British television typically how they wrap up their series is has anyone here a fan of British told us do you know what they typically do at the end like the British office which you know they you tend to do a Christmas special and so the final season the mr. robot is one very long Christmas special it'll last over about a week over Christmas of 2015.

So I'm always, you know, was down to create like our own thing of here's like a cool girl who is really smart and a great hacker. We are continually let the current events sort of inspire us because that's what we feel passionately about, that's what feels relevant, and it's sort of at the time hacking was just sort of right underneath the surface bubbling. And then literally the day we got picked up, the Sony hack happens, the day we got it. And then again a year later, I want to tell you guys, you witnessed it, you know, it happened in our general election, and you know all the other stuff. The Ashley Madison thing happened like a couple weeks before that episode aired. So there are some being killed on the air on TV, many different, it's like Sergeant Snowden and all of that coming to a head during the run. It's unbelievable, but I think that's part of the reason why again I think people connected to the show is that they're what we wanted.

together, and then he gets kind of taken out by Angela. So, the next episode, I wanted to be with him in real time as he starts to remember because I thought to myself, what would he know right away, or would it just be this sort of nagging thing in the back of his head? If I could be with him for every second of those thoughts as he's trying to piece it together, is he trying to remember? It's almost like you're waking up from a dream, and you're still trying to hold on to what actually happened. Was that a dream? You know what? Sometimes when you wake up, and you think the dream was real, and you're in that kind of hazy phase, that's what I wanted the beginning of the episode to feel like. So, that's where the real-time aspect came into play. And then we were gonna actually, halfway through the episode, we were gonna actually start cutting when we switched point of views.

have we have something who you someone who you implicitly trust that not only is the visionary behind the show but has written it knows exactly where we're going as he said from day one knows the ending of this. That's the only way I would sign up to do it in this fashion is to have someone. There is no one like Sam so to have Sam leading the charge and you can come in as prepared as you want but I will miss things undoubtably that I that you you do as you're struggling to compile this many episodes and perform them as this long series and always Sam will redirect me and they're in the right place and remind me of all the circumstances as he does all of us. So that's what you come in with knowing that you have someone there who has your back throughout and will never let you fail. Some of the more memorable more out there things such as season I want to get the numbers right season 2 episode 6 with the basically is like it unfolds like an 80s sitcom. It

I just put me in a position where people could see what I was capable of doing in a phenomenal series that I think not one III will say it did revolutionize the way we looked at television on cable. This show did, and it revolutionized how we looked at who could, who the characters we wanted to follow were, and what they had to say. And it gave him, it just gave me a platform to run the gamut of emotions that a character could play. I mean, over one season, I thought, what is left for him? And now over four, I think it's gonna come to a phenomenal end. I can't obviously say how, but it's been an extraordinary experience, and I would never have had the opportunities that I had without this show. We're gonna break some news today about season 4. They just want to know the new, they just want to know about the show, so I'll just jump ahead. So basically, going back to my earlier comment about being a fan of

something is as well-written as it was makes it so much easier. Just makes you want to do it as best you can, give everything to it, and it doesn't feel like acting anymore. It just feels like you're almost speaking in tongues. It's coming out of you because it's so well-written and comes from such a soulful, honest place. And that's how I mean everything I pick up of Sam's is that way, so that's the gift of it. I mean, I'd seen Night at the Museum, yeah. [Applause] [Music] Yeah, yeah. So I thought, Is this kid pretty good? He's perfect for Elliot. So, yeah, you know, I said, Yeah, I think this kid's pretty good. I think he's maybe an up-and-comer. Cool things our show is that it kind of changes the view of hackers and hacking culture and what a hacker looks like. And you know that it's not... People have this idea that it's like someone in the basement of their mom's house, like sitting on the computer.

