Actor Rami Malek leads ‘relatable’ revenge thriller The Amateur

LONDON – Oscar winner and former Bond villain Rami Malek plays an unlikely action hero in the espionage thriller The Amateur, based on Robert Littell’s 1981 book and film of the same name.

The 2025 remake stars the American actor as Charlie Heller, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) decoder with an intelligence quotient of over 170, who works in the deepest depths of Langley and lives in a picture-perfect country house with his loving wife Sarah (played by Rachel Brosnahan).

Their happy life ends abruptly when she is taken hostage and killed during a business trip to London.

A grief-stricken Charlie tracks down the perpetrators, but to his astonishment, his superiors refuse to take action. Charlie blackmails the bosses to get mission-specific training and sets out on a global manhunt to get revenge.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on April 10, The Amateur is directed by English film-maker James Hawes (One Life, 2023).

“I was watching Daniel Craig. I said, ‘How do I get to do that?’ I have to do it in my own way, and I’ll have to do it in an unexpected manner,” said Malek at the recent London premiere of The Amateur. He played the antagonist Lyutsifer Safin opposite English actor Craig’s James Bond in No Time To Die (2021).

“I like doing unexpected, unpredictable characters, playing them and creating them. And here’s a story with one at the heart and centre of it. He has a unique circumstance he’s been thrust into, and no one thinks he’s capable of what he ultimately achieves. That’s something that is extremely relatable to all of us,” said Malek, who also produced the film.

The 43-year-old, who won the Best Actor Oscar for playing British singer Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), said the themes of the original Canadian movie in 1981 still resonate four decades later.

“It was a Cold War film, and I think there are elements of that period that still exist today. So, I think it’s a very relevant story. Any underdog story is pertinent to our time and someone who speaks truth to power the way Charlie does, it’s important to have that thrown onto the big screen every so often,” Malek said.

Veteran American actor Laurence Fishburne, 63, plays Henderson, who is tasked with getting the scrawny tech whizz field-ready. The two discover their differences but also a mutual respect over the course of Charlie’s journey to avenge his wife’s death.

“The audience can expect not to be able to figure this out. A lot of twists and turns,” Fishburne said. REUTERS