If you are an actor, winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of success and an Oscar nod is more than enough to prove that you have found your true métier. However, not in desi families!
British Pakistani star Riz Ahmed recently went through the same experience; while he was ecstatic to find out his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, for his role in Sound Of Metal, his cousins’ reaction on his monumental achievement was rather lukewarm (to say the least).
Read: British Pakistani star Riz Ahmed becomes first Muslim to receive Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’
One week after Ahmed’s role as a hearing-impaired drummer earned the him his first Oscar nod, and marked the first time a Muslim star scored recognition in the said category, the 38-year-old shared a comical exchange he had with his cousins over the news.
“My cousin Adnan legit didn’t know what the Oscars were,” Ahmed tweeted on Tuesday. “[He said] ‘Why all the gas? I won best client engagement award for the financial quarter.'”
Another cousin confirmed that the nomination wasn’t cause for celebration: “‘[He told me] ‘Na, it’s not as big as that, cos he didn’t win anything. It’s more like getting an email from your boss.’ Thanks, boss.”
My cousin Adnan legit didn’t know what the Oscars were. “Why all the gas? I won best client engagement award for the financial quarter”. Other cousin steps in “Na it’s not as big as that, cos he didn’t win anything. It’s more like getting an email from your boss.” Thanks, boss.
— Riz Ahmed (@rizwanahmed) March 23, 2021
Ahmed is up against two other British stars, Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman, for The Father and Mank respectively, and another Asian actor Steven Yeun, for Minari, as well as the late Chadwick Boseman for his portrayal of an ambitious trumpeter in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