was so unexpected and outside the box. Maybe Sam, if you could just why and then you guys what I was like to do that well again. It starts from Eliot's emotional journey and that's what that conversation was about. At the end of the prior episode, Elliot was being beaten brutally by Ray and his men. We wanted to show how Mr. Robot steps in and protects Elliot in those instances. So we thought, well, Mr. Robot will take over and then Elliot will go somewhere. The somewhere was, well, where is that? We at first were gonna be with Mr. Robot, but we thought little laymen. What's the interesting thing here is how do we stay with Elliot? What does that look like? What is that world? Then when we started there around ideas about, well, what's Elliot's safe place, his comfort place? I remember growing up, it was TGIF. I mean, used to watch all those shows, Step by Step, Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Run Pains. What's the one with Alec speaking now?

really wanted to tell a story about hackers 'cause at the time I had been reading a lot about it in the news, but it wasn't quite the public conversation, especially now. I mean, well, as our tagline in the first season was Our democracy has been hacked. That was before our democracy actually was hacked. That's I didn't know we were marketing the future, but I really thought we were talking about something that was bubbling right underneath the surface, and I thought it was really important, and I thought it was relevant. Wanted to be a hacker. I was just really bad at it. And at NYU, to impress a girl, I hacked into her college's mailing list and sent out this weird manifesto about how to not be a conformist, and it was really dumb. And I did it from the computer at the computer lab where I worked, and so it was pretty easy to bust me. So I got fired and put on academic probation, and I said, I'll just write stories about hackers as opposed to actually being a hacker. Feel safer and

to Angela, but at a certain point, we were like, No, this makes sense. Even the Angela side of the story felt more tense and more impactful if we stayed with her in real time. So, that's kind of how ya USA aired it. I mean, again, I give them credit—no commercials, and they aired it straight through. And honestly, half this stuff, just even doing the sitcom episode, I just kept waiting for them to fire me and the commercials for that. And the commercials for that. So instead, what they didn't—they didn't fire me, thankfully. Thank you, yes, A. And instead, what they did was they were so excited. They went out to advertisers, and they were able to air actual old commercials from the '80s and '90s. So yeah, they've been surprised that wasn't in one. Things have changed, and they just wouldn't have happened this way without this role in this show and this group that was. I'd done some things I thought were special in the past, and they still are, but this show gave me

family out family ties, and there was just something about those shows that, especially again growing up as a kid of immigrants, that showed there was a slice of normalcy that I didn't have. And so, and so that's how it kind of the conversation started about, well, Elliot's safe place is one of those that comes that he remembers so fondly as a kid. It looked fun to play. I mean, for you guys, was hilariously shot it like, yeah, exactly like that show would be shot where the three cameras set up. I mean, the backdrop, and I mean, it was unbelievable. We all felt pretty freaky, you know, as an end-of-course to have that little freaking puppet come running around was, Oh, nicest guy. Oh, no, I didn't want to give it away. Three Episode five all in one continuous shot. How did that well again that that conversation started with Eliot's emotional journey. So at the end of the prior episode, he had kind of come back in witnessing Angela and and mr. robot and Tyrell working.

to talk about now. I mean, the show is still set in 2015 for that reason. Is that we wanted it to be. We didn't want it to be dated. I mean, with tech, when movies about tech, it's always gonna eventually be dated, right? Like, getting of the computers and the phones are gonna change with every so every few years. But we want it. So, we specifically said this is about now. This is about 2015. But it but so it's almost like a period piece of current day. And we and that was a really important thing in order for Sam to direct every episode. We have to shoot the entire season as if we were doing a film, one long, I don't know, maybe 12, 13, 14 hour film. And so, as you do it in film, you don't shoot everything in sequence. I mean, it's very rare when you do. So, we can be shooting something from the first episode of season 4 and the final episode of season 4 in the same day. And that can be quite traumatic. But when you

Mr Robot talk & season 4 hints: Rami Malek , Christian Slater, Sam Esmail, Carly Chaikin at Tribeca

Mr Robot talk & season 4 hints: Rami Malek , Christian Slater, Sam Esmail, Carly Chaikin at Tribeca