Rami Malek amps up the paranoia
RAMI Malek’s latest character is a man in crisis. “He’s asking these big questions,” Malek says. “What are we doing here, and what is this desperately dark, mundane world we live in? How are we supposed to exist in it?”
Surprisingly, he’s not referring to “Mr. Robot,” the USA channel’s techno-paranoia show in which he stars as hacker Elliot Alderson. His new film, “Buster’s Mal Heart,” is just as much of a mind-bender, an edgy sci-fi thriller about a mildmannered family man and hotel night clerk who seems perilously close to losing his mind from sleeplessness. When he meets a guest (DJ Qualls) who claims to have all the answers about a coming “inversion” of space and time, things really start to unravel.
“It’s about a man attempting to have a conversation with the universe, or God, or whatever you want to call it,” says Malek, 35. “A man who loves so much that he literally splits into two people: One is wandering the mountains breaking into empty vacation homes, the other is lost at sea.”
The actor acknowledges some similarities between the film and the “Fight Club”-esque show that made him famous. “I seem to be gravitating toward a lot of gentlemen who at times are feeling very lost,” he says. “There’s a worry that you will get typecast, but I decided to embrace that.”
“Buster” director Sarah Adina Smith says she found Malek on the threshold of stardom. “We cast Rami just before Season 1 of ‘Mr. Robot,’” she says. “It was his big moment. And to his credit, he decided this film was worth taking a risk on. We made it on a dime, by the skin of our teeth, in 18 days.”
Malek, who grew up in LA and studied theater at the University of Evansville in Indiana, is next gearing up to play the late lead singer of Queen in Bryan Singer’s new biopic. “I’m no Freddie Mercury,” he says, “but I’ve gotten my butt to London to start doing singing classes, piano, movement, everything — to be as capable and equipped as I can.”
In the meantime, he’s a recognizable figure on the streets of New York — a hoodied icon of subversion. “Because of the projects I’m working on, I get to have some dialogue that can be profound from many strangers,” he says. “That’s something I’m embracing, too. There’s no better place, if you’re looking for weird, than New York. And I f - - king love it.”