Rami Malek is a massively talented actor that has an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy in his trophy cabinet, but that doesn’t mean he can’t become a little overawed on occasion. The 40-year-old made his feature film debut in an effects-heavy blockbuster, but it’s fair to say that No Time to Die is a million miles away from his early appearances in the Night at the Museum franchise, Battleship and The Twilight Saga.
The former Mr. Robot star plays the villainous Lyutsifer Safin, who follows the classic James Bond template by having a ridiculous name and a facial deformity of some description, following hot on the heels of Christoph Waltz’ Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre.
During a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Malek admitted that even though he’s one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, he still stumbled over his lines when he was confronted by Daniel Craig suited and booted as Bond on set.
“When you see him on stage, on the 007 stage, and he’s full James Bond. I will say, the second I got out there, there were moments I dropped lines and I was like ‘Oh, this is because I’m looking straight at James Bond’. I couldn’t handle it.”
James Bond has remained at the forefront of pop culture for almost 60 years, so a lot of talent to join the most recent installments will have been fans of the series growing up, and we can definitely put Malek in that bracket. We don’t know a lot about his character, but he’s good enough to ensure that No Time to Die will deliver a memorable baddie for Craig’s final outing.
