Powerhouse cast talks Amazon Original thriller 'Encounter'

Amazon Original thriller 'Encounter' features powerhouse cast

The movie 'Encounter' stars Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Riz Ahmed as a Marine Corps veteran on the run with his two young sons. It’s a role the actor says he was determined to play.

What begins as a sci-fi thriller quickly becomes something else in the Amazon Original film "Encounter."

The new release stars Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Riz Ahmed as a Marine Corps veteran on the run with his two young sons. It’s a role the actor says he was determined to play.

"I saw Michael Pearce’s film ‘Beast,’ loved that, asked what he was doing next, got hold of the script, and started just campaigning for the role, really," says Ahmed. "Calling him up, texting him, emailing him, getting friends to call him. Because, he had a different kind of direction in mind for this role, for this character. His name was ‘Marcus,’ and I pitched him the idea that it should be named ‘Malik Khan’ and someone like me should play him."

Director and co-writer Michael Pearce says casting Ahmed was an easy decision. Not so easy? Making a movie during a pandemic.

"We didn’t know whether we were going to get shut down," Pearce says. "We knew of other film projects; people becoming infected and were getting shut down. And, of course, it’s just a big concern around people’s safety and health, and we were just trying to do everything we could to make sure that our project stayed on-track."

For Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, who plays a caring parole officer, "Encounter" was the first time back on a film set in months.

"It was tough, you know? Having been in your house for seven months, being terrified of germs, I could totally relate to Malik and his paranoia. But they made everything feel so safe, and they took really good care of us so that we could actually, you know, have fun while we were working to bring this project to fruition," says Spencer.

"Encounter" also stars Lucian-River Chauhan and Aditya Geddada as Ahmed’s sons. The film is playing now in select theatres and is available to stream on Amazon Prime starting Friday, Dec. 10.

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