Riz Ahmed has revealed that his role in Marvel spin-off Venom made him realise that he did not yet have a “skill set” for blockbusters.
Ahmed, who received an Oscar nomination this year for his role in Sound Of Metal, played villain Carlton Drake in the film opposite Tom Hardy.
“I’m not saying I don’t like those big movies. I’m saying I had not learned yet how to bring myself to those movies,” told Variety.
He continued: “Those films teach you stamina, technical craft, and it is a skill to be able to eke out your artistry in that setting.
“Look at Javier Bardem in Skyfall. I just hadn’t developed the skill set at that point to do the technical thing and the emotional thing.”
Ahmed now wants to shift his priorities in acting more towards finding himself.
“More recently what I’ve thought about it is taking masks off,” he said. “Of course, if you believe on some deep internal level that you aren’t the right type — the right colour, shape, size, accent — then you will start instinctively wearing masks.
“So it’s been a shift in self-perception for me to say, ‘You know what? I am enough. We are all enough.’”
The sequel to Venom, Let There Be Carnage hit cinemas this month. In its two-star review, NME called the film “another sparky Tom Hardy performance trapped in a by-the-numbers comic book movie.”
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