# Riz Ahmed takes on Iconic British Culture | VICE Culture Club Ep11

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** VICE
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8kpOGuCXe4
- **Дата:** 19.05.2026
- **Длительность:** 32:05
- **Просмотры:** 20,190
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/52422

## Описание

This is the highlights of our conversation with Riz Ahmed. For the full interview become a VICE Member.  Riz Ahmed has been pushing British culture forward for 2 decades.  He’s a rapper, actor, and activist.  He started out as an outsider skewering popular culture's take on terrorists and has moved into taking on iconic British roles like Shakespear’s Hamlet, Harry Potter’s Snape, and even James Bond.   We talk about his banned song, who he would like to rap with, who he would like to act with, and where he wish he was right in this moment.   Tim Allen also comes up a surprising amount.  Check out Riz Ahmed in his new movie “Hamlet” and his new show “Bait”

Music Makers, VICE just launched the Playlist Project, a global song contest built around real life moments. Instead of genres, submit songs to the category that best fits your track. Entries are open now, with CASH prizes and VICE social & editorial features on the line. Click here to enter now:
https://www.vice.com/en/vice-playlis

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

Now, you're trying to Tim Allen, aren't you? — Are you coming after his crown? — let that guy get away. I got to catch up with him. — Say something to Tim Allen. Tell Tim Allen — my whole life, Tim. It's time. We're going to figure this out. — What's up? This is Vice Culture Club. I'm your host Jackson Garrett. I'm your guide to what's going on at Vice and what's going on in the world this week. Here's some new docs by Vice. — Pure fentanyl, it is fire. Like it is so dangerous. It's like the most horrid, wretched, pure terror you can imagine. It feels like something slowly like just pulling your life force out of you. — Think about being there, catching them, taking the pictures you need or the videos you need, and we're out. — I'm his assistant for the day. I don't want to cause any problems here, case. — And this is actually a real stakeout? — Yes, it is. — They've taken a lot of money from this person, it seems. — We've got Riz Ahmed on today. He's a man of many talents. He's a rapper, he's an Oscar nominated actor, he's won an Oscar for a short film he's done. He's been in a bunch of stuff you've probably seen before. You might have seen Four Lions, Night Crawler, Star Wars, a bunch of different things I could list off. He's got a new TV show called Bait that's also coming out. He's also got a movie called Hamlet coming out. He's a man, like I said, of many talents. So, he's always got something out. The conversation was super interesting. Uh it's fun to go through his entire career. Stick around, check it out. — What's up, Riz? Thanks for coming on the show. — Thank you for having me, man. — I was looking through a lot of your Wikipedia and IMDb. You're a very busy man. You know, I was trying to figure out where to start. You know, you've got your rap career, you've got the movies, the TV. What do you get recognized for the most? Like when you're walking down New York City or London, what do people stop and say, "I saw you in this? " — First of all, I love the idea that you just don't like that your prep for interviews is to look at someone's Wikipedia and then just jump in. That's great. That was gangster. It's If you want to get to the heart of someone's soul and personality, look at those two things. Um What is the thing that people stop me for? You know what? In the UK, without a doubt, it's Four Lions. — Mhm. — Four Lions, for maybe American viewers or people who don't know it, it's like it's it was kind of it's become like a cult classic British comedy by Chris Morris, who I would describe as like the Kaiser Söze of British comedy. You know, he's like this OG that moves in the shadows and is very elusive and he's just very crazy, anarchic, amazing, genius guy. And he made this comedy about suicide bombers. Which sounds incongruous, but it's for a certain generation, it's like a lot of people's favorite movie. I like I keep meeting people like, "I watch that every year on my birthday. " You know, it's got that special place for people. I think it's very British in how subversive it is. — Oh, yeah. — So, I think it's is that, at least in the UK. — I've been like overdosing on Riz Ahmed TV and movies. I've like watched three different Riz Ahmed movies in the last 24 hours. One of them — detox. — Yeah, it was great though. I enjoyed it. I watched Four Lions and for years people have told me to watch Four Lions. — How had you not seen it before? — I'd never seen it before. — Okay, what did you think? Particularly from an American point of view as well. What did you like It was How did it land? — Hilarious and so dark at the same time. I don't know if you could have made it in America just because it's It doesn't I don't think it would have played for American audiences that this is allowed, you know? Like America's a little more on the nose with stuff, a little more like It doesn't have the same dry humor. — Right. Right. — believe you got it made, honestly. Like after watching the whole thing, first I was like, "Okay, yeah, joking about like some extremist stuff. " It's even 2010 even, like and then by the end I'm like, how did this get made? It's good, but it's how it was made. — was It was one of the kind of thing that it was very difficult for him to make for a long time. And um it's interesting because I think there's a few levels in which it might not have gotten made. One is that it's very, you know, subversive, and it has a lot of edge to it. But the other thing is that, like, you know, it's a white British guy making this movie about a group of Muslim characters. And from a kind of political correctness point of view, these days, a lot of people might be like, "Ah, I don't know. I'm not sure about financing that. " But, you know, Chris went deep, 10 toes down, you know, in the streets of Muslim Britain. I connected him with a bunch of my friends who became his researchers, and just like he just went so deep, and he just knew the whole landscape back to front, and he did his thing with it. So, um — I was shocked, honestly, to see it was a white director, cuz I looked that up after. I was like, surely like it had to be somebody in the community to get away with this kind of humor, cuz it's like so detailed in its humor. Like, I know enough about like British Muslim culture to know some of that stuff, but not everything. And I just had to assume it was somebody in the community that knew it. And then to get away with the ending

