Riz Ahmed said he had two minutes to prepare two of his favourite lines from Four Lions
Riz Ahmed revealed he had just two minutes to prepare two of his favourite lines from Four Lions.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade - you'll be more than familiar with the hilarious antics of Omar, Waj, Barry and Faisal in the hit 2010 satire film.
For those who somehow don't know, the flick follows the four men from Sheffield - later joined by a reluctant Hassan - as they hatch an ill-fated plot to become suicide bombers ended in a dramatic stand-off in a kebab shop during the London Marathon.
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The low-budget movie stars Oscar-nominated Ahmed (who plays Omar) as well as his cousin Waj (Kayvan Novak) alongside a bad-tempered convert, Barry (Nigel Lindsay) and the incredibly naïve yet nonetheless hysterical Faisal (Adeel Akhtar).
However, it seems some of the most iconic lines from the cult classic British comedy were prepared at a lightning-quick speed.
Two of the lines from one of the most famous scenes from the film, which sees the incompetent terrorist Faisal accidentally blowing himself up as Omar and the rest attempt to collect his remains, were prepared in just two minutes.
In the scene, the Sound of Metal star asks the crew: "So what is he lads? Is he a martyr or is he a f***ing jalfrezi?"
Speaking to NME back in December 2021, Ahmed revealed: "I cannot tell you how much of Four Lions film footage is just us cracking up on camera.
"Like they need to an outtakes...there needs to be a DVD extra-special, like, 15-year anniversary edition that's just all the footage of us cracking up."
I'd definitely pay to see that.
Speaking about the particular scene, he continued: "What’s interesting behind this whole sequence is: we shot, obviously, the Faisal blowing himself up by mistake scene and we weren’t meant to do that next sequence where I come in and start shouting at everyone [...] for another week.
"And then on the day, as it sometimes is with low-budget filmmaking, it was: 'Right, things have moved around. We might lose next week’s location so we have to do that scene now. Could you just get ready in two minutes?'"
Ahmed explained that the haste of filming 'can sometimes really help', adding: "You don’t have the chance to overthink it."
He carried on: "So what you actually had was something quite frenetic because we’re all like: 'Can we get this scene right? Can we do it'.
"And it ends up infusing the scene with that kind of intense energy."
The actor added the pace of the sequence 'meant the adrenaline kind of carried us through'.
That explains the sheer chaos of it, then.
Ahmed then opened up about some of his 'favourite lines' namely: "Jump off the tree and blow up the internet arse-first," and "Is he a martyr or a jalfrezi?"
He added: "It’s just got killer line after killer line.
"But at the time you’re just trying to get through the scene and you watch it back and you’re like: 'How did we keep a straight face?' and then you remember: 'Oh yeah, we didn’t for nine takes out of 10'."
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film
Rhiannon Ingle