Rami Malek decided to "learn from other actors" so he could improvise on the set of 'The Amateur'.
The 43-year-old actor stars as CIA cryptographer in the new adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell and explained that he was able to find those moments in which he could deviate from the script by analysing the talent that had gone on screen before him.
He told ScreenRant: "I found myself just wanting to hold onto that person through the tactile nature of their belongings, and that's what I thought.
"It separated this character from a lot of other action heroes."
"I go back to learning from other actors. I remember being on Paul Thomas Anderson's film 'The Master', and I would watch the great Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams do these things in the moment. I'd never seen kind of improv moments done so... well, not diverting too far from text or anything. These moments would just come out of just knowing that character and being in the element."
The 'Bohemian Rhapsody' star appears opposite Laurence Fishburne in the film - who plays his mentor - and he noted that he found "wisdom" within the "silence" on set but ultimately hopes that he has nothing in common with the characters he portrays on screen.
He said: "It's all about being still and allowing yourself to be in the silence.
"Silence is really the space where you can come in contact with wisdom, and in silence, that is where you can gather wisdom.
""I'd like to think that most of the characters that I play are nothing like me. Many people like to think the exact opposite, so that's the trick.
"Most people like to think, 'Oh, how much of you is in this?' And for me, yeah, I'm using what I have. It's my body, it's my voice, but it's really the imagination, the actor's imagination combined with the text and everything else, all the other support that you get with wardrobe and production and direction and cinematography that helps you arrive at the character.
