What you need to know
Rami Malek says he is often mistaken for Bruno Mars, much to the dismay of some of the “Uptown Funk” singer’s fans.
During a special live taping of the Happy Sad Confused podcast celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Mr. Robot series, the actor was asked by host Josh Horowitz if he had ever been mistaken for another celebrity.
“I’m going to get Oscar Isaac. I’m going to get Bruno Mars,” Malek, 44, said at a New York Comic Con taping on Thursday, Oct. 9.
Then his podcast guest and Mr. Robot co-star Christian Slater asked, “Are you serious?”
Malek replied, “Yeah, that’s true. We met and[Mars]said, ‘Oh, my doppelganger.'” This is a thing. ”
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The Bohemian Rhapsody star then went on to share a funny story about how he once made a young girl cry because of his mistaken identity.
“I went to a Dodgers baseball game and this cute girl came up to me and said, ‘Can I get your autograph?’ And I said, ‘Sure,'” he recalled.
“And she showed me a picture of Bruno Mars, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not him,'” he continued. “She did the beat and then cried. I took her picture and signed it for Bruno.”
Slater, 56, also shared the experience of being mistaken for another actor.
“Yesterday, I was waiting for my daughter to come home from school on the bus, and this guy said, ‘Hey, Kevin!'” I know how Kevin Bacon felt, he said, and the crowd laughed.
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Malek and Slater shared the screen on the American drama Mr. Robot for four seasons from 2015 to 2019. The show tells the story of Elliot Alderson (Malek), a brilliant but unstable cybersecurity engineer and hacker who is recruited by a man known as “Mr. Robot” (played by Slater) to join a mysterious hacker group that destroys global corporations.
Malek won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role, and Slater won a Golden Globe Award.
During a conversation on the podcast, Malek talked about stepping into the shoes of a complex character like Elliot, and how it sometimes requires some tough “mental gymnastics.”
“I think there was weight in that character from the beginning. It signifies an immense sadness, a deep sense of alienation. He’s just dealing with a sense of loss. He’s an addict, a sociopath, someone who doesn’t really know how to communicate with people, but there’s still a steely determination in him that I was always able to bring out,” he said. “Elliot had a unique resilience that I felt every day and that always gave me hope about humanity.”
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Malek explained that he felt a “sense of obligation” to work hard to “develop people, sometimes be on (Elliott’s) side, sometimes argue with him.”
“So it was a mental exercise day in and day out. I’m not going to lie, the schedule and[show creator]Sam[Esmail]put me in a hellish situation, but it was a challenge that I accepted and look back on with great pride,” he added.
