Photographed by David Needleman
by Tatiana Siegel
January 19, 2021, 6:00am PST
With his buzzy performance in Sound of Metal which required him to learn sign language and drumming plus a new wife and a booming company, the soft-spoken actor and rapper is having his loudest year yet.
Back in summer 2018, Riz Ahmed was preparing for a classroom scene for his latest film,
Sound of Metal, and his American Sign Language coach, Jeremy Lee Stone, was becoming increasingly annoyed. Stone had worked with the actor for the better part of a year, teaching him ASL for the role of Ruben, a rock drummer whose life begins to spiral out of control when he loses his hearing. This, however, was his first day on the Massachusetts set, and he hadn t seen his star pupil in months. Stone made a voices off sign, and Ahmed was expected to reciprocate with an identical sign. But Ahmed sat defiantly, refusing to sign, and it boiled my blood, Stone recalls. After all, the actor was well beyon
Photographed by David Needleman
by Tatiana Siegel
January 19, 2021, 6:00am PST
With his buzzy performance in Sound of Metal which required him to learn sign language and drumming plus a new wife and a booming company, the soft-spoken actor and rapper is having his loudest year yet.
Back in summer 2018, Riz Ahmed was preparing for a classroom scene for his latest film,
Sound of Metal, and his American Sign Language coach, Jeremy Lee Stone, was becoming increasingly annoyed. Stone had worked with the actor for the better part of a year, teaching him ASL for the role of Ruben, a rock drummer whose life begins to spiral out of control when he loses his hearing. This, however, was his first day on the Massachusetts set, and he hadn t seen his star pupil in months. Stone made a voices off sign, and Ahmed was expected to reciprocate with an identical sign. But Ahmed sat defiantly, refusing to sign, and it boiled my blood, Stone recalls. After all, the actor was well beyon
Getty Images for Hollywood Foreign Press Association; Courtesy of Dani Potter
AMC veteran Allie Moore is joining the actor s Left Handed Films as senior vp, head of television to oversee the company s production and development.
Riz Ahmed s Left Handed Films has signed a first-look TV production deal with Amazon Studios.
The move comes as Ahmed is enjoying rave reviews for his starring role in the Amazon film
Sound of Metal.
to oversee the company s production and development alongside Ahmed.
Left Handed has several projects on the horizon including
Mogul Mowgli, a film co-written, starring and produced by Ahmed that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Fipresci International Critics’ Prize and is currently nominated for six BIFA Awards including best screenplay, best actor, best music, best debut screenwriter, best cinematography and best sound. Strand will release the drama in the U.S. this year. Further out is an adaptation of
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 - 3:00pm
Launched in 2020, the Contemporary Fiction Discussion Group (CFDG) enjoys lively and thought-provoking conversations about celebrated novels by prize-winning international authors. The group currently meets via Zoom, on the third Wednesday of each month, at 3 p.m., and welcomes new members.
The first meeting of 2021 is set for January 20 and the Library invites interested readers to contact: pking@ rocklandmaine.gov for more information.
Maureen Anne Jennings facilitates the CFDG. Jennings is an author and editor who lives in Rockland. Her fiction includes
Bartender Wanted and
The early 2021 schedule launches with
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett on January 20;