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  • 5 months ago
What’s it like to live with Riz Ahmed? AD sat down with the 'Relay' star to ask him a series of rapid-fire questions about his daily habits, home routines, and personal rules. From whether shoes are allowed indoors to how often he changes his sheets, Riz reveals all–including his controversial views on pillows.
Transcript
00:00I'm actually full psycho and I don't sleep with a pillow.
00:05Yeah, full vampire situation, just straight on my bike.
00:13Hello AD, I'm Riz Ahmed and today I'm showing you what it is like to live at home with me.
00:21If your home had a personality, how would you describe it?
00:25So I've got to be honest here and say that I'm basically extremely nomadic.
00:31You'd be shocked if you found out how many places I've rented in the last like five years alone.
00:37Yeah, I don't really have one base for most of my adult life.
00:40I've been bouncing around a lot.
00:42So when I do get home and put down roots, I'm sure that'll be nice but also a bit weird for me.
00:47What scent is home to you?
00:49Man, the scent of home to me is my mouth just watered.
00:57It's dal.
00:58It's a really nice dal, the dal darqa, you know, which is when you take the cumin and fry it and you throw that in oil on top of the dal.
01:06It's like lentils basically.
01:08Just curry, just curry in general.
01:10You know, my mom's an amazing cook.
01:12My wife's not a bad cook either.
01:13I think I'm a good cook but everyone tells me I'm crap.
01:16Are you a shoes-on or shoes-off household?
01:22Shoes-off.
01:23Just don't bring that filth in the house, do you know what I mean?
01:25Like, are guests allowed to sit on your bed?
01:28No, of course not.
01:30You're sitting on the subway, you're wearing your jeans.
01:32We don't know what happens on the subway.
01:33Actually, we do know what happens on the subway.
01:35And so bringing that onto the bed, I just think there's a hygiene issue.
01:38There's a hygiene issue.
01:40What's the perfect house temperature?
01:42Who's in charge of the thermostat?
01:44The perfect house temperature is, I'd say, 22.5 degrees centigrade.
01:48I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit.
01:50Maybe we can run the numbers on that for our global audience.
01:53Who's in charge of it?
01:55I am.
01:56Yeah, I'm in charge of the thermostat.
01:58I think my wife, being from California, I think is much more used to air conditioning.
02:03Hasn't quite adjusted to the fact that in the UK it's generally cold.
02:06So you don't need to turn any of that one.
02:08And also save the planet and whatnot.
02:12Throw pillows, yay or nay?
02:14I'm familiar with this as a concept that some people engage in, but I do not.
02:18Even one pillow on the bed is too much for me, to be honest.
02:21And I'll tell you one thing about throw pillows.
02:23You just end up throwing them on the floor.
02:27And then they go back on the bed.
02:29Hygiene.
02:30What is your alarm?
02:33My child.
02:34Wakes me up in the morning, way before I like to be woken up.
02:37What lives on your nightstand?
02:40Something I try and keep by my nightstand is a journal.
02:45Try and just write down some things at the end of every night, just to clear out my head.
02:48Moving on.
02:49Blackout blinds or wake up with sun.
02:52Blackout blinds if I can get them.
02:54One of the best presents someone gave us when we had a kid was a white noise machine.
02:59And now, I can't sleep without a white noise machine because I'm used to my kids sleeping
03:05to the white noise machine.
03:06So I love those things, man.
03:07If you want to make money, upload a YouTube video of white noise.
03:12Uninterrupted, 10 hours.
03:13Billions of times I watch that.
03:15How often do you change the sheets once a week?
03:18Is that right?
03:19That's a normal amount, right?
03:20Suddenly felt very, very vulnerable sharing that.
03:23What's the best thing about your bedroom?
03:24As I said, I move around a lot.
03:27The place I'm in right now, there isn't much to it other than a bed.
03:31A boring answer, but just the bed.
03:35And I just want to keep the bedroom for nothing but just sleeping.
03:41What makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning?
03:45Endless.
03:48Deep.
03:52Exhaustion.
03:54So the bathroom, are you a bath or a shower person?
04:00I'm going to be honest and say, I grew up without a shower.
04:03We would bathe in a bhaaldi, which is an old school Indian thing to do.
