‘The Night Of’ Star Riz Ahmed Recounts Being ‘Typecast as a Terrorist’
“The Night Of” star Riz Ahmed penned a letter for The Guardian in which he discusses his experiences being “typecast as a terrorist” at airport security.
“The next time I found myself as helplessly cornered, it was in a windowless room at Luton airport,” he wrote.
The cast was euphoric, but as soon as they got to the Luton airport, the dynamic changed as British intelligence officers insulted, threatened and attacked the actor.
Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle? an officer allegedly screamed at Ahmed while twisting his arm.
Hearing about American society and its reputation as a “racial melting-pot,” he headed to the U.S., but he says he faced the same troubles he had in England.
“It was a reminder: you are a type, whose face says things before your mouth opens; you are a signifier before you are a person; you are back at stage one,” Ahmed wrote.
“Twice when applying for a U.S. work visa I was subjected to a Section 221G — a lengthy background check against a global database of terrorists — which almost lost me the jobs,” he added.