Rami Malek steps into the world of espionage in his latest thriller, The Amateur, but filming in one of the world’s most heavily surveilled cities has only heightened his own sense of “paranoia”.
The Oscar-winning actor stars as Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer whose wife, Sarah—played by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan—is killed in a terrorist attack in London.
When the agency refuses to take action, Charlie takes matters into his own hands, coercing his superiors into giving him elite training. However, rather than relying on brute force, he uses his intelligence and cyber skills to hunt down those responsible, determined to exact revenge on his own terms.
Outlander actress Caitriona Balfe and The Bear’s Jon Bernthal star also star in the film alongside veteran actor Laurence Fishburne plays Henderson, who is tasked with getting the tech whiz field ready.
When asked if his CIA-level surveillance training from the film had given him any new skills for living in London—one of the most heavily monitored cities in the world—Malek admitted it had the opposite effect, adding that it only reinforced his sense that “nothing is a secret anymore.”
“I think there were 937,000 CCTV cameras in this city,” he told The Standard at the film’s European premiere in London. “There's probably over a million at this point.
“As if I'm not being watched enough in life, it's only increased my sense of paranoia and the feeling that nothing is a secret anymore.”
The Bohemian Rhapsody star, who recently wrapped his run in Oedipus at London’s Old Vic, joked that the city’s heavy surveillance has made him more wary in public spaces and more mindful of what the government might be listening to.
“Yeah, you can see everyone talking like this [hand over mouth],” he said while gesturing to demonstrate. “And you know, but if it's in a televised in any way, just to keep any sort of anonymity or secrets to themselves, that's it.
“It’s just made me more paranoid about what the government is listening to and what we're sharing. I mean, I have four microphones in front of me right now and 1000 cameras,” the star, who also produced the film, noted about the press line.
When I remarked that he’s likely no longer speaking on the Tube, he said with a smile: “Yes, that's right, that's right. That's the way it should be.
“Those were the good old days when everyone was quiet on the Tube. Right?”
The Amateur hits cinemas on April 11 in the UK and Ireland
