Rami Malek of ‘Mr. Robot’ Doesn’t Want to Be Alone Anymore

Elliot Alderson — the drug-addled, anxiety-riddled hactivist played by Rami Malek — spent the first two seasons of USA’s “Mr. Robot” destro...

Elliot Alderson — the drug-addled, anxiety-riddled hactivist played by Rami Malek — spent the first two seasons of USA’s “Mr. Robot” destroying the world. Now, as this techno-thriller enters its third round on Wednesday, Oct. 11, Elliot is on a mission to save it.

“We begin on an adrenaline high as Elliot is off and running on a path of accountability,” said Mr. Malek, who won an Emmy for the role in 2016. “He’s become a more conscious, responsible human being who is looking to right the wrongs that he’s made and grown into more of a man. And it makes this season all the more riveting to watch Elliot go about trying to fix the world he’s broken.”

Just as Elliot is growing, so, too, is Mr. Malek, who has ridden his television accolades into starry feature roles, like the Dustin Hoffman part opposite Charlie Hunnam’s Steve McQueen in the coming “Papillon” remake, and a hotly anticipated turnas Freddie Mercury, the Queen frontman, in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

In a break from shooting that film in London, Mr. Malek, 36, who speaks in winding sentences while scarcely pausing to breathe, discussed Elliot’s tangled web, his own paranoia, and the trick to capturing Mercury’s essence. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

You shoot the episodes in “Mr. Robot” out of order. Viewers can scarcely keep track of what’s happening when they watch the show chronologically. How on earth do you?

In a show as dense and rich as this, it can be quite difficult to wrap your head around where you are in the story, jumping back and forth. Fortunately, we have everything written beforehand, unlike a lot of other shows, and it’s really the only way I can accept shooting under those circumstances. When Sam [Esmail, the show’s creator] and I first sat down, he explained the story to me from the beginning to the end. But yes, it does take me at times a second and third read to put everything together.