“Let’s see. Which way am I going?”

The question is, of course, rhetorical. Looking back as he speaks, Malek nimbly navigates a maze of monitors, tripods, coiled cables and coffee tables in an already labyrinthine suite at The London hotel in the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles. “See, even back here I’m in my London bubble,” says Malek, a California native who’s outside Britain for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic struck properly back in March.

After a few sidesteps, Malek reaches behind drawn curtains, opens a pair of glass doors and we emerge onto a sprawling terrace with commanding views of the city. He sits on a long, L-shape sofa, the Hollywood sign visible in the distance behind him. “Ahhh. Here, this is a good two metres,” he says, his embrace of the metric system a sign of England’s effect on him. He gestures at his facemask: “Can I… Can I take this off?”

Although I say yes and remove my own face covering, Malek leaves his on, even while talking. “This is very much home and not just in heart,” says the 39-year-old actor, who grew up a few miles away. “So it’s been really sweet to spend time with my family in the last few days, even with the masks on.” In addition to seeing family, Malek is in Los Angeles to get back, however haltingly, to work. He’s spent the past several hours in various parts of this hotel suite recording a series of behind-the-scenes commentaries for No Time To Die – the 25th instalment of the James Bond franchise – in which Malek, if you didn’t know already, plays the mysterious arch-villain Safin.

Those promotional videos are, today, right here and now, among the mounting signs that the film is definitely, maybe, hopefully coming to theatres less than two months from this late September day. “Yeah, it seems like we’re actually going to release in November,” Malek adds. “Fingers crossed.” He shrugs as if to say, “Who knows?” [More at Source]