Rami Malek was excited to play a James Bond baddie but the actor said he was willing to walk away from his role of a terrorist if a religion or ideology was attached to the character.
The actor, who has often spoken fondly about his Egyptian heritage, said he signed up when director Cary Fukunaga assured him that his character will not be identified like that.
"It's a great character and I'm very excited. But that was one thing that I discussed with Cary. I said, 'We cannot identify him with any act of terrorism reflecting an ideology or a religion. That's not something I would entertain, so if that is why I am your choice then you can count me out'," Malek told UK's The Mirror.
"But that was clearly not his vision. So he's a very different kind of terrorist. It's another extremely clever script from the people who have figured out exactly what people want in those movies."