Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Riz Ahmed doesn’t know where his Oscar is.
The 43-year-old actor won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Long Goodbye in 2022, but Riz subsequently handed the gong to his mother and he hasn’t seen it since.
He told People: “I went and handed it straight to my mom. She gets first dibs on any of that stuff. I actually haven’t seen it for a while, so I’m hoping she knows where it is, ’cause I don’t.”
Riz explained that his mother has hidden the statuette somewhere.
He said: “She doesn’t like me rearranging her stuff. It’s a very kind of elaborate scheme. She’s hidden it in a place where I don’t know, just that I don’t throw away any of the stuff. I might throw out a box that has it in it or something.”
Meanwhile, Riz recently admitted to feeling like an “outsider” during his younger years.
The actor plays the titular role in Hamlet, Aneil Karia’s big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, and Riz revealed how he relates to his on-screen character.
He told People: “I had a really inspirational English teacher who gave it to me. And actually, I found a character, the heart of this play, that just feels as much of an outsider as I did at that time.
“And as much of an outsider as I think many of us feel right now, right? I think the central question of the play is, ‘Am I losing my mind or has the world gone crazy?’ And I think we are feeling that way.”
Riz admits that he’s never naturally chimed with Shakespeare’s work. However, he observed that “movies and storytelling are an empathy engine”.
He reflected: “It’s exciting to me to take audiences to a new place and have them recognise themselves there.”
Riz also thinks he has a responsibility to introduce new audiences to classic stories.
The actor said: “Suddenly we’re in this position where in order to keep this canonical, British text alive, this Western text alive. We actually have to pass the baton in terms of where it’s set. And only then can it actually feel grounded and real.”
