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The other day Rami Malek had a dream about the key grip from Mr. Robot.
The critically acclaimed television series won the 44-year-old Los Angeles-born performer an Emmy in 2016 for his role as the clinically depressed computer hacker Elliot Alderson. But that was nearly a decade ago. During that time, most actors would have not only moved on from the experience, but also perhaps divorced and married a couple times, fired an agent or two and released a fragrance and a fashion line.
But most actors aren’t Malek. Most actors don’t read poetry in French to practice their language skills. Most actors don’t seek out the daily print edition of The New York Times when they’re living in London, either. It’s a testament to Malek’s seriousness and how fully immersed he becomes in his work that he’s still thinking about working with that key grip 10 years on.
But Malek often ponders the work he did over the course of a day. “I’m always re-editing myself at night,” says Malek. “Even scenes I wasn’t in.”
That’s, in part, because Malek is a perfectionist, even though he hates the word. It’s because he also loves to watch movies getting made. He loves thinking about movies getting made. He loves making movies.
He might have been a cinematographer. “I always wanted to be one,” he says.
Instead, on his current path, he’s an actor who has appeared as both a terrifyingly compelling Bond villain (in 2021’s No Time to Die) and won an Oscar for his indelible performance as Queen singer Freddy Mercury in 2018’s monster hit Bohemian Rhapsody.
Malek, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn, is a sponge. On set, he doesn’t like to stay in his trailer. He likes to go out and learn from his colleagues—not just his fellow actors, but cinematographers, steadicam operators, costumers, production designers and assistant directors.
During our conversation from his home in London, where he appeared earlier this year at the Old Vic in the title role of Oedipus, he references many below-the-line craftspeople by name. He still stays in touch with several of them.
“It’s a great sense of family,” says Malek, of working on a movie. “My first time on set, I was absolutely enamored by this extraordinary collaboration from a collection of great artists. There’s just this magic that happens.”
His desire to recapture that magic may be why when Malek finds a script that excites him, it’s hard for him to let it go. That’s what happened with The Amateur, which he produced and in which he played a widowed C.I.A. agent, and with his latest film, Nuremberg, out in November from Sony Pictures Classics.
When Malek read director James Vanderbilt’s screenplay about the post-WWII trials of 24 Nazi leaders, based on the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, he was immediately interested. “It read like an Aaron Sorkin film,” Malek recalls. “It reminded me quite a bit of A Few Good Men, actually.”
Malek wanted to play the role of Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist who evaluated, among others, Hermann Göring, one of the most infamous Nazis on trial.
“Kelley is quick-witted. He’s funny. He’s ambitious. He’s charming, but his charm is disarming,” says Malek. “He’s a complicated character. I’m very drawn to those people.” Kelley is also as far away from Freud as possible, instead sporting a sleek leather jacket that Malek sometimes wondered was “too Top Gun.”
But Nuremberg, Malek says, is a complex character study with plenty of eccentricities. “It’s a courtroom drama, yes. But it’s also a story about people facing the weight of history and trying to do what was right when the odds seemed impossible. How do we seek justice and face those uncomfortable truths? How do we protect human dignity? I’ve consistently gravitated toward characters negotiating silence and complicity, trying to break through systemic corruption.”
When development on the movie stalled because of various Hollywood strikes, Malek kept pestering his team about getting the movie off the ground.
“Sure enough, it came back,” he recalls. “And it was almost as if I felt like a younger actor again, getting that call finally saying ‘Yes!’ I had that euphoric feeling of ‘I get to be a part of something very special, perhaps even extraordinary.’”
Vanderbilt observed Malek’s uncynical enthusiasm up close and personal during their initial meeting. “The first time we met to talk about the script was at a restaurant, and we sat there for about three hours. Then [Malek] asked if he could come over to my house the next day to continue the conversation,” recalls the screenwriter and director. “So he shows up at my house at eight in the morning, meets my wife, meets my kids, meets my dog, and we spend the whole day going through the script. He never stops digging, he never stops trying to make the thing better.”
Malek says that making a movie “takes a village.” “That show doesn’t go on the road without everyone being recognized,” he adds. He describes his co-stars, who include John Slattery, Michael Shannon and Russell Crowe as Göring, as an “extraordinary lineup of powerhouses.”
He says he’s often looked at Shannon’s performance in the movie Take Shelter as a manual for “how to act scenes.” In turn, Shannon describes working with Malek as “exciting, alive and present.”
“It makes you feel like you’re not working,” says Shannon. “Rami makes you feel like you’re just being, you know? He’s just a presence. An alive actor. He’s so plugged into what’s going on and such a great listener. His eyes! You can tell he’s taking everything in on such a deep level.”
Meanwhile, Malek recalls his scenes with Crowe as taking place in “close physical contact in suffocating environments.”
“They’re so tense,” he adds. “I had to switch into an even higher gear.”
“Rami has an effortless charm, and spending time with him was a pleasure,” says Crowe, in return. “He approached the character and his narrative arc with an intense bravery.”
After Nuremberg, Malek has plenty ahead to keep him busy. He is interested in fashion and regularly collaborates with Cartier, Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent and Miuccia Prada. “I call her Mrs. P.,” Malek says. “We get along well. It’s a very fun relationship.”
He plans to play Buster Keaton in a limited series. Malek also says he’s writing a film he expects to direct.
But he’s also trying to stay grounded. “I’m finding it very important to reconnect with family and friends with the same vigor that I approach my work,” Malek says. “I can be a bit hard on myself, and I’m working on moments of personal growth.”
Not to mention trying to keep his perfectionism in check. “I thrive in chaos, and I appreciate a great challenge,” he says.
Groomer: Fay De Bremaeker
Photo Assistant: Isaak Hest
Styling Assistant: Molly Ellison
Tailor: Eleanor Williams
Production: Alexandra Oley, Lina Levein
Digital Tech: Matthew Willcocks
Post Production: Nadia Selander
Photographed on location at the Broadwick Soho hotel in London