Riz Ahmed: I told my mum all the Star Wars secrets. She didn't care

Riz Ahmed knows all the secrets of Star Wars: Rogue One because he stars in the movie as Rebellion pilot Bodhi Rook in the latest film in the sci-fi trilogy.

And when it comes to a franchise as popular as this, it's important to keep the script under lock and key because no Star Wars fan wants spoilers to ruin the surprise.

But there is one person who Riz did spill all the secrets to - his mum, Mrs. Ahmed.

"You realise that the anticipation, the mystery and the suspense is part of the enjoyment," he told Nick Grimshaw on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

"You don't want to ruin that for people, but to some extent you want to get it out. I start to tell people who don't really care at all - like my parents."

But, he admits, his mum wasn't really interested in any of the gossip about how the rebels steal the plans for The Death Star in the hugely anticipated Star Wars prequel.

"I'd be visiting my parents and she'd be cooking me some food and usually I don't talk to them about work, but I was like 'Mum! This happens and this and this.'

"She'd say 'Oh that's nice. Have some more roti.' She didn't care one way or another."

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Riz also revealed he won his role in the film by "spamming" director Gareth Edwards with alternative auditions for the part in various costumes and using different accents.

"At one point I thought it would be good if I wore a headband but I didn't have one, so I wore a tie around my forehead," he said.

"He emailed me a few days later to say thank you for sending me all these auditions, please stop sending me these auditions."

He also told Radio 1 that the movie was filmed almost entirely without CGI, which many believe ruined George Lucas' original prequel trilogy, which started in 1999 with The Phantom Menace.

"They really build everything. There's hardly any blue screen or green screen," said Riz.

"If there's a mountain nearby they'll build it. There are spaceships just there chilling, robots wandering by.

"Even Alan Tudyk, who plays the droid K-2SO, was physically on set on stilts so he was seven foot tall wearing a one-piece spandex unitard with motion trackers on it. It wasn't distracting; it was interacting with Alan on stilts.

"They really build the world for you; it makes it so much easier."

But the world the movie-makers built also made it easier for Riz to take a little souvenir from the set.

"You realise everyone who is working on these films has grown up wanting to work on these films, so they go above and beyond. They go completely overboard with props. It's not even on camera. That's when you steal it."

While Riz admits he was living out childhood fantasies while filming the movie, it wasn't all relaxing in rebel bases and chilling in Empire cockpits. Filming left him bruised and battered.

"On the first day you show up to work on the Star Wars movies and it's so exciting," said Riz. "There's Storm Troopers running everywhere, they've built this whole world.

"On day two you're so tired and wet and covered in bruises and need to sleep. It was full on.

"There's a lot in there that will be familiar to the fans and they'll find it strangely comforting to see Darth Vader but it's quite edgy and gritty. It's a war movie. It's Saving Private Vader."

Star Wars: Rogue One hits cinemas on 16 December 2016