NEWSRami Malek Reveals Tom Cruise's Advice for His New Movie: 'He Was Adamant About Me Needing Weapons Training'
Tom Cruise stressed the importance of weapons training to fellow action star Rami Malek.
April 3 2025, Published 12:20 p.m. ET
Tom Cruise is passing the torch.
In an interview on Wednesday, April 2, Rami Malek revealed the advice the fellow action star gave him ahead of his upcoming movie The Amateur.
Tom Cruise stressed the importance of weapons training to fellow action star Rami Malek.
Malek, 43, noted he had a "fun Tom Cruise moment" where he got to share his plans to star in the espionage thriller.
"[Tom] said, 'Well you're going to need weapons training,'" Malek told Entertainment Tonight. "And I tried to explain the premise to him. I said [my character] is an amateur. He can barely shoot a gun to save his life. Tom was just adamant about me needing weapons training."
Rami Malek stars in the upcoming action film 'The Amateur.'
Cruise, 62, is no stranger to action hero roles, starring in Jack Reacher, Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible and more. Malek has also starred in action films as the watch officer in Battleship and Bond villain Safin in No Time to Die. This is his first time playing the protagonist in a film of this genre.
Malek spent a long time training to be in good physical shape for the film and adopted an intense workout regimen.
"There was a lot of running involved...no one can do that Tom Cruise run like Tom Cruise," he said, referring to the iconic scene in Mission: Impossible where he sprints through the streets.
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Tom Cruise told Rami Malek he needed weapons training for his new action movie.
Malek took inspiration from his predecessors, including Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, Daniel Craig in James Bond films, Matt Damon in Bourne Identity and Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor.
"I gravitate toward these characters that are alienated or feel disenfranchised or unseen, and to thrust them in a situation where they lose someone they love the most in the world. It's the thing that makes them whole," Malek explained. "And you use that as the weapon to see them rise and put them in situations that are extremely intense and throw them out of their element and see if they can survive."
The Oscar-winning actor — who is both producing and starring in The Amateur — wanted to portray a "regular guy doing something you least expect him to be capable of doing."
Rami Malek underwent intense physical training for his upcoming film 'The Amateur.'
The Amateur follows Charlie Heller (Malek) a CIA decoder who goes on a dangerous mission to find who is responsible for a London terrorist attack that led to his wife's death. When his agency doesn't allow him to go, he must blackmail his supervisors so that he can leave.
Malek has reportedly been a part of the production and development process for the movie, which releases on Friday, April 11, for five years.
