Ambika Mod on Musicals, Hollywood blockbusters and absurd comedies
- PhotographerRankin
- WriterDevinder Bains
“The Kim-K thing is the highlight for me, that she posted about the show on her [Instagram] Stories,” the actor Ambika Mod, 28, says with a laugh, walking me through her “top celebrity social media moments” following the titanic success of the Netflix series One Day, in which she plays the lead Emma Morley. “That’s been the absolute highlight, and she’s watched the whole thing, because she mentioned the last episode, although she called the show ‘kind of slow’ – all right, Kim!”
In fairness to the most famous woman on the planet, Kardashian did tell her 363 million Instagram followers that the series “was worth sticking with”. Mod, who has a very healthy 456,000 followers of her own on the platform, has more: “Rosalia followed me, who has, like, 30 million followers, that was huge,” she says. “But I also just worry that they’re gonna follow me and I’ll post one thing and they’ll see how lame I am and then unfollow me. That is my constant fear!” The truth is Mod is not lame at all. She’s very funny on social media, she’s very funny on screen, she’s very funny during our Zoom call… she’s very funny full stop.
And it’s no surprise: Mod is obsessed with comedy. She grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, on a TV diet of Bollywood movies and “Friends, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, the American Office and How I Met Your Mother.” While studying English at Durham, she joined the university’s comedy group, the Durham Revue, which she ended up running in her final year. But she admits that she saw the comedy as a gateway to acting. “I always wanted to be an actor, since I was really little. I kind of thought the only way to become an actor was to go to drama school, but I was like, ‘I’m not going to get into drama school because I’m not the RADA or LAMDA type,’” she says candidly.
“I think when you’re a teenager and you don’t have any connections, you don’t know anyone who works in the industry and you have absolutely no point of reference at all… It just felt like there was obstacle after obstacle.” So Mod turned her attention to comedy.
After completing her degree, she moved to London and started working day jobs at John Lewis and as a PA at a magazine publishing company, as well as doing stand-up in the evenings as part of a duo. She signed with an acting agent, began picking up the odd small role, and then came her “big break”, playing the junior doctor Shruti Acharya in the Bafta-winning BBC series This Is Going to Hurt. Set in a London labour ward, like One Day the story is based on a bestselling book, this time former doctor Adam Kay’s memoir This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor, with the lead role of Adam played by Ben Whishaw. Despite being a novice at the time, Mod delivers a phenomenal performance, in what is not an easy role to play, with her character navigating mental health issues and the daily struggles faced by overworked NHS staff. Critical acclaim and accolades followed, with Mod picking up the Royal Television Society award for best supporting actress and the Broadcast Press Guild award for best actress, as well as a Bafta Breakthrough nod.
Then, after a small part in the second series of Sky’s I Hate Suzie alongside Billie Piper, came Mod’s “really big break”: playing the grounded but sarcastic northerner Emma in the story of One Day’s star-crossed friends- cum-lovers, based on the 2009 global bestselling novel by David Nicholls, which Mod first read, and loved, aged 13. She loved it so much she wasn’t sure she could do the lead role justice and initially turned down the audition, but then “came to her senses”. It’s a story that has struck a chord with fans for over a decade, and the 2011 film version, starring Anne Hathaway as Emma, was largely panned by lovers of the book and critics alike, so this was a risky role for Mod. She hasn’t disappointed, and her sterling performance and comedic timing have been received with the warmest embrace from viewers and industry insiders, in a way that’s not often seen with a relative newcomer.
This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 31: The Dreamers. Full story is available in stores worldwide now.
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