She shattered our hearts as a junior doctor in This is Going to Hurt. Now, the Bafta Breakout winner is about to do it all again with a starring role in Netflix’s adaptation of the beloved novel One Day
ASK AMBIKA MOD ABOUT PLAYING THE lead in One Day, Netflix’s new adaptation of David Nicholls’ 2009 bestseller, and she’ll tell you it’s a ‘dream come true’. Not only is it one of the season’s most anticipated new shows, but it’s also based on her all-time favourite novel. Mod was 13 when she first picked up a copy of the book. ‘Everyone at school was reading it. Iremember seeing that orange-and-white cover all over public transport – it was everywhere.’
With that in mind, you’d think that when she was approached about the series, it would be a no-brainer. Wrong: ‘I said no,’ Mod tells me, explaining how she continously turned down her agents’ pleas with a matter-of-fact air. ‘I loved the book so much, I think I was scared. This is Going to Hurt had just come out, and it was a lot. I was overwhelmed.’
What happened next? ‘This is not an exaggeration,’ says Mod. ‘A month later, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, “I’ve made a terrible mistake!”’ The next day, she called her agent and begged for an audition. Thankfully, the rest is history.
Like the book – and somewhat mediocre 2011 film adaptation – the TV series follows the evolving relationship between
Dexter Mayhew (played by The White Lotus’ Leo Woodall) and Emma Morley, two graduates who meet on their last night at Edinburgh University and stumble into adulthood together. ‘It’s a story about love, friendship, growing up, and all the mess that comes with it’.
There’s another reason Mod felt the pressure to perform. Anne Hathaway played Emma Morley in the film and, though it’s not stated in the book, the character is assumed to be white. Mod, who is British-Indian, knew her casting would mean something to Brown women, this writer included. ‘Even if I wasn’t playing a character originally written as white, when very few people in certain positions look like you, you do feel that sense of responsibility. It shouldn’t be the case; white, male actors aren’t going around thinking that.’
Her path to Emma Morley may have been a complicated one, but Mod’s performance is spellbinding. From a bright-eyed graduate to a burnt-out thirtysomething, she nails everything that made the character so relatable: her strong will and her fleeting moments of social anxiety, masked by a wonderfully acerbic wit. It’s these qualities in its female protagonist that allowed On
