Riz Ahmed claims he was approached to join the secret service 3 times: ‘They took me into a side room, put me in an arm lock...’

Riz Ahmed has played all kinds of roles in his career, including a corporate fixer, a tech millionaire, and even a villain hellbent on using aliens to grow stronger. However, the actor’s real life has been just as surprising and equally thrilling. In a recent interview, the actor opened up about how there had been three attempts to recruit him to become a spy.

Riz Ahmed almost joined the secret services

While talking about his latest project, Relay, Riz Ahmed revealed that there had been three attempts to recruit him into the secret service. Speaking to Mehdi Hasan on his social media platform, the Venom actor shared that even a top executive from a media company was among the people who had tried to recruit him.

He explained, “Well, it’s happened three different times, and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just inherently comedic.” He further revealed that he was even put in a chokehold the first time it happened.

When asked for more details, he said, “One was when I came back from my first film, The Road to Guantánamo. 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 were kind of like: ‘Did you become an actor to further the Muslim struggle?’”

He added that they then asked him if he wanted to keep an eye out for incidents for them, but he refused.

The second time, he said, he was approached by a family friend. The third attempt came through a high-ranking executive from a media company, which left him surprised. Speaking further about it, the actor joked that if he had actually become a federal agent, it would have made for a “sick biopic.”