LONDON: Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek said he had to seriously consider playing the lead villain in the upcoming James Bond film opposite Daniel Craig.
The American actor, who has Egyptian heritage, said he feared his Arab ancestry would lead to the part becoming a caricature of a Middle Eastern terrorist.
Malek, who won the Oscar this year for his performance as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody”, told reporters that he raised his concerns with the film’s director Cary Fukunaga.
He then said he received “reassurances” that the director did not plan to take the character in that direction, according to the UK’s Daily Mirror.
“That was one thing that I discussed with Cary,” Malek said.
“I said: ‘We cannot identify him with any act of terrorism reflecting an ideology or a religion, that’s not something I would entertain, so if that is why I am your choice then you can count me out’.
“But that was clearly not his vision. So he’s a very different kind of terrorist,” he added.
Malek was born in Los Angeles in 1981 to parents who had immigrated to the US from Egypt three years earlier.
The actor has often said he identifies strongly with his Egyptian heritage.
“I am Egyptian. I grew up listening to Egyptian music,” he told GQ magazine last year. “These are my people. I feel so gorgeously tied to the culture and the human beings that exist there.”
The as-yet untitled 25th Bond film has hit by problems, most recently with Craig undergoing minor ankle surgery after an injury on set.
Original director Danny Boyle quit the project and the script was consistently delayed over disputes on the direction the film would take.
The film is scheduled to premiere in the US, the UK and France in April 2020.
Malek revealed that he has already filmed some scenes in Norway — though without Craig — and praised the latest installment in the 007 spy series.
“It’s another extremely clever script from the people who have figured out exactly what people want in those movies,” he said.
“But I feel a substantial weight on my shoulders. I mean, Bond is something that we all grow up with.”
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