Why Rami Malek demanded new action movie was filmed in Britain

Oscar-winning actor praised ‘top notch’ production talent and competitive tax landscape ahead of 2025 release of The Amateur

Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email
Rami Malek demanded that his new action movie was filmed in Britain despite it being more expensive.
The Oscar-winning actor, 43, revealed he put his foot down about where to film The Amateur because of the “top notch” production industry in the UK.
Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: “As a producer of this film, we were looking at different places to get tax incentives, and the UK gives a great one, but I just wanted to make sure that this was our base, because we ultimately did get the best of the best.
“Perhaps that affected our budget a tiny bit, or to a certain degree, but I felt adamant about filming here, it’s top notch. There’s no question about it.”
The Bohemian Rhapsody star, who plays Charlie Heller, an introverted CIA cryptographer in the film, added that Britain’s film production provides “a certain calibre that allows you to do certain things that you might not possibly be able to do in other places”.
His comments come after film and television studios were handed major tax breaks earlier this year in a bid to make Britain’s production sector “second only to Hollywood”.
In March, it was announced that business rates for production hubs will be cut by 40 per cent over the next decade to promote investment in new studio space around the country.
The move was welcomed by big studios who expressed hope that it could give UK film production its biggest boost since 2007, when an incentive scheme lured blockbuster productions from Star Wars to Jurassic World to the studio complexes at Pinewood, Leavesden, Ealing, Twickenham and elsewhere.
Speaking about the “creative hub” of filming in Britain, James Hawes, The Amateur’s director known for One Life and Slow Horses, said: “I want to tip my hat to the UK film industry.
“I think the fact that this is where that was happening, that an American studio was coming to the UK to make a film of this ambition – with talent coming from the US and Germany – you really felt like this was a creative hub to be proud of.”
While the UK has emerged as a major film and TV hub, the industry also faces a slowdown in production amid higher interest rates and the impact following the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike.
The Amateur was one of the first productions in the country to resume filming after it was hit by the strikes midway through production in London last year.
Hawes said the strikes allowed the team to have “a luxurious pause in the process”, where they could assess the product they were making, but that there were some “big swerves” made to accommodate changes.
Malek, who also served as one of the film’s executive producers, added: “You do get that sense to reflect and I think recalibrate, but mostly what happened was we were able to appreciate that we were headed in the right direction from the beginning.”
The trailer for the upcoming film sees the Egyptian-American actor as Charlie Heller, demanding that his superiors go after his wife’s terrorist killers and then attempting to avenge her death himself when they refuse to act.
Malek described his character as “a very unexpected hero”, while Hawes said the role embodies that of an “extraordinary underdog”.
Malek, who won an Academy Award for his leading role as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic in 2019, also revealed that the new role was a result of him pushing for an action hero that was a “sophisticated and elegant” version of screen heroes of the past.
He said: “I’ve come from a place of banging down doors to work, work, work. And now I try to choose very carefully roles that I think will help not only to entertain, but perhaps allow people to see something inside of themselves that they probably know exists, but help bring that to the surface.
“I thought, could that ever be done with an action film? So I kept pushing for a version where that was a sophisticated, elegant, extremely smart version of what I’d seen in the past.”
The actor suggested that his role in the 20th-century terrorism thriller differs from other action heroes because while they “quintessentially have a superpower”, Charlie is marked by his normality.
He told The Telegraph: “We look at heroes – I love a character like Jason Bourne… but what I love about Charlie is that his superpower is being underestimated.
“He’s motivated by grief and we begin to ask this question of how far people will go for the ones they love. And I just think people can relate to this… he reminds me of someone I see as I’m walking through the streets of London or Los Angeles, New York.”
He added: “I tend to gravitate to many characters who are overcoming some type of grief and discovering a certain power inside of themselves.”
The Amateur will open in UK cinemas on 11 April 2025.
Copy link
twitter
facebook
whatsapp
email