Back in April, Star Wars: Rogue One Riz Ahmed was slated to make an appearance at the Annual Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. However, in the midst of the event on April 12th, the event’s social media vaguely announced that Ahmed was unable to make it.
“We’re so sorry to announce that due to circumstances beyond his control, Riz Ahmed will be canceling his full appearance,” Star Wars Celebration said simply. “Attendees can use their current Riz Ahmed tickets to exchange at the Topps Help Desk throughout the weekend.”
Well, this week while at the CAA Amplify conference, Ahmed revealed that he was unable to make that event due to being stopped at the airport by Homeland Security. At the conference, Ahmed used part of his time to speak to the unfortunate event.
“[Hassan Minhaj] can win a Peabody, I can win an Emmy, Ibtihaj Muhammad can go to the Olympics, but some of these obstacles are systemic and we can’t really face them alone, we need your help,” Ahmed said. “I’m basically here to ask for your help, because it’s really scary to be a Muslim right now, super scary. I’ve often wondered, is this going to be the year when they round us up, if this is going to be the year they put Trump’s registry into action. If this is going to be the year they ship us all off.”
Ahmed, an English-born actor of Pakistani descent is one of the most celebrated in his field over the last few years. He won an Emmy for his incredible performance in HBO’s miniseries, The Night Of and delighted fans in both Star Wars: Rogue One and last year’s Venom. He is set to appear next in Mughal Mowgli.
