ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese spoke with Hamlet star Riz Ahmed about his and Aneil Karia’s bold new take on the Shakespeare play. The Oscar winner spoke about people misunderstanding the “to be or not to be” speech, wanting it to be approachable, and more. Vertical will release Hamlet in theaters on April 10, 2026.
“Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is reimagined in a bold, modern adaptation set within London’s elite South Asian community. When Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) returns for his father’s funeral, he is stunned to discover his uncle Claudius is marrying his newly widowed mother. Visited by his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns his brutal murder was at the hands of Claudius – and spirals into a quest for vengeance that exposes the rot at the heart of the family’s empire and threatens his own sanity,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Riz, congrats on Hamlet. This film is interesting. It’s set in the modern day, but you’re still using Shakespearean English. What I thought was interesting about the dialogue scenes is that there’s a rhythm to it. It’s almost a rap, kind of like the short film that you did with Aneil previously. Can you speak to your approach to the dialogue scenes? Because it’s so interesting to see that interplay between actors.
Riz Ahmed: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people feel like Shakespeare isn’t for them. They find it hard to understand. They don’t catch all of it. I agree, and that’s because often we, as in school, we’re made to sit down and read it. Actually, what it’s supposed to be is performed in the same way that you don’t gonna read the lyrics from your favorite rapper or singer. You’re supposed to listen to it as music.
Aneil Karia, as you said, he has a background in directing rap music videos. We did a rap music video together that we won an Oscar for, and he is a master at taking things that feel raw and things that feel poetic and smashing them together. So, our approach to these dialogue scenes is it has to feel raw, it has to feel emotional, and we have to move people with the feeling rather than confuse people with the cleverness of it, if that makes sense.
Tyler Treese: There’s such a great history of Hamlet on film from Laurence Olivier to Kenneth Branagh and Ethan Hawke. A lot of incredible actors have given their mark on this role. Now you get to add yourself to the list. What does it mean for you to be adding to that legacy and adding a different dimension than we’ve previously seen?
Riz Ahmed: Yeah, we haven’t had a major English language adaptation of Hamlet for 25 years now, since Ethan Hawke’s. It felt like it’s time for and now because Hamlet, as a story, is dealing with a very timely theme for us. It’s dealing with a character who’s grieving the illusion that the world was a fair place, and we all feel like that. We’re all waking up going, “Man, has the world gone crazy, or have I?” That’s how Hamlet feels. That’s how we feel. So that’s why it felt important to have another interpretation of it now.
In terms of adding another dimension to it, it just always felt to me that this is a story that belongs to the world and drawn from a myth that goes beyond any cultural barriers. You know, Shakespeare didn’t make up the story of Hamlet. He’s drawn it from a really ancient myth from time immemorial. So, I wanted to create a version of this that breaks out of the box that it’s usually put in. It’s not this specifically British museum artifact, it’s this urgent, global contemporary question and feeling at the heart of it. So, I always felt that we would add a fresh dimension by leaning into the specificity of who me and Aneil are and setting it in our community.
Yeah, this is definitely a fresh one. I think it’s the first Hamlet to have the prince do cocaine in a nightclub as well. So, that’s a feather in your cap as well.
Well, hopefully it’s also the first time that people, for many people, the feedback I’m getting, who don’t normally respond to Shakespeare, really understand it and can really relate to it, and it feels real. Particularly with “to be or not to be.” I feel that’s a speech that’s been generally misunderstood. So, we wanted to kind of say, actually, this isn’t a naval gazing speech. This is not a speech about someone thinking about suicide. It’s about someone asking, “Do we have the courage to fight back?” So, we are trying to really do something different with it that honors the DNA of the play.
Thanks to Riz Ahmed for taking the time to talk about Hamlet.
