A nerd embarks on a mission of revenge against a group of terrorists in Director James Hawes’ action spy thriller, The Amateur.

Hawes’ film tells the story of Charlie Heller, a brilliant CIA decoder whose world comes crashing down when his wife Sarah dies in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to act due to conflicting internal priorities, he utilizes his intelligence as the ultimate weapon on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible.

On April 5, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Hawes discussed the making of The Amateur during a Q&A moderated by Director Sarah Pirozek (#Like).

During the conversation, Hawes spoke about directing Rami Malek as his lead and the challenges of keeping the correct emotional map for his character.

“What I always do is spend table time with each individual actor. I spent days with Rami just going through the script, talking about the temperature of each scene, where is he emotionally at any given point. What is the backstory? What do we think his day-to-day is before this all unfolds? One of my biggest challenges from the beginning was not to get him cool. Not to turn him into some kind of Karate Kid. He had to stay geeky, clumsy, charming, and slightly other really. And Rami brings that vulnerability that’s so important, and an intensity, and an intelligence. You needed to believe that this guy really was an analyst with an IQ of 175. So, all those qualities were absolutely key.”

Hawes’ other directorial credits include the feature features One Life; the movies for television The Challenger Disaster, The 39 Steps and Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World; and episodes of Slow Horses, Snowpiercer, Black Mirror, The Alienist, Genius, Penny Dreadful and Doctor Who. Hawes has been a DGA member since 2016.