Why One Day star Ambika Mod almost quit during filming

Many millennials may remember One Day as the noughties movie starring Anne Hathaway and her various British accents. However, the story - based on the best-selling novel by David Nicholls - has been adapted once again, this time as a TV series for streaming giant Netflix. 

Starring Leo Woodall of The White Lotus fame and This Is Going To Hurt's Ambika Mod in the lead roles, it follows the lives of Dexter and Emma as they navigate each year of their lives growing both closer and further apart. And while both actors have been praised for their performances, Ambika has shared that she was actually very close to quitting the show during filming.

Discussing working with Leo, she said on the Reign podcast: "I met Leo at the chemistry reads and he was the second Dexter I read with. He is so cheeky and charming. He was so open and warm just immediately and it felt really easy, the scenes felt really playful and I think that’s really rare.

"That was really half the battle because I think if that had been cast wrong, it would have been so much harder. You just can’t fake that stuff and I’m really grateful to have had an actor like Leo. We were both going through a very, very similar thing. This was so much bigger than anything either of us had ever done before and I think we both felt really similarly about the undertaking."

But she also added that her co-star was to thank for keeping her grounded during filming, and that whenever she doubted herself he was there to support her. She continued: "We were both really open when we were struggling, when we didn’t feel like things were right. I remember just like, maybe I was more vocal about it than him, but I would come out of every scene just being like, 'Oh, I'm a fucking shit actor, I should fucking quit right now, I hate myself'.

"And he was always very supportive to me in that, and I hope vice versa. It was good to have someone like that because as an actor you might not always have that."

The Netflix show has already been a huge success, with reports that it not only debuted at number 3 on the Netflix Global Top 10 when it was released but also brought in 5.3 million views in the first four days of release. Impressive. 

One Day is available to watch on Netflix now.