'The Amateur’s' Rami Malek and Rachel Brosnahan talk Bond-style thriller

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Rami Malek freely admits it — portraying a James Bond villain gave him the itch to try playing an action hero of his own in The Amateur.

As the eerie Lyutsifer Safin, the Oscar-winner squared off against Daniel Craig in 2021’s No Time to Die, putting 007 through the ringer. But while Craig, in what was his final outing as the British super spy, was getting to embrace action heroics of his own, Malek kept thinking of ways he could find his own jet-setting character to dole out a unique brand of justice.

The Amateur — which is based on Robert Littell’s 1981 novel, and also was adapted for a 1982 Canadian film —  checked all the boxes.

In the conspiracy thriller, Malek, 43, plays Charlie Heller, a CIA analyst who embarks on a globetrotting revenge quest after his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed by a group of terrorists in London. With the help of a mysterious informant, Charlie blackmails his bosses into giving him the training he’ll need (like learning to shoot, fight and make cool explosive devices) to kill those responsible.

“Everything Daniel had to take on (in No Time to Die) was profound,” Malek tells Postmedia in a video call from New York City. “There’s a responsibility to that character, and there was a responsibility to the cast and the crew. It’s a leadership quality that I aspired to. And you definitely have to take that on as the lead in an action film.”

Even with an Academy Award under his belt (which he won for playing Freddie Mercury in the 2018 musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody), Malek wanted to find his own unique way into the genre.

With a script credited to screenwriters Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli and Slow Horses helmer James Hawes in the director’s chair, Malek saw a story about a desk jockey who becomes an avenger that was a fit for his talents.

Charlie is an unlikely vigilante who isn’t the type of guy audiences expect to see at the centre of an action-packed spy movie. But as he comes up with ingenious ways to get his revenge, including one scene involving a glass pool hundreds of feet in the air, viewers will be rapt as they watch his cat-and-mouse killing spree playing out across Europe.

“I wanted it to be unique and innovative, and I think we pulled it off,” Malek says. “It’s something I haven’t seen before. I constantly tried to remind myself to make a movie I would want to go see in the theatre.”

Brosnahan credits Malek with being able to assemble an all-star cast that also includes Laurence Fishburne (as the veteran assassin who trains Charlie) and Holt McCallany (as Charlie’s nefarious boss), with Julianne Nicholson, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe and Michael Stuhlbarg playing key supporting roles.

“A movie of this size is such a huge undertaking,” Brosnahan, 34, says. “As an actor, who also produces, it’s so inspiring to watch somebody take the reins of a film like this. Rami had a such a huge hand pulling together this incredible ensemble and his passion for this project was infectious … He understood that this is a character that you’ve never seen in a movie like this before. While we of course love the Bond movies and the (Jason) Bourne movies and an aspirational hero at the centre of those films, it’s rare that the audience can connect to a character like this one.”

With so many spy stories being told on the small screen nowadays (after several big screen outings, Jack Ryan was reimagined as a TV series for Amazon), Malek and Brosnahan are thrilled that The Amateur isn’t heading straight for streaming and will open in theatres instead.

“Nothing beats the communal experience,” Malek says. “It’s a pastime all over the world that would be the biggest shame to lose … You always have a memory of being in a cinema watching a particular movie.”

“That’s exactly it,” Brosnahan adds. “I’m grateful to the expansion of technology for making movies available to be seen in so many different formats. But that magic of seeing a movie in theatre … you can’t get that anywhere else. It’s a totally different experience. That’s the power of movies. And something like like this, with all these stunts and car chases and pools breaking, it’s got to be seen on a big screen to appreciate it.”

Malek breaks into a smile thinking about his own experience going to the theatre growing up in Southern California where he first fell in love with the movies.

“Unless you’ve only ever watched (movies on) streaming, your most memorable experience of watching of a film, happened in a cinema,” he says.

The Amateur is now playing in theatres

mdaniell@postmedia.com