ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: Mr. Malek, how are you feeling? What’s going on right now?

RAMI MALEK: Right now, I am home doing a bit of press. We have one of those hiatus weeks because, as you know [Mr. Robot creator], Sam [Esmail] is directing everything. He gets a week of prep before we complete season two of Mr. Robot.

DOWNEY JR.: Do you draw any comparisons between a director/creative partner and a brother, both essentially named Sami?

MALEK: Yeah. I actually do. They both have, in the time we’ve spent together, pretty much told me exactly what to do with my life. [laughs] There are some striking similarities between the two of them: They’re both Egyptian, they both vaguely resemble each other.

DOWNEY JR.: It’s funny how that works. Now I’m not going to start asking you about relationships, in case you were wondering. I’m in this odd position of realizing that it’s somewhat a daunting task to appropriately interview somebody. What the heck is Buster’s Mal Heart?

MALEK: I read this very experimental script on the first season we were shooting [Mr. Robot]. It was really poetic and cool, and it left so much to the imagination. So much of it was just scene descriptions, and we would improv the meat of the dialogue. That was something I looked at and was like, “Well, I’ll probably never get a chance to do something like this again.” I think it’s done now. Sarah Adina Smith directed it and is editing it, and is probably submitting it to festivals right now.

DOWNEY JR.: Oh, I wanna see it!

MALEK: Maybe we’ll screen it together. It won’t be as elaborate as your Star Wars screening, but … Am I supposed to talk about that? Or maybe not?

DOWNEY JR.: [laughs] Listen, it’s a two-way street, pal. First of all, are you in town next Wednesday?

MALEK: I’m not. What kind of fun adventure do you have planned out?

DOWNEY JR.: I had some ideas, but whatever. I guess if I want to see you for the foreseeable future, I just have to come to set again.

MALEK: [laughs] That was amazing. You turned me into a hero when you came to set. I’m not kidding. They were like, “You know him?” “How do you know him?” I knew it was very cool to know you, but the world started paying me more attention on that day on set. Maybe I elaborated on our relationship too much and started fantasizing it was more than it actually was. No, I just told them how close we were and that we hang out, we celebrate holidays together, we watch movies together, all of which is true!

DOWNEY JR.: [laughs] I mean, it was great to see you, very nice to catch up with [Christian] Slater. And, without giving anything away, I was just happy that I was able to see a scene with you and Slater that left everything to the imagination.