1 week Ago By Inga Parkel
Rami Malek has admitted that his Emmy-winning role in Mr. Robot left him “quite paranoid.” The 43-year-old led Sam Esmail’s four-season thriller about a young, anti-social computer programmer named Elliot who works as a cybersecurity engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night.
The critically acclaimed series ran on USA Network from 2015 to 2019. Malek, who takes on a similar role as CIA decoder Charlie Heller in the forthcoming action thriller The Amateur , recalled the research he undertook for both projects at a recent press event. “I always say, how far do you go with research before you’re like, ‘Okay, put it down and walk away,’” the Bohemian Rhapsody star said, per Metro .
“I’m never going to be a coder, I realized on Mr. Robot . I learned enough.
” Of his time on the show, Malek confessed: “I did begin to get quite paranoid from that series, as to what the government was able to access after the Patriot Act. And watching that Laura Poitras documentary, Citizenfour , about [infamous whistleblower Edward] Snowden. “It was terrifying,” he said.
Malek’s portrayal of Elliot on Mr. Robot landed him his first Emmy win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 2016 ceremony. “I remember, there was a moment saying goodbye to that character of Elliot Alderson that was quite sad,” he added at the press event.
“I know we’ve all had those moments where you have to walk away or they live with you to a degree, and you carry them with you.” He said he was “a bit reluctant to relinquish” Elliot, and while his new role isn’t an iteration per se, “there are similarities, of course.” “I gravitate to those characters who are on these fragile intersections of feeling broken, maybe brilliant, at the same time, and going through some sort of grief and persevering.
So many elements to him were rich and complex — [he] reminded me of Elliot, but in a different way,” Malek explained. The Amateur , out in theaters on April 11, is about Malek’s brilliant CIA decoder Charlie, whose wife dies in a London terrorist attack. After his supervisors refuse to take action, he’s forced to embark on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible.
Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburn, Jon Bernthal and Caitríona Balfe also star. Early critic reviews have been divisive, with The Independent ’s Clarisse Loughrey awarding it three stars . “This Disney thriller is shot like a car ad and fully leans into the ‘beautiful dead wife’ trope — yet somehow The Amateur gets away with its cliches,” she wrote in her review, dubbing it “pleasingly silly.
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