One Day made Ambika Mod an overnight star — and she hasn’t stopped working since. She talks about her ‘relentless’ ambition and having Emma Thompson as a mentor
Mod has been keeping busy since One Day with roles in Steven Soderbergh’s propulsive spy flick Black Bag and the Disney+ kidnapping whodunnit series The Stolen Girl. When we meet, she’s waiting to start rehearsals in London for Every Brilliant Thing, a one-person play at @sohoplace, in which she plays a daughter attempting to cheer up her suicidally depressed mother. Then it’s straight on to Porn Play, a new Sophia Chetin-Leuner drama at the Royal Court, in which she will star as an academic secretly addicted to porn. “For a little while I was trying to decide between them,” Mod says, laughing. “I was like, f*** it, I just want to do both.”…
She describes Every Brilliant Thing as a theatre-meets-stand-up hybrid, heavy on audience interaction. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Lenny Henry and Sue Perkins, who are also comedians, are the other people doing it.” (Jonny Donahoe and Minnie Driver are also members of the rotating cast.) Porn Play, on the other hand, is a Serious Drama. Mod is already throwing herself into research for the role, with podcasts and books fired up on her smartphone and bookshelf. “It’s something that you know deserves care, attention to detail and sensitivity in its portrayal, especially if it’s an addiction that we’re not used to seeing.”…