British actor Riz Ahmed has opened up about a severe and prolonged illness he suffered while filming ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, revealing that the health scare profoundly changed his perspective on life and helped him connect emotionally with his later role in ‘Sound of Metal’.
Speaking candidly on the Podcrushed podcast, co-hosted by actor Penn Badgley, the Emmy and Oscar-winning performer described the experience as “super scary and intense”, explaining that his body “just kind of gave up” during the physically demanding ‘Star Wars’ shoot.
“I was extremely exhausted, I was hospitalised for a brief period,” Ahmed said. “I had to really try to recreate my strength. It was like building myself up from scratch… and quite prolonged, actually.”
The illness, which struck suddenly, left Ahmed uncertain about his future. “I wasn’t getting better quickly,” he explained. “For a minute, I was like, ‘Am I ever going to get my life back?’ It really wasn’t clear.”
This period of uncertainty and vulnerability, however, became a turning point for the actor, leading to what he described as a “deep kind of grief and fear and terror, and yet also a kind of tremendous liberation and gratitude and acceptance”.
Reflecting on that time, Ahmed said, “I always think that when you’re brought to your knees, you’re halfway towards praying. When you’re humbled in that way, when something is taken away from you, you become even more acutely aware of everything you have.”
He continued, “On a bodily level, on a health level, you realise, like, you don’t control anything, man. You don’t control a single thing. You don’t even control your body.”
Ahmed shared that during his illness, he experienced a rare sense of peace: “In a moment of trippy clarity and in the darkness, I realised everything you have is a gift. In the most strange way, I never felt more grateful, more at peace, more content than when I felt like I was going to lose my whole life.”
The ordeal eventually deepened his connection to his role in ‘Sound of Metal’ (2019), in which he portrayed a drummer losing his hearing—a performance that earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Actor. He said his own confrontation with loss and acceptance mirrored the emotional arc of the film.