Before Mr. Robot premiered in 2015, Rami Malek‘s most high-profile role was in Night at the Museum. Now? He’s got an Emmy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
“It’s a been a phenomenal time in my life. I mean, I don’t even know how you can properly articulate what’s happened, but it’s extraordinary,” Malek told E! News at the final season premiere of Mr. Robot.
With the USA Network series wrapping up, Malek is getting a chance to reflect on the wild ride he’s been on, from Elliot Alderson to Freddie Mercury and back again.
“Just to have a moment right now where you see where it all began about five years ago, beginning this show, not knowing quite how it would be received by the audience, by America, by the world at large. And to have this response over the last few years and have it catapult into a whole new threshold is astonishing,” Malek said.
Up next for the Bohemian Rhapsody star is a villainous turn in the next James Bond movie, No Time to Die, opposite Daniel Craig and Lashana Lynch.
“It’s been a very slow burn for me career-wise and I think that’s kept me very steady,” Malek said, noting his family helps keep him down to earth as his star rises. Carly Chaikin, Malek’s Mr. Robot on-screen sister, said she also keeps him in check.
“From the beginning, we became very close and very brother and sister,” she said. “He is still him and I always tell him—he knows, ‘I don’t give a s—t if you won an Oscar.’ I think it’s nice for him to have us around, that have known him before that, that just see him for him.”
As the end of Mr. Robot nears, creator Sam Esmail said it’s the ending he always intended.
“It’s kind of surreal because I started this as a film, and so knowing the ending all these years and being able to actually finish it as a television series across four seasons, it’s pretty amazing, pretty remarkable and pretty surreal,” Esmail said. “I’m pitching myself.”
What actually happens to Elliot and the Mr. Robot crew is being kept under wraps, but BD Wong teased it could be polarizing for the audience. Esmail said he’s not writing for the fans.
“I’m not writing it to what the fans necessarily want, I’m writing it to what we think is authentic to Elliot’s journey and the conclusion to that,” Esmail said.
Click play on the videos above to hear more from the Mr. Robot cast.
The final season of Mr. Robot premieres Sunday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. on USA.
(E! and USA are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)