‘I had to step it up’: Oscar-winner Rami Malek on working with Russell Crowe and the hard lessons he learned in Australia
Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek had to ‘step up into a different gear’ to match fellow Oscar-winner Russell Crowe in their dark new drama.
He might have a Best Actor Oscar already tucked away in his trophy cabinet, but Rami Malek knew he would have to bring his very best to square off against Russell Crowe in their new historical drama Nuremberg.
Malek, who won the 2019 Oscar for playing Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, already had a deep respect for the Australian veteran – who won the same award for Gladiator 18 years earlier – describing him as “one of the best, brightest, most gifted we’ve known for years”.
But the prospect of playing a US Army psychiatrist in close, intense scenes with a physically imposing Crowe in full Nazi regalia as Adolf Hitler’s second in command Hermann Goring didn’t sit lightly with the American actor.
“I’ve had certain accolades, but it’s still something that weighs on you,” says Malek over Zoom call from his New York home.
“I knew not only did I have to bring my A game, I had to step it up into a different gear. And I got a nice compliment from him on day one.
“He said something to the tune that I had lifted the character off the page more than he had expected. From that point, there was a mutual respect. There wasn’t an ego there.
“He has a presence that is very strong, it’s assertive, it’s charming. He’s all those things you want him to be. In between takes, he’s a raconteur. He likes a night out – but when it comes to business, he comes with all guns blazing. Even on day one, I knew the challenge ahead of me.”
Nuremberg, which is adapted from the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, tells the true story of US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who was charged with assessing – and keeping alive – Goring and his fellow Nazi top brass so they could answer for their war crimes in the trailblazing trials after World War II.
The ambitious and sometimes abrasive Kelley, who admits he also wanted fame and glory for writing a book about his experiences, finds himself fascinated by Goring and they form a dangerously close relationship. On one hand, Kelley admires the Luftwaffe commander’s charm and intelligence, on the other, he’s repulsed by his narcissism, lack of empathy and capacity for evil.
Malek, who describes himself as a history buff and sought out the role once he heard about the script based on the book, says the darkness of the material and the research required ahead of shooting did not come easily.
“It was extraordinarily challenging to find someone who was involved in a crime of the greatest magnitude, charming, witty, affable, smart – someone who I felt Douglas was itching to wake up and spend more time with,” he says. “And that’s quite a tricky thing to grapple with.
“Especially when you have Russell, someone with that ordinary gift and talent in just one pinky sitting there and being able to deliver his version of Goring. If Goring was even close to being that charming, it would have been a challenge for anyone not to be enthralled by him.”
Such was the intensity of the subject matter and some of the shooting days – the use of real footage from the concentration camps is just as shocking today as it was when it was screened at the Nuremberg trials almost exactly 80 years ago – that Malek and his fellow actors including Crowe, Leo Woodall and Michael Shannon had to come up with ways to ease the tension.
“We didn’t take advantage of being a bunch of lads together, but we definitely would pick our moments to all get together and maybe talk a little shop but then get into some great storytelling and have some laughs or watch the footy. Whatever it was just to be able to decompress from it all.
“We knew the job at hand and we had to deliver – but that also doesn’t stop you from becoming mates. You don’t have to sit there and wallow in hatred for one another every night. That wouldn’t be any fun.”
Learning how to detach from a role was a lesson that Malek learned the hard way while he was shooting another World War II drama, The Pacific, in Australia more than 15 years ago. In what proved to be his breakout role – and one that helped him land his Emmy-winning turn in Mr. Robot – Malek played the morally ambiguous Marine Merriell “Snafu” Shelton, but struggled to disassociate from the character during shooting.
While he says it was a “phenomenally, extraordinarily rewarding job” working in and around Melbourne with producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it also led him to becoming withdrawn, having very little human contact outside of the set and “left a mark on me that still hasn’t left”.
“It really was tricky because I wanted to do that job to the best of my abilities and honour those men,” Malek says. “I thought if you go out and hit the pub or anything like that with the lads, it’s just not going to be helpful to you. But there are other ways to decompress as well and now I find it in the gorgeous nature that surrounded that city.
“I learned a valuable lesson from that. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it depends on what level of trauma you’re willing to carry with you because whether it’s real or not, your subconscious is embracing it.”
With the 80th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg trials this week and with neo-Nazis once again menacing the streets of Australia and around the world, Malek says it’s still important to keep telling the story of the Holocaust and how its perpetrators were brought to justice.
“It’s a universal story and what I hope is that it’s not a rallying cry to neo-Nazis or Nazis,” he says. “That would be the worst possible outcome – but what would be perhaps useful is that we think about it as a story about people who were faced with the weight of history, trying to do what was right with odds that seemed impossible.
“Facing things head on, actually speaking truth to power in a way that changed the way we look at laws and the rule of law and the establishment of law and reminds us why laws exist. I think that’s the most important aspect.
“I don’t know if you can dissect evil but there are people in the world – I hope the majority – who act with integrity.
“And if this film sparks a conversation about justice, about truth, and courage, and people who actually stand up to justice, then we’ve done something meaningful.”
Nuremberg opens in cinemas on December 4.
Originally published as ‘I had to step it up’: Oscar-winner Rami Malek on working with Russell Crowe and the hard lessons he learned in Australia
