quote, in particular, on my mind, he said, in his opinion, “Being black in America was like being in a horror movie.” That’s why he made Get Out. Maybe misquoting him, but it was something like that. And I always felt that, being brown in the West, it’s kind of like being in a spy thriller. So that’s partly why I use James Bond to make Bait. Know what I mean? So using that genre, using that kind of playground, I could also touch on some stuff about my own experience as well.
Bait begins streaming on March 25 on Prime Video!
Release Date
March 25, 2026
Network
Prime Video
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