Millions of “Star Wars” fans have enjoyed the original series “Andor” on Disney+. The show is a continuation of the story established in 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” In the film, Cassian Andor helps the titular squadron steal plans for the massive Death Star, setting the events of the original film trilogy in motion.
“Rogue One” was critically acclaimed and included an ensemble cast, including Academy Award winner Riz Ahmed. Ahmed played Bodhi Rook in the film, a former Imperial pilot who defects to help the Rebel Alliance.
Ahmed was praised for his work on the film, but he recently revealed that he was battling something no one knew about while he helped make it.
What Happened During ‘Rogue One’?
During a new episode of the “Podcrushed” podcast, Ahmed admitted that he was hospitalized for “something silent and intense” and that the ordeal felt like “my body just kind of gave up on me.”
The 42-year-old actor said that he suffered from extreme exhaustion in the middle of filming the movie, and that he had to “really try and regain [his] strength.”
“It was like building myself up from scratch,” the actor said. “It was super scary and intense and quite prolonged actually. Something very silent and very intense had happened to me and I wasn’t getting better quickly.”
Ahmed said he even questioned his mortality and long term health during the scare, at one point asking “am I ever going to get my life back?”. He also admitted that going through it helped him gain a new level of humility and acceptance.
“I always think that when you’re brought to your knees, you’re halfway towards praying,” he said.
“When you’re kind of humbled in that way, when something is taken away from you, you become even more acutely aware of everything you have. A bodily level, on a health level, you realize like, you don’t control anything, man. You don’t control a single thing. You don’t even control your body.”
How Has The Experience Affected His Career?
Ahmed said that the experience made him more grateful, and he believes it prepared him to play what is, to date, the defining role of his career.
Ahmed played a drummer experiencing progressive hearing loss in 2019’s “Sound of Metal.” The film showed audiences what hearing loss can be like, and Ahmed worked to learn American Sign Language for the role. Several deaf actors were also cast in the film.
“When I read the script, I was like, ‘I know what this is, you know, and I need to tell this story,’ Ahmed said about taking the role in “Sound of Metal.”
“The story you need finds you at the right time.”
Ahmed would go on to earn a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Sound of Metal,” and he won an Academy Award for his short live action film “The Long Goodbye.”
