Ambika Mod has taken on one of the most sought-after roles any aspiring actress could dream of. And while she has won rave reviews, the 29-year-old has confessed she originally turned down the role of Emma Morley in the highly-anticipated Netflix series One Day.
Speaking at the premiere at BAFTA Piccadilly last week, Ambika – who made her debut in the BBC's This is Going to Hurt – revealed that she wasn't used to seeing "women who look like me" take on romantic leads.
"When I first got the audition, I turned it down – famously," she said earnestly. "Largely because I just didn't see myself [in that kind of role]. I love the book and I love the character but I just didn't see it happening."
Ambika, whose parents are both Indian, stars opposite The White Lotus actor Leo Woodall in the emotionally-charged drama.
The decades-spanning love story centres around Emma and Dexter Mayhew who, on 15th July 1988, the night of their graduation, speak for the very first time. After an unexpected one-night stand, they go their separate ways.
Addressing the audience, Ambika confessed how she struggled to embody Emma's character when production for the show got underway. "It took time to see myself as a love interest opposite someone like Leo," she continued. "When you're on set, you're just doing a job but some days you just want to get the scene done and go."
Asked whether she felt any pressure to represent those from a diverse community, Ambika said: "I did feel the pressure of what this might mean to young women, and the relevance of Emma especially."
Looking towards author David Nicholls, she continued: "I think it fair to say, she was written as a white woman and I think there's so much of her identity that [for] women like me – who do feel marginalised, who do feel that they're not seen on television, that they're not represented – but there's so much of her that we can relate to."
She added: "The story isn't about a young brown woman and her experience as a young brown woman in London. It's about just her living her life and her relationship with Dexter and her relationship with her friends and her career."
On the casting, David revealed how impressed he was by Leo and Ambika's ability to bring the characters alive in a "funny and heartbreaking" way. "It's been wonderful to see and watch the process of adaptation," he said.
"Also what the performers bring. I loved watching the dancing on the faces, the decisions and the confusion and the moments of pain that aren't in dialogue."
He added: "It was brilliant to go back and write in their voices, and write knowing who would be playing them. With the characters and the actor's voices combined. So that was bliss."
Despite Ambika's concerns, her dedicated work ethic and compelling performance did not go unnoticed by her fellow cast mates, with Jonny Weldon, who plays her boyfriend Ian, exclusively telling HELLO!: "Ambika's wonderful. I was obviously very familiar with her work, like the rest of the country, in This is Going to Hurt. She's just brilliant, heartbreaking.
"We had to have chemistry reads where you go in and read with people that are also auditioning for the role. I've never told her this, and she'd probably dismiss it, but I was internally fangirling!
"I thought she was brilliant and then a total joy to work with. Very lovely, very focused, just a really nice person to work with."