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00]

seemed like you kind of had to be there, but I'm glad it pulled off, cuz it was hilarious. — he he he he he Um yeah, it's interesting because I think that actually, when he came to me with the project, I myself was like, "Nah. I don't really want to be doing this. " And he, funnily enough, said something to me. He was I was like, "I don't want to be playing like terrorists and that kind of thing. I want to move past that. " And he goes, "This is the hero of the story. " Basically. — Yeah. — And these are characters you root for. And he goes, it And I remember he said to me, "If you ask me whether or not this is a step towards or away from brown James Bond, I would say it's towards — Mhm. — I thought that's such an interesting way of putting it and I thought, well, I understand what you're saying in a way and just it's just like uh you know, a character on a mission that you're rooting for and you just take it away from that wider political conversation. It's like it's an interesting idea. It's so funny that, you know, years later I ended up making Bait, which kind of also plays with that idea in a different way. — Hey, the scene the keep talking about Four Lions for a second cuz it just it blew me away that like I don't know it was 10 out of 10 hilarious, but it was like dark at the same time, you know? The scene where he's at the uh like governmental hearing and he does the fake suicide bombing. — Yeah, yeah. He's at a town hall panel with like members of government, media. Like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. When he does the kind of — He's like rapping. He's rapping about like people think he's a jihadi. Wouldn't you think I'm a jihadi? And then he pulls out like a confetti cannon suicide bombing. It's like — a kind of Tupac impression. — Yeah. It's hilarious. I don't like it I can't believe he got away with it, honestly, but — Oh, by the way, the writer of that film, Jesse Armstrong, who did Succession. — Oh, really? — Yeah, yeah. So, they were part of that same kind of very like, you know, British comedy kind of crew, yeah. — What do you get recognized for in America? — Um uh I was going to make a joke and say uh Slumdog Millionaire. — Haha. — But um uh that happens now and again it all over the place, actually. But I would say um I would say that what I get recognized for more here is I guess it's Star Wars. — Yeah. — Yeah, it's Star Wars um and uh The Night Of, particularly in New York. The Night Of is a very like New York thing. — Yeah. — So, it's like for a while it was like every time flying through JFK, they'd be like, "Naz, did you do it? " "Did you do it, Naz? " Uh so, yeah, there's that I think. — Do you They got They asked you to be in Andor or no? — To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether it's nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep, no more. And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, to consummation devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause. There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's insolence, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death. The undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

### Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) [10:00]

