--- description: The star of "Mr. Robot" wants Hollywood to keep moving towards a more diverse slate of projects title: Rami Malek Interview: Mr. Robot image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0960ed88c06d9070/6988746cbc6cfcb9a53dabe3/rami-malek.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Rami Malek: 'I Hope It's Not Just This Year That Diversity is a Touchstone' by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/), [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) and [Adam Perez](/author/adam-perez/) Dec 18, 2015 4:49 PM CUT  Erik Madigan Heck for TIME Erik Madigan Heck for TIMERami Malek, November 2015. by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/), [Salima Koroma](/author/salima-koroma/) and [Adam Perez](/author/adam-perez/) Dec 18, 2015 4:49 PM CUT Rami Malek plays the lead on _Mr. Robot_, one of TIME’s [best shows of the year](http://time.com/4130167/top-10-tv-shows-2/ "undefined"). His role, of an antisocial hacker, could be played by an actor of any race, and Malek, an Egyptian-American performer, sees his work as part of a larger continuum. “Was I too ethnic, or not ethnic enough?” he recalls thinking in the past. Malek hails Spike Lee’s recent honorary Oscar win as part of an attempt to redress a larger problem: “Why haven’t those films garnered the attention they deserve until today?” His work helps solve that problem, perhaps, but attempting to get a slate of films and TV shows onscreen that truly represent American diversity will go beyond 2015\. As Malek says: “I hope it’s not just this year that diversity is a touchstone. That it’s not just talked about. That people actually act upon it.”  Erik Madigan Heck for TIME Rami Malek, November 2015. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4141886/rami-malek-interview-mr-robot/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4141886/rami-malek-interview-mr-robot/"},"headline":"Rami Malek: 'I Hope It's Not Just This Year That Diversity is a Touchstone'","datePublished":"2015-12-18T16:49:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:33.810Z","description":"The star of \"Mr. Robot\" wants Hollywood to keep moving towards a more diverse slate of projects","url":"https://time.com/4141886/rami-malek-interview-mr-robot/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0960ed88c06d9070/6988746cbc6cfcb9a53dabe3/rami-malek.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Salima Koroma","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/salima-koroma/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Adam Perez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/adam-perez/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0960ed88c06d9070/6988746cbc6cfcb9a53dabe3/rami-malek.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"rami-malek","caption":"Erik Madigan Heck for TIME","creditText":"Rami Malek, November 2015.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4141886/rami-malek-interview-mr-robot/","name":"Rami Malek: 'I Hope It's Not Just This Year That Diversity is a Touchstone'"}}]}] ```