[Spoiler alert: This interview contains plot details for both parts one and two of “Mr. Robot’s” second-season premiere, “Unmask.” Do not read if you haven’t seen the episodes.]

Rami Malek came out of seemingly nowhere to become one of television’s most compelling leads as Elliot Alderson in USA’s cyberthriller “Mr. Robot.” Malek’s performance is what makes “Mr. Robot” fit together — warm, humane and relatable, even as it is unreliable, alienating and occasionally threatening. You’re never quite sure if you’re watching a hero or a villain.

Malek himself is a favorite for the Emmy nominations, to be announced early Thursday, for that very reason. When Variety caught up with him, he’s in the midst of a whirlwind of publicity, including an appearance on “The Today Show” in which a very enthusiastic fan jumped and waved at the glass behind him long enough that his co-star Christian Slater commented on it. “It’s a big day,” he tells Variety.

Wednesday night’s season 2 premiere of “Mr. Robot” — “Unmask,” parts one and two — opens in a world of chaos and change. But while the world’s financial markets, including E Corp, are struggling to recover from Elliot’s actions, Elliot himself is in self-imposed lockdown. The Elliot in “Unmask” is partly remorseful vigilante and partly terrified child. Variety talked to Malek about what’s going into his performance of Elliot for this season, as well as his long phone call in a bathroom with showrunner Sam Esmail and the first (and only!) time he smoked pot.

Have you seen the premiere yet?

No, I’ve not seen it. You know, I don’t particularly love watching myself. But, actually, this season I’m not there as much as I was last year, so maybe I will watch to be surprised by what my lovely actor, actor colleagues have come up with. The fact of the matter is, we could probably get 15 or 16 episodes out of what we shot. So I’m excited for anyone to see anything at this point.

You’ve had to play a lot of plot twists on “Mr. Robot.” How much of season 2’s plot did you know while filming season 1?

Sam [Esmail] told me what happens in season 2 when we were done shooting season 1 — or, about halfway in between the end of season 1 and season 2. He told me to go to a quiet place. Or… I told myself to go to a quiet place? I don’t know. I sometimes get everybody confused. That’s what the show does, and that’s what he does.

But, I went to the bathroom, because that was the quietest place I could listen to him tell me the story of season 2 over the course of an hour-and-a-half to two hours. I remember being in that confined space, just moving as much as I could around it — standing, sitting, laughing, being very worried, questioning things. By the end of it I was just trying to jot down as much as I could, because I knew I wasn’t going to get any information for a while.

At one point, he told me everything that happens over the course of five seasons. But I think he was just, you know, he just steered me in the wrong direction. [Laughs.] I’m just as confused as anybody about what he has up his sleeve.

It must be challenging to play a character that is as much a mystery to you as he is to the audience.

Yeah. I mean, with all the chaos that happens on this show, he has that compounded with this chaos that he has happening inside of his head. He’s dealing with this disorder, which he’s coming to terms with that he has, which is a very scary thing for him. And there’s a lot of denial and shame and self-loathing that comes with that. And then on top of that he has to come to terms with the climate he’s created for the world, with this taking down the financial system as we know it. So there are just so many things that are compromising his well-being as a person, and I sometimes don’t know how he gets through it. But he gives me hope.

You worked with a mental health professional to get into Elliot’s head in season 1. How did you prepare for where he is season 2?

I talked to her — Jenny Morey [Psy.D.], we just talked about what happens when you have this kind of discovery — that you suffer from any type of mental illness, or have to live with any kind of mental illness… The recognition of that, initially, can be terrifying. There’s a shame in it, a questioning of — why did this happen to me? Why must I be the one to suffer? What’s wrong with me? What did I do wrong? So there’s all that self-loathing in there, and an intense amount of shame. To add that to all the other conditions that he has, I mean… [Laughs.] I would probably go further than Elliot. I’d try to get back to the womb if I were him, instead of just going back to my mom’s.

Is Elliot the hero of this story?

That’s the thing. I mean, as authentic as this show is with technology, and relating to world events as they’re happening, we’re also allowing this idea of what a hero is to be questioned. How long have we had this idealistic view, that our heroes aren’t without flaws? He’s very flawed. He can be very corrupt. And at the same time, he’s also being very corrupted. Throughout all of that he has this grandiose hope that he can save the world about there. There’s something very idealistic about that, and naïve, but also heroic! The fact that he is, you know, just one person trying everything possible to make life better for many. And in doing so, he just, he really fucks up. He screws up, masterfully. And he has to deal with the guilt and the repercussions of all that. I think he’s a hero for our time — one that people can actually look at and identify [with], and maybe that makes being heroic a little more accessible.

There’s a lot of politically charged rhetoric in “Mr. Robot,” and used by Elliot particularly, that resonates a lot in the real world. Are people treating you differently because of that?

I think most people look at me as the incarnation of him on the screen — I’m an actor, obviously. But people are just happy that this message is being produced. The fact that we can be very polarizing in what we say — that we kind of rail against this hyper-consumerism that exists in the world and we’re also being funded by one of the biggest conglomerates as well — is ironic, but also satisfying to both sides. [Laughs.] I think there’s something in it for both sides. Which is maybe the only way to get anything achieved.

