Riz Ahmed says UK spies tried to recruit him on three occasions

Riz Ahmed said Britain’s intelligence services tried to recruit him three separate times. He described one incident after returning from his film The Road to Guantanamo, when he was taken into a side room at Luton airport, put in an arm lock, threatened with harm, and had his phone taken while the interrogators pretended to break it. He said the phone language was accidentally changed to Danish and that he was asked whether he became an actor to further the Muslim struggle. He said he declined further involvement. He also described a second attempt via a family friend and a third attempt involving a senior BBC figure who had recently left the organization.

"Well, it's happened three different times and they're all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it's just like inherently comedic. One was when I came back from my first film, The Road to Guantanamo, we landed at Luton airport celebrating. They took me into a side room, put me in an arm lock, threatened to break my arm, took my phone, were pretending to bash the buttons, accidentally changed the language to Danish, and then kind of like, were like: Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?' I was like: This is hilarious.' And then when I finished that, they were like: OK. Would you like to keep an eye out for us, cause it was really great the way you were answering those questions?' No thank you."

"Second time was through a family friend, that was a bit like: Oh, sugar. That's what's going on there.' And the third time was someone senior, high up at the BBC. Ahmed added that they were someone who's just left the BBC, but did not name the individual."

"Hasan asked how people could be sure that Ahmed had not accepted any offers to work for the security services, to which the actor joked that it would make a sick biopic if I was actually a fed."

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