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Ambika Mod is reflecting on how she and her One Day co-star Leo Woodall have been treated differently within the acting industry since the show’s debut.

The two stars played Emma and Dexter in Netflix’s TV adaptation of the classic David Nicholls novel One Day last year.

Since then, Leo, who had already played a supporting role in the second season of The White Lotus when One Day premiered, has starred opposite Renée Zellweger in the fourth Bridget Jones movie, took the lead in Apple TV+’s action series Citadel and currently has three film roles in the works.

Speaking to GQ, Ambika said she feels she’s had less opportunities come her way despite them having equal billing in the hit Netflix series, pointing out that she and Leo “just don’t get treated the same at all”.

“It’s mad because we wouldn’t be going for the same roles at all, and we’re very different people,” she said. “I think we’re going to have very different careers.”

Ambika Mod at the Newport Beach Film Festival earlier this year

Ambika continued: “If I compare myself to someone like Leo, I’m always going to come up short, because there’s a privilege there that I don’t have access to.”

She lamented: “Being brown is not particularly easy in this industry. You don’t get the same opportunities. You don’t get the same ascension.

“I’ve been the lead of two very successful, critically-acclaimed TV shows [One Day and the medical drama This Is Going To Hurt, which aired two years earlier] and I still feel like I have to keep on proving myself. A lot of my white peers don’t really have to tackle that.”

Ambika also acknowledged that “at the same time, I’m so lucky to be here”, describing her situation as a “double-edged sword”, and expressing her hopes that “my being here makes it easier for a girl 10 or 20 years younger than me”.

In January, Ambika made her big-screen debut in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag.

She’ll next be seen in Sacrifice, a new action adventure featuring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek and Charli XCX.

Ambika also appeared in the miniseries The Stolen Girl, which premiered last month and included stars like Holliday Grainger and Jim Burgess, who played Dexter in the original film adaptation of One Day.

Amid all of the conversation about Netflix’s new retelling of One Day, many of us might well be reminiscing about the 2011 film adaptation of the much-loved book.

While this new TV series has received mostly glowing reviews, the 2011 movie was a little more on the divisive side, thanks in no small part to Anne Hathaway’s attempts to speak in a Leeds accent.

And if you’re wondering – yes that meant that Ambika Mod, who plays Emma in this new version of the story, was “absolutely” feeling the pressure when she was getting ready for the role.

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in their version of One Day

Speaking to HuffPost UK ahead of the show’s launch, Ambika admitted she’d previously “never” managed to perfect the Northern accent required for the character.

“If you see my audition tapes, I can’t do the Yorkshire accent,” she revealed. “I couldn’t do it.”

For those who’ve already seen One Day, you’ll know that Ambika did make it in the end, which she credits to the “amazing” dialect coach Natalie Grady.

“We were militant – we met, like, three times a week, hour-and-a-half sessions, we went through every single sound,” she revealed.

“I learned a really, really strong, authentic Leeds accent, and then we pared it down and found an accent that felt really truthful to Emma and where she was in episode one, and then we tapered it from then on.

“But yeah, it took a village, for sure. I definitely didn’t just do it on my own. But I’m very glad that people think it’s OK.”

Ambika also said that once she was cast as Emma, she made the decision not to revisit the film version of One Day, out of concern “it would throw me”.

“Me neither,” her co-star Leo Woodall agreed. “I watched it before the first audition, because I hadn’t read the book. But that was it.”

Before One Day began streaming, Ambika was best known for her performance in the BBC medical comedy-drama This Is Going To Hurt, as well as roles in I Hate Suzie and Trying.

Leo also had a key role in the most recent series of The White Lotus, earning himself and his co-stars a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Performance By An Ensemble In A TV Drama.

One Day is now streaming on Netflix.

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Ambika Mod Highlights Double Standard When Comparing Her Career To One Day Co-Star Leo Woodall’s

Ambika Mod Reveals How The Reaction To Anne Hathaway’s One Day Accent Affected Her Own Performance