Inside the adorable postcards One Day’s David Nicholls sent Ambika and Leo before filming

I would just lose it on the spot


One Day’s Ambika Mod has just revealed how the book’s author David Nicholls wrote both her and Leo Woodall postcards on the very first day of filming the show and it’s so adorable.

Speaking to Wonderland Magazine, Ambika who plays Emma in the show said: “On the first day of filming, One Day’s author David Nicholls wrote me and Leo postcards and in mine he wrote something like, ‘There isn’t a character I have written that is more beloved to me than Emma Morley and I can’t think of anyone better to play her than you.'” She added that she “felt like crying” after receiving it. I am crying reading that never mind actually receiving it.

In another interview, Ambika also shared how she really relates to Emma. She said: “I do relate to Emma. We’re both hard grafters, people on the outskirts. Emma’s spent three years at the same uni as Dexter and he hasn’t really noticed her.”

She adds: “I’m someone who is incredibly anxious and I have struggled with depression in the past. I know what it feels like to go through a day where nothing is sparking joy and you just feel really hopeless and a bit futile for the future and all you’re living in is self-doubt and self-criticism.”

However, she nearly turned the role down entirely after she thought she couldn’t see herself in the role. She said: “I just didn’t see myself playing that part because, insidiously and implicitly, that’s a message that I’ve been fed my entire life — that people who look like me aren’t romantic leads. That people who look like me aren’t the people who the male romantic lead will fall in love with.”

Ambika admits she was feeling overwhelmed, adding: “I was being an idiot thinking it wasn’t for me. This Is Going To Hurt had just come out and I was feeling very overwhelmed. I think it was a combination of that and really loving the book and thinking, ‘I can’t do this, I shouldn’t do this, I’m not Emma’.”

Thankfully, a month later, she woke up in the middle of the night and realised she had made a huge mistake. She called her agent first thing the following morning determined to try for the role.

One Day is available to watch on Netflix now. For more like this One Day postcard story and all the latest Netflix drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

Fix the One Day-shaped hole in your heart with these adorable new behind the scenes pics

One Day: Dex and Em’s full handwritten letters are here, and I’m crying all over again

Choose your heartbreak! All the crazy parallels between One Day and Normal People