Riz Ahmed is chasing acceptance in 'Bait'

This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. A struggling British Pakistani actor lands the audition of a lifetime as James Bond. Word gets out and the internet goes wild, and suddenly his life starts to resemble the very character he's auditioning to play. He's in a chase sequence, except he's not chasing a villain.

He's chasing acceptance. That's the setup for Bait, a new prime video series that is part spy thriller, part family comedy, part psychological unraveling, and entirely unlike anything else on television right now. My guest, Riz Ahmed, wrote, created it, produced it, and stars as the lead character Shah Latif. Bate opens with Shah in a tuxedo doing a James Bond screen test. He's debonair, commanding, in control, James Bond personified.

And then he forgets his lines. Tell me. When it's just you, all alone, how do you live with yourself? Do you even know who you are? Line?

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