Riz Ahmed Wouldn't Stop Auditioning For Rogue One, Even After He Got The Part

Now that's commitment. A new featurette on the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story DVD reveals that Riz Ahmed sent in many, many tapes to audition for Bodhi Rook–even after he got the part.

"I loved Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler and as we were looking for a character for Bodhi Rook, I made sure to throw his name in the hat," said co-producer John Swartz. Ahmed, who was in New York, began sending taped auditions to director Gareth Edwards, with Swartz saying that he just "kept cranking out different versions of Bodhi."

"Then I started kind of... the obsession starts when you start sending, like doing 50,000 takes of something when left to your own devices," said Ahmed. You can watch some of his many, many takes in the video above if you want to picture how different Bodhi could have been. Edwards said that even after he offered Ahmed the part, he still kept getting clips in huge batches.

"I just carried on recording more takes and just e-mailing him," said Ahmed. "I was like, 'Screw it, I've got his email address now'... I was like, 'I've kind of totally screwed this up, I'm like spamming the director.'"

Of course, since Bodhi turned out to be nearly an entirely different character from the original one written, it's actually probably a good thing Ahmed showed off his varied acting skills to Edwards.

It all worked out t in the end for Ahmed, who got his introduction (and exit) from the Star Wars universe in the anthology flick, which was recently released on DVD and Blu-Ray. If you are a fan of the movie, check out some moments only true fans will understand, some minor characters who have more meaning than you realize, and some easter eggs that may have slipped right by you.