Eight years ago, Riz Ahmed found his Bond song. Or rather, it found him. This was a time, remember, when the 007 rumour mill was in constant motion, each news cycle conjuring a new successor to Daniel Craig. Ahmed, according to the headlines, was firmly in the race. A decade into his career, the actor had already earned his blockbuster stripes in Jason Bourne, Rogue One and the soon-to-be-released Venom, and banked prestige kudos with an Emmy win for crime drama The Night Of. Enough star power for bookies to start calculating his odds. In September 2018, his face was plastered across the cover of GQ with the headline: “The first brown Bond?”
At about the same time, singer Jorja Smith’s manager gave him a call. “He said, ‘Listen, mate, when you get to play Bond, I’ve got the perfect song,” says Ahmed, fizzing with energy. But make no mistake: this excitement isn’t about his Bond potential. Much more thrilling to the actor is where the track eventually ended up. Kept under lock and key for nearly a decade, Smith’s new single, Price Of It All, has just made its debut on Ahmed’s new TV show Bait, which he created, co-wrote and stars in.
