Rami Malek won’t deny he’s playing Dr. No in the new James Bond film No Time to Die. Coming off his Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in the blockbuster Bohemian Rhapsody, Malek is next taking a trip to the dark side for his role as the mysterious villain Safin in the 25th Bond adventure.
By landing the role of Bond villain, Malek joins an illustrious list of actors who’ve also taken on 007 on the big screen, including everyone from Donald Pleasance to Telly Savalas to Christopher Walken to Christopher Lee. Most recently, Oscar-winners Javier Bardem and Christoph Waltz have both taken their turns as the Big Bad in a Bond movie, with Waltz in fact getting set to return as Blofeld in No Time to Die. Indeed, Waltz bringing back the iconic Bond villain first played by Pleasance in You Only Live Twice has led to speculation that Malek is himself set to resurrect a classic bad guy from the series’ past, Dr. No. Fans believe they've spotted hints about Malek being Dr. No in trailers, though the most recent Bond clip seemed to debunk the notion.
The Dr. No theory is of course just that, a theory, and if it’s true no one associated with No Time to Die is going to let the cat out of the bag. As for Malek, he is playing along with the mystery game when it comes to the true identity of his Bond character. When asked by Esquire flat out if he is Dr. No, Malek replied, “I heard that. Am I? I mean, isn’t that an exciting thing to consider all the way up to the release?”
Malek’s clever non-denial will do nothing to dampen speculation that he is in fact playing Dr. No, which of course is the entire point of dropping cryptic statements, speculation being a wonderful thing from a publicity point-of-view. The character of Dr. No of course first appeared in Ian Fleming’s novel by the same name, and made his big screen debut with Joseph Wiseman in the role in the very first James Bond film, released in 1962. In many ways the template for all Bond villains to come, No is a criminal mastermind with prosthetic hands who, unfortunately, was played by the Canadian Wiseman with makeup to make him look Asian.
Of course, the character of No – and particularly Wiseman’s portrayal of him – is problematic nowadays. Malek for his part took steps to assure that the character he plays in No Time to Die doesn’t cause such problems, insisting that the character, who has the Arabic name Safin, not be associated with religious fundamentalism or terrorism. Other than a few details like this, little is known about the character, and it seems Malek is happy to keep it that way in hopes of building intrigue ahead of the release of No Time to Die. Whether Malek is playing Dr. No or not, audiences have reason to look forward to how the award-winning actor tackles the responsibility of playing the villain opposite Daniel Craig in his last go-around as Bond.
Source: Esquire
