NEW YORK, June 20 (UPI) -- Director James Hawes says his new action-thriller, The Amateur, works as well as it does because Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek is believable as Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer with zero field skills, and makes viewers instantly care about him.
"He has such intelligence as an actor, as a man, so you believe the brains behind the guy," Hawes told UPI in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
"He has that charming, accessible awkwardness, so you feel that he has a vulnerability that you want to exploit. Also, as an actor, he's incredibly brave, in every way. He throws himself into stunts. He throws himself in emotionally, so I think it just engages you because you travel with him."
Co-starring Jon Bernthal, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson and Laurence Fishburne, the adaptation of Robert Littell's best-selling 1981 novel follows Charlie (Malek) as he tries to track down the people responsible for his wife Sarah's murder, against the wishes of his bosses at the Agency.
One of the challenges of making a film like this is striking the balance between authentic storytelling and protecting actual spy craft.
"We had CIA advisers, as part of it all," Hawes said, noting there are interviews with them and behind-the-scenes videos in the extras of the digital release of the film, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home.
"We really made it so the actors could be confident of the logic of the props, of everything they were doing and then we do that little Hollywood lift," he added. "So, we talked about it being rooted, but elevated. It was rooted in the real world. We ran it past all these advisers who said, 'Yes, that totally works.' And then we'd find a Hollywood twist, just to put some a little bit more sprinkles on."
Spy capers seem to be in Hawes' blood since he also previously helmed numerous episodes, including the pilot, of the beloved British MI5 series, Slow Horses.
He said he doesn't see a huge difference between stories that follow American spies vs. ones about British secret agents.
"It's a genre that the British have done for a long time from Le Carre. Of course, I worked on Slow Horses, so it's something we seem to own," he explained.
"I think that's part of our political history: putting us in the middle of the world between the enemies of Europe and the States. It's all about how you find your unexpected heroes thrown into the danger of the shadows."
Hawes also directed the first two episodes of Lanterns, the upcoming DC Universe series starring Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald and Nathan Fillion.
It is scheduled to premiere on HBO and Max early next year.