Ha. Thus conscience does make cowards of us all and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought and enterprises of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action. — There's an intimacy to it and a visceral kind of intensity to it that is more about the emotional experience than recording this poetry performance, right? And that was a bold choice cuz he turned up 10 years into the process and was like, "I love it, but first of all I don't really care about Shakespeare. " I was like, "Perfect. You're the perfect guy for the job then. " He goes, "Second of all um if we want to be in his experience, we got to get rid of every scene that he is not in. " — Okay. — and just live the whole thing with him. — I watched it with my wife and she brought up several scenes that weren't in there, you know, like even like I don't want to spoil it. I guess it's Shakespeare. Am I spoiling it? I don't know. Like Well, you know, the Ophelia scene's not in there. — It's interesting. Spoil is an interesting word. I know you mean it from a spoiler point of view, but um Shakespeare himself was chopping and changing it constantly. So, we have these like 4-hour version texts, right? And we think this was That isn't what they would perform. After Shakespeare died, they got every different edit and every different version of the play that had ever been performed and recorded and put it together like a You know, it's like the Blade Runner director's cut. Yeah. It's like the 4-hour version. But that isn't actually what would be performed. They do like 3-hour versions of it, 2-hour versions of it. So-and-so actor is like just died. So-and-so actor's doing another play. Let's combine that. Let's cut that. Let's change this. We're doing this in the stage that has three entryways, not two. They were constantly remixing it. It was a living thing even in his time. So actually chopping and changing is kind of like the most Shakespearean thing you can do. Revering it as some kind of biblical text That's never how they treated it, you know? Um so it's interesting that so um do we have that relationship to text that they didn't even back then, you know? — Everybody's really irritated about like all these remakes, so many remakes from the '80s and '90s and TV shows, but Shakespeare is the original remake, right? How many times has Shakespeare been remade? — Can I tell you um It's so funny because some people said like why do we need another Shakespeare thing? I'm like, bro, you — We've been saying that for a thousand years or whatever. — No, but also it's like you have a franchise reboot every 3 years. Like we haven't had a English language Shakespeare in 26 years, since Ethan Hawke's, right? For Hamlet. Um it feels like it's time, but I I'll go one step further and say Shakespeare himself was the re- reboot king. Cuz he only made up two original stories. Everything else is an adaptation. Hamlet's an adaptation. He's all taken ancient myths or historical events and turned them into a play. The only two plays he wrote was The Tempest, which is like this surreal batshit crazy black anti-colonial kind of tarot card uh acid trip, right? Um and Love's Labour's Lost, which is kind of a bit weird play. It's kind of like in between genres and it's hard to kind of nail that one, right? It's the experimental stuff. Um but everything else is an adaptation. So, he himself was like all about reboots and adaptations. And if you go back to where Hamlet is drawn from, I really believe that actually it's a myth that's much much more ancient than we realize. People think it's a Nordic myth. Have you seen The Northman? — No. — The Northman, like it's that — I saw uh The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage instead. One of my friends went and saw Northman and I went and saw Nicolas Cage. Come on, can you get past Nicolas Cage? — Well, it's epic. It's epic levels, man. Um I So, it was um a lot of people trace it back as being like a Nordic kind of myth, you know, the myth of Hamlet or Amleth. And but if you really look at it, uh it has a lot of overlaps with the foundational Hindu myth of the Bhagavad Gita. So, Bhagavad Gita is kind of like you could say it's like the Hindu Bible. It's a lazy way of kind of explaining it. It It's about this warrior Arjuna who's on the battlefield paralyzed with inaction going, "Do I fight my uncles and cousins cuz that's the right thing to do, or do I take their side cuz that's the loyal thing to do? " Which is the story of Hamlet, literally. It's like the whole that's what it is. And so, Shakespeare's drawing from these really ancient myths that kind of belong to all of us, I think. And um for that reason, the first words you hear in our movie are words from the Bhagavad Gita. To kind of like make that statement, you know? — Yeah. Now, you've got Hamlet coming out. You've got a TV show, Bait, coming out. You just put out new music. Are you

### Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) [15:00]

