Rami Malek Reveals What Links His Breakout Performance in “Mr. Robot” to His New WWII Drama “Nuremberg” (Exclusive)

Rami Malek has worked with psychiatrists throughout his career, and now he’s playing one. 

The actor, 44, tells PEOPLE that his breakthrough role in Mr. Robot helped shape his part as psychiatrist Douglas Kelley in the new WWII drama Nuremberg.

“I spent so much time with a psychiatrist on Mr. Robot, trying to make sure that character was as authentic as possible, and so I brought that into as many roles as I can,” he says at Sony Pictures Classics and The Cinema Society’s special screening of the movie in New York City.

Malek starred in the USA Network series as troubled computer hacker Elliot Alderson for four seasons, from 2015 to 2019. Now, he is in James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg as a U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to analyze the mental state of former Reichsmarschall and Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Göring (played by Russell Crowe), and other Nazi officials in the aftermath of the Holocaust. 

In the 2025 thriller, based on the nonfiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, Douglas blurs the lines in his relationship with the disgraced politician, concerning his colleagues. 

Malek worked with a psychiatrist on Nuremberg and, together, they dissected the relationship between Kelley and Göring and why his character was “so enamored” with the other man. He believes Kelley was surprised at “how human” Göring was, noting that the former Reichsmarschall was “witty and charming.”

“They were also on a first-name basis,” the actor adds.

Speaking about the real-life Kelley, Malek feels as though he “probably took that trauma with him throughout his life.”

“He was charged with such a weighty task and sharing the information with the rest of the world, about how he felt about evil and how he felt about human nature, and delivering a warning that no one really wanted to listen to,” the actor says.

Kelley died by suicide about 15 years after the Nuremberg trials. 

The story’s complexity drew the actor to the project. “I’m quite strategic about the roles that I take,” Malek explains. “This was a really profound, poignant story that was surprising. I thought I knew about the Nuremberg trials. I did not know everything.”

“It was a fascinating story that needed to be told. It’s as relevant as ever right now, and I really just chased it down. I felt like I was a young actor trying to hunt something down. I called James Vanderbilt, and I said, ‘I’d really love to be a part of this.’ I’m sure a number of other actors wanted to as well, but it felt like an extraordinary opportunity,” he says. 

However, Malek was up for the challenge and felt prepared by his previous roles. “I got to play a character I’m not used to,” he says, before referencing his Oscar Award-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody. 

“Maybe you could say Freddie’s quite charming. He’s done some outrageous things. But Dr. Douglas Kelly is quite charming and disarming. He’s witty and he’s funny. So, I tried to infuse those elements into the story as much as possible,” the actor says. 

Malek feels grateful for his fellow actors in the movie—including Michael Shannon, Leo Woodall and Richard E. Grant, who were crucial in helping him decompress after a rough shoot. Along with the production crew, he said they all “tried to form an allegiance, a friendship throughout, where we could go out and sit down, and talk about the film.

“We could also sit down and talk about family, friendship, all aspects of life, so that we could decompress and laugh. We told a lot of jokes and in between takes, Russell [Crowe] would regale us with great stories. Somehow that was a way of allowing these moments to breathe so that when we needed to jump back into these incredibly tense moments, you had the energy to do so,” the actor says. 

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Nuremberg was produced by Vanderbilt, Richard Saperstein and Bradley J. Fischer. The cast also includes Colin Hanks, and John Slattery.

Nuremberg is in theaters now.