But yeah, there are a lot of people on the street that feel like Elliot has given voice to some of their concerns, and it’s not just relegated to people who are his age. I’ve seen a lot of older people — even a grandmother came up to me and appreciated the message. I really think she’s been waiting to hear these things for such a long time. This affected her.

That’s interesting, because when I watch the show, I don’t always think the show is endorsing Elliot’s beliefs. In the premiere, for example — you see a world that is really freaked out by what he’s done.

Yeah. You know… [Laughs.] Sam and I always talked about Elliot. One time I asked him, “How do you think the audience is going to feel about that?” and he said, “Don’t worry about the audience.” He said, “This is the story. If you worry how the audience is going to respond to something, you’re never going to get your story across. No one ever questioned if Don Draper or Walter White was likeable,” he said. “We don’t have to make Elliot likeable.” He’d leave that up to me, to bring some kind of vulnerability or affection to that character. But, uh, [Elliot] does some pretty deplorable things!

How do you portray someone like that sympathetically?

Anytime I find a type of character that has a type of, I guess, villainy in them — or someone that doesn’t have the most redeemable qualities — I try to discover where that comes from. Obviously, people are very different. I just want to discover what makes someone do the things they do, with everybody. Whether they’re good-natured or — I hate this term — evil. Or have some negative aspects of themselves. Everything is a result of a situation someone has encountered somewhere in their lives. I think few people are actually born malicious or malevolent. So you know, if you can justify their condition, I think it makes them a little bit more accessible as a human being. A little more relatable. If the guy was perfect, who would really care. It wouldn’t be for our time. Or any time, you know.

Is there a lot to keep in your head when you’re playing an unreliable narrator? I read that you have your voiceovers piped into your ear while shooting.

You know, I will say this. This year, we have enough of a budget that everyone on set can have an earbud if they’re working with me, so they can also hear the voiceover, to prompt them to come in on their line. And a lot of people just can’t handle it, because there’s a white noise that comes with it, too. Every actor is has been like, “How do you deal with that?” And for Elliot [laughs] it works perfectly. Not only am I listening to this subtext inner monologue that I’m having, but it’s surrounded by this static that I think Elliot has to deal with, as well. So there are some times that I put that earbud in with just the static going, too — just to consider how hard it would be to listen or have another conversation with another human being when your inner voice is having its own dialogue with you. Or having a one-sided conversation. And on top of that, you’re having this other person living inside of your mind as well, in Mr. Robot.

As taxing as it might sound to have all those things going on, it’s really helpful for me to really have to focus on the things I need to communicate, the things I want to communicate, and the things I feel can be put by the wayside.

Tell me a little bit about the scene in the premiere where Elliot confronts Mr. Robot and Mr. Robot shoots him in the head.

You know, I don’t smoke pot, and I did one time. Well, not one time, but I got really messed up off of that one time, because I kind of had some really crazy hallucinations, and felt like my mind was really being compromised. This was over the course of, uh, few days. [Laughs.] So I never wanted to feel that again. And so when I thought about, you know, that gunshot — that gunshot’s been happening over and over and over. That’s not the first time that’s happened to him. He’s finally at a place where he can confront it, make an attempt to confront it. I know this is going to happen again, hold your ground, it’s going to be alright, you’ve survived this God knows how many times.

But when I started to really think about the first few iterations of that, and how that must have felt like for him, it’s completely debilitating. To the point where — when you’re living in the state that he is, it’s impossible to identify what’s real and what’s not. He’s finally been able to adjust and rationalize that this is not what’s actually happening. But when it looks and feels and sounds and real as it does to him, that’s… that’s enough to make someone want to move on from this world.

That’s what special about him, it’s the fight. I always talk to Sam about that. One time I brought up the idea of suicide with him, like, what’s keeping this guy from really like just calling it quits? And he goes, that’s not our guy. That’s what makes him different, that’s what makes him very special. He perseveres no matter what. And I don’t know if that will always be the case, because the things that are getting thrown at him this season are, uh… [Laughs.] it’s some heavy stuff. But hopefully our man gets through it.

Having said all this really dire stuff about this, I think you might find some of Elliot’s situations this season quite humorous, as well. For a guy who doesn’t smile very much, I have a feeling by the next episode you might a different perspective on him. I’ll say that about him.

Lastly—because Elliot’s illness is, among other things, so cinematically convenient, what do you say to the critique that Elliot isn’t really a human character?

To that, I will say, there are plenty of people out there who really associate with this character. There are a few people who think that this is a character that is an invention or a tool for a writer to get across some incredible narrative. That’s not true; there are people like Elliot out there. It’d be remiss not to speak up and say that, even. There are a lot of people who suffer the way he does. Elliot is grandiose in hoping he can save the world… but there are a lot of people who want to save themselves.

Elliot having these grander aspirations — I think he speaks for a lot of people, and gives them hope that they can have some semblance of a normal life, or adjust to what their new normal is. Elliot’s very real. The situations he’s in are very real. And that’s why this story has, I think, been received the way it has by audiences all over the world. As fictitious as it may seem, I think people are paranoid that the world he lives in exists. And if there was any way for them to have a chance to alter it, I think many people would attempt to do so in their own way.