trying to Tim Allen? You trying to get number one in three different things at once? — Did he do that? — Yeah, he had number one movie, number one TV show, and number one book. — Wow. — It's always so strange to me that Tim Allen of all the people did that. But you've almost done it already once. You had the number one movie with Rogue One. album with the uh Hamilton mixtape. So, you've the two before. Now you're trying to Tim Allen, aren't you? — Are you coming after his crown? — let that guy get away. I got to catch up with him. — Say something to Tim Allen. Tell Tim Allen — you my whole life, Tim. It's time. We're going to figure this out. Yeah, there can only be one. Um you know, the song is kind of tied to the TV show. So, um the bait has a very strong musical element to the show for people who watch it. And we wanted to make a soundtrack as well. And cuz it's a Bond-themed um TV show, we have a Bond song. — Mhm. — And that's sang by Georgia Smith. Georgia is like, you know, she's like our SZA or whatever. She's like the most incredible, you know, British R& B star with really a global following, huge following here as well. And so she does like our Bond song, and then we have all these other artists from like really around the world that we've pulled together across bhangra, UK garage, drum and bass, hip hop, grime, drill, uh Pakistani rap, you know, kind of crossed the diaspora, trying to create an album that kind of hasn't really existed before. Um and on that I've got a couple of tracks. And my track is with one of my favorite artists, rappers. Cassisdead, do you know him? — No. — He is like a kind of he's like kind of a bit of a cult figure in the UK. He actually won uh the Brit Award for best um best rap act a couple of years ago. He wears a mask the whole time. — Love it. — Um so no one knows what he looks like. But it's quite a weird-looking mask cuz it looks very real. — Okay. — So you You're like, "Is that Oh, no, it's a mask. " It's like quite weird. It's like a hyperrealistic mask. Um — That's the way to do it, right? If you could be like do your famous art, but you don't have You can actually just walk amongst people. — Nicolas — No one's asking you for pictures, you know. — Yeah. — Exactly. Everything goes back to Nick. — Oh, yeah. — And um — Or Tim Allen, you know, either one. — Tim Allen, — yeah. That's the collab we need. And so yeah, I've got a track with him on there and yeah, really proud of it, man. And we've been talking about doing a collab for like a decade now. So we finally made it happen. — I think a lot of people in America might be surprised of like how deep your rap career goes. I mean, you've got a bunch of songs out. You've done some stuff with New York rappers as well, all right? The Sweatshop Boys. — Yeah, yeah. It's about 10 years now since our album, our debut album, Cashmere, yeah. — And I saw the uh the album art, the Spotify art or whatever was at the Punjabi restaurant in East Village, right? — Yes, yes. — that. — Punjabi Deli in Lower East Side, yeah. — Oh, and you've had a banned song as well. Like it got banned from radio waves back in the day. That's pretty interesting. — It's the best thing you can do to a rapper starting out. — I feel like Kneecap has been riding that wave for a while now, you know? I liked Kneecap before they got into too much trouble, but you know — their new stuff is um sonically like really interesting. I really the new stuff is like okay. Made me sit up. Um — Can we get a collab with like banned artists, people that get in trouble in the UK? — Why not? Why not? I mean, it's very interesting, isn't it? The idea of like banning art or like, you know censoring speech in that way, particularly when it's in a creative medium. They I guess they tried to do that with Ice Cube and you know, all these people, the 2 Live Crew. — Oh, okay. Yeah. I think Ice-T probably got in trouble with uh Cop Killer. He could do something with that. — Ice Cube? That's Ice T. — That's Ice T. That was Ice Cube. I'm a big Ice T guy. I love Ice T. Love SVU. I love like all his stuff, so — Oh, wow. Yeah. Um Yeah, it's um yeah, it was basically my first rap song. It was called the Post-9/11 Blues. And it's like a comedy rap song. It like deliberately sounds like a crap nursery rhyme or something, you know? Um but it's like kind of quite provocative, especially for the time. Now maybe it's just like all right, you know, we've heard that before. But at the time it was it was quite like it struck a nerve. And yeah, the you know, radio DJs were like, yeah, we can't play it. We've been told we can't play it. " And so it really kind of helped it blow up in a way. Um this is MySpace era. Back in the day. Yeah. — And it was like inspired by like an airport situation? Like you'd gotten pulled aside at an airport or something like that? — Mhm. Yeah, what happened is like uh when I did my first film, The Road to Guantanamo, we went to the Berlin Film Festival, we won an award, it was like this amazing euphoric moment. When I landed back in the UK, the security services like MI5 special branch like took a bunch of us into a room and they were just trying to rough me up and like putting me in arm locks and just really trying to intimidate me and all this stuff and like, "Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle? " And I was like, "What are you What is going on right now? " And um when I came out of that, lawyers

### Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) [20:00]

