Actor Rami Malek, known for characters like Snafu in The Pacific, has taken on the ambitious task of portraying Queen front-man Freddie Mercury, one of the biggest personalities and biggest voices in rock-n-roll history.
The film is aptly named after one of the bands most famous songs, Bohemian Rhapsody. The new biopic follows the life of Freddie, originally Farrokh Bulsara, and the formation legendary band Queen. It premiered here at the Castro Theater in San Francisco to a red carpet event where the main actors portraying band members were present.
Malek while on the red carpet talked about several facets of playing the rock god and what it was like to delve into the mind of such a complex creative character. When asked about why he thought Mercury was the greatest front-man of all time he attributed it to his ability to connect to his audience.
“The way [Freddie Mercury] holds an audience, he holds them in the palm of his hand,” Malek said. “He holds himself in a position where it’s almost as if he’s making eye contact with everybody out there saying, ‘You know what? We’re going to do this together, we’re going to have a really good time.”
Joseph Mazzello, playing Queen bassist John Deacon in the new biopic, was also present and talked about how he perfected his character for die-hard Queen fans who were very particular about the movies portrayal of the bands history.
“It’s a massive responsibility, I mean you feel the weight of it everyday. It’s not just the responsibility you feel to [John Deacon] himself, but to his family, and then to the Queen fandom who know these guys inside and out,” Mazzello said. “I remember even seeing something where I did a move that I saw John Deacon sort of do at one of the concerts and people were commenting, ‘Oh that’s what he did Montreal 1981.’ Like they knew that level so you really always carry that around.”
Gwilym Lee, playing Queen guitarist Brian May in the new biopic, also told us about his stories about meeting the living members of Queen and how the legendary guitarist gave him his blessings for Bohemian Rhapsody.
“[Brian May] was amazing, he was so supportive from day one,” Lee said. “He came and met us in rehearsals when we’d only been rehearsing for a week and he walked in the door and we were terrified that he was going to be there but he came straight up to us and gave me a massive bear hug and from that moment I was like, ‘ok we’re going to be alright’ we had his blessing and support and that meant a lot.”
Bohemian Rhapsody is slated for theatrical release November 2 across the U.S.
Watch the trailers below.
Follow Bohemian Rhapsody here.
