Oscar-nominated actor Riz Ahmed has revealed that he was banned from a London branch of Tesco after the supermarket suspected him of shoplifting.
The 43-year-old, who will next star in Prime Video comedy Bait, said the incident occurred shortly after starring in 2018 superhero film Venom with Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams.
Ahmed’s role in Venom made him even more of an international name, with the actor having previously starred in Bafta-nominated black comedy Nightcrawler and Star Wars film Rogue One.
After starring in Venom, he took a trip to the Old Kent Road branch of the supermarket chain, but the visit turned awry when security guards accused him of stealing something.
“They thought I was shoplifting,” he told GQ on Wednesday (18 March). “My washing machine was broken, so I had one of those massive laundry bags full of all my laundry, and the only clothes I had were insane – I had [on] this bright green puffer and pink f***ing swim shorts or something.”
He said that he’d popped to the shop to buy a frozen pizza for his brother’s birthday – but was stopped after the security scanners began beeping on his way out.
“They banned me,” he said, adding that, at the same time, people were congratulating him on his Venom success. “The texts are coming in: ‘Bro, you’re smashing it.’” The Independent has contacted Tesco for comment.
He said that it was this experience – and others where there is a disjunction between how someone is perceived by the public, and what’s actually happening in their life – that inspired Bait.
Ahmed also spoke about alarming Queen Elizabeth II’s security team after trying to fist-bump the royal, and a time when he practiced spoken-word rap to someone on a train, who he later discovered was an immigration enforcement officer.
“We’re constantly fish out of water,” he added. “We’re constantly living the lie, when the perception looks a certain way. I thought, Just to make sense of this, I gotta write this stuff.”
Bait follows struggling actor Shah Latif – played by Ahmed – whose life is upended after the media finds out that he’s auditioned to be the next James Bond. Guz Khan, Ritu Arya and Sheeba Chaddha also star in the series.
Ahmed began his acting career in 2006, landing a role in Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantanamo. He later appeared in satire Four Lions and BBC drama The Fades before landing a breakout role in Nightcrawler.
He’s since starred in HBO drama The Night Of, Netflix’s The OA and drama Sound of Metal – which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He won the award for Best Live Action Short Film the following year for The Long Goodbye, which accompanied his 2020 hip hop album of the same name.
Ahmed is set to be one of the first hosts on Saturday Night Live UK next month, presenting the show on 4 April alongside musical guest Kasabian.
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