got in touch and they were like, "Yo, you could sue the government. That's like harassment. This is totally unlawful. They've no right to do that. " But I was like, "I don't want that to be the first time my mom sees me on TV. " — Mhm. — I'm going to be doing a press conference for You know what I mean? — Yeah. — I said, "I want to put this into my art. " So I made this kind of this comedy rap song. So it came from a real place, yeah. — I was watching uh Sound of Metal, which I've been meaning to watch for a long time. Finally got another one that finally got to watch. Uh I thought I was going to ask you some like punk rock questions or anything, but the big through line in the meeting or in the movie is uh stillness. It's kind of this idea that you can sit. — that. That's interesting. — Yeah, or at least that's the what I took from it, you know, that he there's the famous like scenes where you sit in the room and write and he says you can't have like stillness taken away from you. Sit there until you need to write or write sit there. And then at the very end of the movie, I don't think it's a spoiler necessarily, he like sits there without his without being able to hear and kind of looks at the sun. And in my head, I've always had trouble being still. I've always got to be doing something, getting something done productively. And so that hit me personally. I was telling my wife about it and she was like, "Oh, that's you. You have a problem sitting still. " And then same thing, I was looking at all your work and I was just like, "Wow, man, this guy doesn't stop. " Like, do you have Do you relate to that character? Do you feel like you can stop? All right, I got a game for you here. Let's see. This might help learn more about Riz Ahmed. It's if you could, you know, nothing too ambitious here, but if you could and we'll see, if you could rap with anyone, who would it be? — Oof. Um I'll tell you I I want to say something slightly on um instinctive. Like, I Kendrick Lamar is my favorite rapper for lots of different reasons. I know in some ways it's an obvious answer, but I I I can talk to anyone about that and why I feel that way. I would actually really love to rap with um FKA twigs. — Oh, okay. — Yeah, um I'm just a huge fan of hers. You know, me and my wife both are actually. We like we're like big stans of hers. Um and she's not a rapper necessarily, but I love the way she uses her voice as an instrument and the textures that she puts on her voice as well. And she's not afraid to mess with it in production. Actually, Manny D, the producer of her last album, You Sexy Thing After Glow, he actually produced the track I just did with Cassis Dead. And [snorts] um Yeah, uh or maybe uh Mike Skinner. — Okay. — From The Streets, you know, who's like kind of a British institution. People who know his stuff. Um Yeah, I I'm interested more and more in artists who don't kind of fit neatly into one category. I think of both of those as those kind of artists. Another one that pops to mind is M. I. A. — Oh, yeah? — Yeah, yeah. Kind of like a mix of kind of like punk poetry and kind of toasting from a like you know what I mean from a don't know background. — person, I feel like I've heard there's like she's like selling tin foil hats now or something but — She's new she's got a new designer brand I think. — Yeah. — That may allude to that. — Yeah. — Energy yeah. — Okay, all right. MIA, FKA Twigs and who was last Mike Skinner? Mike Skinner all right. — Watch out. — If you could act with anyone who would it be? — Um if I That's a good question. Um Yeah, I'd love to work with Anthony Hopkins. If that's possible. Yeah, we just did I we worked with um Sir Patrick Stewart. You know on bait. — Engage. — Yeah. — I love Star Trek. I watch Star Trek like every other night. That's my comfort show. Next generation. — He's such a G and I'm interested more working with people who have that level of experience. And like the reserves of that experience allows them to make such interesting choices like instinctively. I just loved I don't I don't know I love being around that. I love absorbing that. You know those people that have that kind of depth — Yeah. — of wisdom to to their craft. I would love to work with Anthony Hopkins man. And he's got a crazy process is very obsessive. Um you know he repeats the script like 250 times. I think it's like it has to be 205 or 250 times I'm very OCD about it. He repeats it that many times until it's just like there and then he can just play with it and do get jazzy with it you know. — Yeah. — So I would love to work with him yeah. — Did Sir Patrick Stewart give you some Shakespeare advice? I know he like started out that way. — Um he did um he didn't give me Shakespeare advice but I did um absorb something from him uh and also from watching Sir Ian McKellen and also thinking a lot of these actors in those

### Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00) [25:00]

