The team behind Prime Video’s limited series “Bait” — which follows a British-Pakistani actor as he auditions for the role of James Bond and faces backlash from the public and his family —came together for a panel discussion at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles to offer audiences a look into the creation of the show.
Star Riz Ahmed was joined by co-showrunner Ben Carlin, producer Allie Moore, director Bassam Tariq, and music supervisor Kira Elwis for a conversation moderated by film director Daniel Kwan.
Ahmed explained that the original concept for the show was not about James Bond, but the inspiration came to him after starring in “Rogue One” and “The Night Of.”
Ahmed said he experienced a disconnect between the way people perceived him and his everyday reality, saying while people imagined him “on a yacht with Han Solo,” he was actually “walking around in flip-flops and cycle shorts” and joked about getting “banned from Tescos for being a suspected shoplifter the same week ‘Star Wars’ comes out.”
Said Ahmed: “Somebody told me that distance is the amount of shame that you carry. I thought, ‘yeah, that’s true. I need to get therapy or make a TV show about it.’”
