20th Century FoxThe Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody gets its official wide theatrical release today. The film focuses on the journey frontman Freddie Mercury and his band mates make on their way from obscurity to rock stardom.
At the center of the film, of course, is Mercury, portrayed by Rami Malek. Queen guitarist Brian May says the Mr. Robot star uncannily depicted the flamboyant singer in all his emotional complexity.
“I love the way that Rami has captured not only Freddie’s great power and ebullience,” notes May, “but also the sensitive side…the vulnerability of Freddie.”
Queen drummer Roger Taylor, meanwhile, marvels at how Malek was able to replicate “the timbre, the tone, the whole sort of range of [Freddie’s] voice.”
Malek admits he was intimidated taking on the part of the late rock icon.
“I just tried to attack it from the way I would any other role,” Rami maintains. “[I thought] if you remove what he could do on stage and his ability to sing and play piano and…a myriad of other instruments, there was a man, a very complicated man at the center who was trying to discover his identity.”
Taylor points out that all the actors playing Queen’s members did a fantastic job.
“They got very close to us, I mean visually and as actors, which made it particularly uncanny to watch for us,” says Roger. “And after a couple of…viewings, you just start to completely believe, ‘Oh, that was us.'”
As for how he hopes moviegoers react to the film, Malek says, “I hope that when people leave the theater, they are filled with all the confidence that they own inside, that Freddie was able to discover and own, and that they are as inspired by Queen’s story and Freddie’s story as I am.”
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