'It's hard to take your gaze off her': Rami Malek on working with an Irish actress
Rami Malek and Caitríona Balfe in The Amateur.
In the jittery revenge spy thriller Rami Malek plays a tech wizard who turns killer following the violent death of his wife.
Malek is a decoder for the CIA who goes rogue when his bosses fail to take action following the death of his wife in a terrorist attack.
One by one, he tracks those responsible down across the globe with the help of his tech savvy - and another operative, played by Monaghan actress Caitriona Balfe.
As in his previous role in hit TV series places much focus on the intricacies and sheer scope of modern surveillance. It’s something that the US actor is very aware of.
“I do worry. I always have ever since Mr. Robot, and the things that I identified with that were shocking,” he says. “I remember seeing the Laura Poitras documentary, on Snowden, and that rocked me. I started investigating all of that, and the wealth of knowledge that people can gather on each and every one of us is astounding, and we'd be fools to think that it's all private.”
Knowing this world as he does, Malek is well placed to play Charles Heller, a tech operator in CIA’s Langley headquarters, who vows to kill those responsible for his wife’s murder following a terrorist attack in London. His bosses are amused at the prospect of him becoming a killer: Heller is a quiet and reserved man whose gun-handling skills amount to zero.
A chief CIA man who humours him (Laurence Fishburne) feels he doesn’t have what it takes to be a killer.
Eventually he goes rogue, and joining him is another mysterious undercover contact, played by our own Caitriona Balfe. Malek - who worked as a producer on the film and was instrumental in its casting - was glad to get the chance to work with the Irish star, best known for the long-running series
“She's extraordinary. I don't know if it's preparation or if it's just a natural gift, but there’s the immediacy of how naturally, elegantly moving she can be and powerful in a way that you really can't look away from her,” says Malek of his co-star.
“Sometimes it's hard to take your gaze off of her, because there's something that's coming from a depth of character, a depth of humanity, experience and talent, just a skill level. I loved those scenes.
"I loved that character from the very beginning. We wanted to find someone who could execute at the highest level, and that proved itself in Caitriona, we got very fortunate.”
As producer, he was also involved in getting creator James Hawes to board the film.
“I keep looking to evolve in this business as much as possible,” says Malek, who adds he has always had an interest in the filmmaking process beyond acting. I remember years ago not wanting to be in my trailer as much as being on set watching the machinations of everything going on.
"The inner workings of everyone at the height of their craft. I've worked with some phenomenal cinematographers who have created masterpieces - why would you be in your trailer when this guy is filming?
“So to be able to galvanise everyone together as a producer and search for the right director, alongside [producers] Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson, and be part of conversations with the studio and then assemble a literally divine cast.
"Putting that cast together was so special, but to be able to have some agency over all of it, not just walk in and do your thing. Most of the time it can be great to just really focus on that aspect. And I think there are other times when you want to take on more of a responsibility.”
Malek has always had an interest in collaboration and storytellers. As a young wannabe actor, he took an internship at a playwriting conference attended by the great American writer, August Wilson.
Wilson was a smoker and Malek would have a cigarette to hand so they could talk and Wilson would tell him stories and snippets of advice from his career.
“He told me once: ‘Make sure you never take the same street, walk on the same street going home. Always find another way, a different way to go’.”
Malek went on to work in theatre in New York before landing roles in TV shows and the films. He won a Primetime Emmy for his role in and an Oscar for playing the late Freddy Mercury in He’s been a Bond baddie, too, playing the main antagonist in
For all of these experiences, he says he still feels nervous on the first day of a new project - and that that can be a good thing.
“I don't ever approach anything knowing exactly what I'm doing. I'm just doing a play on stage [ at London’s Old Vic Theatre] and the one difficulty I had about it is you rehearse it so much, you get into a place where you kind of have an idea of what everybody's going to do.
“I love the spontaneity of what's going to happen every day. Where the camera is going to go, what the actor is going to do, what the set's going to look like, what you're going to be thrown into.
"There's a vitality, a life, a fresh inspired air to that that keeps you on your toes, keeps you a bit nervous, perhaps imbues you with some sort of confidence, because you know you have to get through it. There’s a cacophony of feelings that you have going into day one that, even by the end of it, I think, still exists.”
The international nature of - which involved filming in several different globe-trotting locations - also proved to be both a challenge and a thrill, he says.
“Because we were moving so quickly from city to city, we wanted to capture as much scope as possible, because that was what we set out to do, to make this a big-screen event.
“Sometimes there's a thrill, there's an exhilaration to all of that. It really does bring out some spontaneity in you that you aspire to have normally. But sometimes you're just forced into it and I think every day on this I'd wake up and say, which city am I in? And what's about to happen next? The film is quite propulsive, and so was the filming of it.”
- is now in cinemas