04:07You fill up a bucket with water and you have a thing, a little jug called a lota,
04:10and you wash yourself very efficiently.
04:12Toilet seat up or down?
04:15Toilet seat definitely down.
04:16And here's another thing.
04:17When you are flushing, you have to flush with the toilet seat down.
04:21Hygiene.
04:22Again, I realise I'm sounding like a bit of a germaphobe.
04:26Maybe I am.
04:27Do you sing in the shower?
04:29I don't really sing in the shower, but I do talk to myself out loud.
04:32I do have imaginary conversations with myself and imaginary conversations with other people.
04:37I don't know why I do that.
04:38And it's my wife who drew my attention to that habit.
04:41But I stand by it.
04:43Bidet, yay or nay?
04:45I don't have a bidet.
04:46I do respect Japanese toilets.
04:49I was reading an article about how it's become a, you know, it's going global now.
04:52But growing up, we would use Lortas.
04:55If you don't know what a Lorta is, look it up.
04:58If you do know, then you know.
05:00Lorta is the OG B-day.
05:04What do you have the most of in your closet?
05:08Jackets.
05:08Got too many jackets.
05:10You know, it's the thing that you keep on in London as well.
05:12That was the, like, flashiest thing you could get.
05:14New fake Versace jacket from Wembley Market.
05:18What's the most nostalgic item in your closet?
05:21I think the most nostalgic item is a Shirvani that my dad wore.
05:25Shirvani is kind of South Asian formal where it's white raw silk Shirvani that my dad got married in.
05:31And I got married in that same Shirvani.
05:36Coffee or tea?
05:37I never touched caffeine.
05:39After becoming a dad, it's like, okay, I will, I have to have caffeine.
05:43So I've started defaulting to just a classic black tea.
05:47I just take it with nothing else.
05:49Hits the spot.
05:50How long is it okay to leave dirty dishes in the sink?
05:53Well, it depends who you ask.
05:55If you ask my wife, she'll say a week.
05:57If you ask me, I'll say a day.
05:59I think, man, after two days, it's, something's up.
06:04Do you know what I mean?
06:05Like, emotionally, something's up.
06:06And other than running the dishes, you need maybe to speak to a therapist.
06:11Home-cooked meal or takeout?
06:13I love home-cooked meals.
06:16I love it when we do get a chance to cook.
06:19Embarrassing.
06:19I used to just be like, protein powder, avocado, banana, almond butter, a couple of berries, random vegetable.
06:26Put it in a blender.
06:27That's my meal.
06:28And then I met my wife, and she said, this has to stop.
06:33What do you do most in this space?
06:36TV, read, party, nap, board games.
06:41Let me tell you what I would love to do in my living room.
06:44I would love to play games, play mafia.
06:46My dream, like, night is, like, dinner at home, cooked meal, dinner at home with friends,
06:51and then intense mafia session where everyone falls out with each other by the end of it.
06:58Do you have any special mementos from your films slash albums?
07:03You know, the thing I kept from Relay was a jacket.
07:06There's a very nice kind of multicolored leather jacket in the film
07:11that accidentally found its way into my closet.
07:13Do you listen to music throughout the house?
07:15If so, how?
07:17I love having some music on.
07:19In the morning, it really helps me wake up.
07:20And right now, I'm listening to a lot of kind of 1970s Lollywood,
07:24like Pakistani film music from the 70s,
07:27and kind of Bollywood disco from the 80s.
07:29Artists like Asha Bosley, Nahe Dukhtar, Taffo Brothers.
07:34There was just this amazing kind of psychedelic, crazy, neon kitsch.
07:39The office slash studio.
07:40Do you have a home office or music studio?
07:42I don't right now.
07:44I would love to.
07:45I guess less of an office because I don't like the idea of like sitting down.
07:48And I'd like a space where I could just walk around and prepare my work,
07:52put my script on like, print it out in like double size font
07:55and put it on a music stand so I can read it from further away.
07:58And I'd like to move around when I'm preparing my work.
08:01So that would be a dream.
08:03And that's a good idea, AD.
08:05Thank you so much, AD.
08:09Hopefully that's given you a little bit of an insight into my nomadic life.
08:12So if you ever do stop by, you know the rules.
08:15Shoes off.
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