Ahead of their awards ceremony next weekend (April 10 and 11), BAFTA are hosting Q&A sessions with many of their nominated talents. Recently, the awards hosted their session with several of the actors nominated for ‘Best Leading Actor’. Hosted by Mariayah Kaderbhai, the session saw Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Tamar Rahim and Adarsh Gourav get together to discuss their preparation for roles, the aims of their films, and how they pieced together their performances.
I think it usually starts off in a pretty straight forward way,” started Ahmed, discussing what motivated him to take the leap into signing on to his role in ‘Sound of Metal’. “[The motivation] is that the script is amazing. We were really lucky with our film. Darius Marder and his brother, Abraham Marder, had been working on the script for about thirteen years.
“It was one of those labours of love that just wasn’t getting made but he kept working on it and kept working on it for over a decade. When I met up with Darius, I just thought he was amazing. It was clear that he was going to give 110 percent and he expected that from everyone.”
Mads Mikkelsen, who spoke about his role in ‘Another Round’ agreed with Ahmed about the director being a huge motivator when it comes to selecting roles. The actor stated, “Thomas [Winterberg] was the main reason. We’d previously worked together seven or eight years ago and I really wanted to work with him again. He paged me the story of these four high school teachers whose lives have come to a standstill and who try to recharge their batteries through drinking a little but only while they’re working. That sounded fun and great so I said yes right away!”
Speaking about how he got into a role in which he had to play someone who was frequently intoxicated, Mikkelsen said, “We did a boot camp before we started shooting. We tested out all the exact levels [of alcohol/blood levels]. We tried out 0.5 percent, 0.8, 0.1. We tested out some of the scenes and we filmed the whole thing and we had a great time. When you’re sat with four guys and you have a few shots, it doesn’t seem that odd. But then when you see the video the next day, it gives you away.”
Adarsh Gourav continued the discussion of what it takes to get into a role and that he wanted to take on low-income jobs to see what it was really like for the Indian working class.
“The idea was just to have a very undiluted experience where people would confide in me and tell me about their personal stories; something that I could use for Balram. The way they thought about the world and the way they spoke about people from the cities.”
“One of the first things that I really wanted to do was to drive for somebody, to really understand what that feels like. But who would hire me? Who would hire anyone who has no prior driving experience,” stated Gourav. “I asked myself what else can I do?”
The actor described moving away to the Indian countryside and living in a small village for a while to get into the sensibilities of his character, Balram.
In ‘The Mauritanian’, Tahir Rahim takes on the role of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a real Mauritanian man who was detained in Guantanamo Bay for fourteen years without charge. When asked about what it took to play a real person, Rahim answered, “When I have to portray a real-life person, I like to meet them and spend time with them. The responsibility, especially with Mohamedou, was very important to me. We’re dealing with a real person who has been through hell for fourteen years in Guantanamo without a single charge against him. So, the first audience member that I wanted to please was Mohamedou.”
Rahim continued that he struggled to get involved in the mentality of a person who had been through so much hardship.
“I tried to find [the hardship] in my own head. As an actor, you can use your life experience. But this time, it was just not possible. How could I know what it is to be tortured and mistreated this way,” stated the actor.
“I had to find another way. So, out of respect to Mohamedou and the people who are still living this, I needed to get as close as possible to his actual condition so I could convey authenticity. I asked them to turn the cells as cold as possible, I wore real shackles. I got waterboarded.”
The actors went on to speak about their fellow nominee, Chadwick Boseman. Boseman is currently nominated for his performance in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ but sadly passed away in August 2020.
“I think it’s a beautiful thing to see how Chadwick’s work is being celebrated,” stated Ahmed. “I think he’s someone who came to global attention relatively recently and it feels really clear that the choices that he made were something beyond cinema. I think he’s made choices in portraying characters that stretch culture.”
“He played so many different roles and as an actor that’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to find truth and explore different characters and he was doing it so well,” continued Rahim. “His last performance was amazing and it touched me very deeply. Knowing what he was going through makes it even more admirable.”
BAFTA Sessions are continuing to produce more Q&A sessions that are free to attend by members of the public. You can check out their events here. The full session is available to watch below.
