‘I didn’t see myself as a romantic lead,’ says One Day’s Ambika Mod

Fronted by Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall, One Day on Netflix has turned out to be an instant fan favorite. While fans are waiting for the makers to announce the second season, do you know that Mod had initially turned down the part in the show?

Yes, the 29-year-old has shared that due to a lack of representation of non-white people, she never believed she could ever land the role of a romantic lead.

“I know that growing up I did not see myself on screen and that was a massive part of me not seeing myself in certain rooms or not thinking I deserve certain things. I think there was definitely an element of when I turned down the tape for One Day, was because I just didn’t see myself as a romantic lead,” she told a publication.

She further added, “It took a lot of convincing, well into the shoot, like self-convincing that I was right for the part and I deserved to be there and a character like that would fall in love with a character like Emma as played by me.”

Mod said that the show has done a lot for her personally and now she hopes that her performance and the show make other women feel seen.

“It’s done a lot for me personally,” she says of her role. “I hope it can do the same for other young women,” she said.

One Day is an adaptation of David Nicholls’ book of the same name, published in 2009.