“The star revealed: ‘I was in the middle of filming Star Wars, and my body just kind of, like, gave up on me’”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
The 42-year-old British actor made the shocking admission during Thursday’s episode of Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast.
Riz said he had a hospital stint to treat an ‘intense’ and ‘prolonged’ illness, which inspired him to star in 2019’s Sound of Metal.
‘Around the time of taking on Sound of Metal, I had had a very intense kind of health-related experience myself, where I had to grapple with the grief but also the acceptance around that,’ he reflected.
The Fingernails star continued, ‘And basically, I was in the middle of filming Star Wars, and my body just kind of, like, gave up on me. I was extremely exhausted, I was hospitalized for a brief period. I had to really try to recreate my strength.
‘It was like building myself up from scratch. It was super scary and intense and quite prolonged, actually.’
As he noticed he wasn’t ‘getting better quickly,’ the actor’s perspective shifted.
‘For a minute, I was like, “Am I ever going to get my life back?” It really wasn’t clear,’ he said before adding he felt a ‘deep kind of grief and fear and terror and, yet, also a kind of tremendous liberation and gratitude and acceptance.’
Riz philosophized, ‘I always think that when you’re brought to your knees, you’re halfway towards praying.
‘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 — and on 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.’
He also expressed feeling a ‘trippy clarity’ that made him realize ‘everything you have is a gift.’
‘In the most strange way, I never felt more grateful, more at peace, more content than when I felt like I was going to lose my whole life,’ he looked back.
Following his health crisis, Riz deeply connected with the Sound of Metal screenplay, about a drummer who loses his hearing.
‘When I read the script, I was like, “I know what this is, you know, and I need to tell this story.”‘
The star emphasized, ‘”I need to tell this story for me. I need to make sense of this.” And I think that’s one of the greatest privileges that we get as storytellers: the story you need finds you at the right time.’
In 2021 Riz Ahmed made history when he became the first Muslim performer nominated for an Oscar for lead actor for his role in Sound of Metal.
He won rave reviews for his depiction of Ruben Stone, a rock-and-roll drummer and recovering alcoholic whose life goes into a free-fall when he loses his hearing.
The Hollywood fixture tweeted at the time: ‘Wow! I’m honored to be nominated by my fellow actors alongside such inspiring performances, and am grateful to the Academy for their support and encouragement.’
He previously became the first Muslim actor to win a lead acting Emmy in 2017 for his performance in The Night Of.