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 this season’s most anticipated shows, the original is her all-time favourite book. Mod was 13 when she first picked up a copy of One Day. ‘Everyone at school was reading it, I remember seeing that orange and white cover all over public transport – it was everywhere.’
With that in mind, you’d think when she was approached about the series, it would be a no-brainer, right? Wrong. ‘I said no’. Mod is matter-of-fact, but even over Zoom, her doe-eyes are still piercing as she explains how she continually turned down her agents' pleas. ‘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.’
I ask 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 before it – the TV series follows the evolving relationship between Dexter Mahew (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. 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, a 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 thirty-something, she nails everything that made the character so relatable: her strong will, her fleeting moments of social anxiety masked by a wonderfully acerbic wit. It’s these qualities in its protagonist that allowed One Day to swerve mawkish love story territory and end up in the pantheon of romcoms. ‘Emma is really funny’ says Mod. ‘That’s one of her defining characteristics. We often use humour to undercut moments of sentimentality: that felt very natural to me.’
It was comedy that led Mod to acting in the first place. A childhood love of Noughties sitcoms evolved to an adolescence spent at open mic nights in Potters Bar, where she grew up. ‘I was 18 the first time I performed live. I remember thinking, this is it, I’ve found the best feeling in the world.’
At university, she joined prestigious sketch comedy group, the Durham Revue. ‘After I graduated, I was gigging and writing and doing all of these auditions for small parts and not really getting anywhere’. Then ‘out of nowhere’, came the One Day audition. ‘It was a heavy part but her sense of humour resonated with me so much. I thought.. this is mine.’
Landing the role in the BBC adaptation of Adam Kay’s memoir changed Mod’s life. Filmed during the Covid-19 pandemic, she played Shruti, a junior doctor under the tutelage of Ben Wishaw’s consultant. It’s a brutal look at the sisyphean pressures on NHS staff. ‘I'm glad that we didn't shy away from the realities of what it is to be a junior doctor today, because it's not fair on the people we're representing. Obstetrics and gynaecology doctors have similar levels of PTSD to war veterans; it's something that people don't know or talk about.’
Between the heartbreaking moments – of which there are many, there's gallows humour in the grimmest of situations, and it’s Mod’s ability as an actor to draw this out that makes her such an on-screen force. It was her first proper TV role, one that saw her join the 2022 BAFTA breakthrough programme, while Wishaw won Best Actor – dedicating the award to Mod in his speech. While she says he’s ‘too humble’ to give advice, she learned a lot from her co-star. ‘Ben is so truthful. He has so much humility.’
Another inspiration is Emma Thompson, her BAFTA mentor. ‘Sorry to namedrop’ she quips. ‘We went on a walk and she told me, “there's no such thing as a career. There's only what you do next.” That’s so freeing, because you can't ever plan - it's just too huge and out of your control.’
The uncertainty can still be difficult for a self confessed ‘stresspot’, and Mod likens the process of waiting for One Day’s release as ‘purgatory’. ‘It’s like my death day because I just can't think beyond it.’ With One Day launching this month, death day is fast approaching, but Mod feels surprisingly calm. ‘It’s such a joyful series. It’s moving and gripping – but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It feels like life, so I hope that if anything, it brings a sense of comfort to people.’
One Day is out on Netflix February 8.
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