two in particular is the important of that kind of technical equipment of voice. Actually voice and the same with rappers. Like so much of like what makes you know, rappers amazing is that what they can do with their voice and what Kendrick losing his voice is an instrument or if you watch the development of a lot of rappers whether it's Jay-Z or Eminem going from a more kind of nasal pushed kind of up here place and then as they develop and they get more grounded and confident it's like it's coming from a more rooted place. It's just like in Shakespeare the thoughts are very long. — Mhm. — The lines are long. They're speaking your thoughts out loud often. You need to be able to carry that with a with one single breath through without breaking the thought and also finding the different variations in what you're saying and get it out there and carry people with you all the way to the end of the thought. Do you know what I mean? It's like isn't it an athletic thing to it? And like those guys have got the equipment man. They've put in the reps, you know. — Yeah. — Um and that was yeah, took that from them. — If you could win one award, which would it be? — I could win one award? I don't know really. Grammy would be nice. — All right. Grammy be cool. — Yeah, while we're — You already got the Oscar, right? — While we're peeing while we're choosing I do. — trying to you're trying to Tim Allen trying to Egot here. — Is Tim going Egot? Then we have to try and reach for this. — Okay. — Yeah. — I love that you're shooting at Tim Allen here. I'm setting this up, man. — Tim, please. No rivalry is started. No no no. You're stirring. — Whoopi Goldberg she's an Egot as well. — She — Yeah. — Oh what a G. — And you're going to be in a book too, right? a you're narrating the Harry Potter books or like a voice in — I did the voice Snape. — Oh, man. We're coming for the awards here. — Yeah. — All right. If you could go back anytime in the past, where would you go? — I sometimes think about this. I don't think it'd be a pleasant place to go, but I'm just so interested. I sometimes think Do you ever do this? Do you ever think like what if civilization got totally wiped out and we went back to like hunter-gatherer kind of thing? I don't know why that I think this. I think this more regularly than I'd imagine. — Yeah. — Like how would you survive and what I would love to go back to like straight-up [snorts] like caveman hunter-gatherer vibes. — Okay. — I don't know why, but I just I'm interested I guess I'm interested in like who are we without all of this nonsense? I know we are. We're people who like would die very young probably. — Probably. Yeah. — probably like yeah, stubbing our toe. — We wouldn't be able to keep still very easily. — short-sighted. I wouldn't last. You know what I mean? But um yeah, I don't know. Something I I'm really walk around a city sometimes I'm like, "What the hell What is this? " This is not our natural state. Something about like indigenous caveman I don't know. Do you have an answer to that? — No, not really. I I probably should have my own answers if I'm going to ask you that. — Yeah, well you How dare you not? — Maybe like back in like biblical times so I can prove the any of the religions right or wrong, you know? Or like JFK assassination. — to Jesus's thing and be like, "It's real, guys. " — 19 — 1932 or something, Hitler. — WOW. — YOU KNOW? — WOW. YOU GOT — I'm trying to be productive here. You're trying to like get back to your roots. I'm trying to like make something happen. — Yeah, I'm just trying to go natural. Yeah. You're trying to change things, timelines. — I didn't say if you could bring a gun or not, you know? But I could get one. — I could find one. Yeah, I could make it happen. — Russell one up. — Could get like a lightsaber or something, bring it to Jesus's time. Get I could get in the Bible. That'd be interesting. — get a shout-out in the Bible. — one like magic trick and you get you know Yeah. — All right. Last one. If you could snap your fingers right now and go anywhere in the world, where would you go? — Um I don't know why I thought this. This is not what I expected to say. I expected to say like New Zealand or something like somewhere peaceful, but that's not actually what I'm saying. I'm going to kind of I'm just going to I would really love to go back to Mecca. — Okay. — I went there in December. And I want to be honest like I'm Muslim. I'm not uh as observant as some of my family members or you know, whatever. This stuff happens on a spectrum like, you know, who who am I to judge or be judged? Like but I I went there kind of curiosity and openness saying like, "What am I going to feel? " If anything. You know, am I just going to be there and be like, "Oh, this is a bit underwhelming. " It wasn't, man. It was amazing just on a level of like so many people from all around the world and different backgrounds just all in one kind of vibe. It's if you just want to call it that. — Yeah. — Just that everyone dressed the same. You've got people from like Tajikistan next to people from Gambia next to

### Segment 7 (30:00 - 32:00) [30:00]

people from Gambia like France next and everyone's just like walking around this object. And there's something very ancient about that, you know, and Stonehenge-y about it. And the ritual is actually itself pre-Islamic. And it it felt maybe like going back to that thing that I'm talking about like trying to go way back to like something that predates civilization. It felt like an ancient ritual and it was a real reset for me. And so and since leaving there, I've been like, "Oh, man, I want to get back into that energy. " Do you know what I mean? — Yeah. — Um So, yeah. — All right, well, congratulations. We're going to send you to Mecca right now. We've got the car, and the plane ready to go. No more PR tour. We're going. — guys. — All right. Thanks for coming, Riz. — Appreciate you, bro. — Appreciate it. Thank you. — That was such a great combo, man. That's going to That's I can tell it's going to be a highlight of the — Making that was such a crazy mess. Um I mean this in with all respect, it's not like people were being like dialing it in. Like everyone was just trying their absolute best to make it a banger. And that meant they was were not willing to compromise. I remember we shot the movie in 6 months. They watched it back and went, "No, we're going to reshoot most of it in 6 weeks. "