Evin Ahmad learned a British accent from scratch for 'Who Is Erin Carter?'

When Evin Ahmad was in Barcelona shooting gruelling combat scenes in 36 degree heat, face caked in fake blood, she had no idea she was starring in the would-be number one show on Netflix worldwide. She wasn’t even convinced after watching the show, a bingeable thriller called Who Is Erin Carter? in which Ahmad plays the titular role, for the first time. “I did not think it was going to be a big hit,” she says. “I watched the show and I was like, ‘Okay, it’s not that bad’.” A day after it dropped, she checked her Netflix account and saw it was number one on Sweden. She figured her home country “had her back”, largely due to her starring role in two seasons of beloved Swedish streamer Snabba Cash. That night her agent called and told her Who Is Erin Carter? was number one in the world – not bad for an actor’s English language debut. Ahmad’s response? “What?!”

It’s barely 9AM when Ahmad hops on the Zoom from her Stockholm apartment, just a few subway stops from where I’m sitting. Fresh faced, hair slicked back and with incredible eyebrows (we go to the same brow guy, Vogue Scandinavia contributor Thomas McEntee), she wears a red T-shirt and a handful of Maria Nilsdotter rings. It’s a far cry from the dainty floral dresses preferred by Erin Carter. “I was so conflicted with the costume,” she says. “It’s not ugly but…

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Appearing in almost every scene of the seven-episode series, Ahmad plays a mysterious Brit who moves to Barcelona with her daughter to escape her crime-riddled past. When she witnesses a robbery in a grocery store, however, that past comes roaring back, armed with guns and knives.

A British accent was not something Ahmad, who was born in Stockholm to Kurdish parents, had in her arsenal. In fact, it was only just before her audition that she was requested to read in the accent. Again, her response: “What?!” “They said, ‘Yeah, if you would just do your audition in a British accent, that would be great’,” Ahmad says. “So what do I do? I just had to fake something.” Apparently her “version of a British accent” coupled with some English language interviews sent to a dialect coach (Netflix wanted to determine if Ahmad could be taught a proper accent in time to shoot) did the trick. She got the role and soon she and her dialect coach were on a plane to Barcelona.

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The accent wasn’t the only challenge. Over the course of the seven-month shoot in the blazing Spanish heat, Ahmad did as many of her own over-the-top stunts and fight scenes as production would let her. “The only ones I didn’t do were the ones where I could get damaged,” she says. “Because if I get hurt, there is no show.”

Unlike the accent, she wasn’t totally unprepared, having done “some kickboxing, kung fu and karate” and having handled a weapon or two in previous projects. Despite the sweat and the very specific challenge of fighting in a ballgown, she describes the experience as “fun”. Ahmad is only five foot two, but watching the show you instantly get the impression that she could kick just about anyone’s ass.

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Still, Erin Carter is up against some equally capable baddies, oft finding herself on the receiving end of a fist or worse. The show is not afraid to get its lead bruised and bloody, an aspect that reminded Ahmad of one of her favourite films. “I’m a huge Tarantino fan, and when I saw Kill Bill.. I can’t explain the feeling,” she says. “There was all this blood and all these badass female characters. I was like, this is what I want to do.” In fact, she “loves the blood”.

If shooting the series sounds like a gruelling experience, it was. Between the training and the accent (she started and finished every day with her dialect coach), the heat and the night shoots, it was hardly a fun romp through Barcelona. Not to mention the fact that Ahmad left her husband back in Stockholm. “To be completely honest, there was a point on, like, shooting day 56 where I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to shoot the whole thing,” she says. “I was super scared for my health.”

Shooting six days a week, sixteen hours a day (on her off-day, Sunday, she would put in some extra hours on the accent) didn’t leave much time to explore the city – not even the essential sights. “I was living in this beautiful mansion, right next to the Chanel store and I was like, aw, Chanel,” she says, a wistful look in her eye.

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Despite her action prowess, Ahmad, who studied at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, sees herself as a dramatic actress, one who’s up for “really hardcore, playing a drug addict, having to have an abortion kind of roles”. But she isn’t mad that her introduction to the masses came by way of something a bit lighter, a bit more fun.

“I thought that maybe some very pretentious, Cannes Film Festival movie would be the one, but that’s not always the case,” she says. “You never know what’s going to communicate with the audience. Apparently this one did.”