Rami Malek has hit back at the criticism that Bohemian Rhapsody fails to tell the true story of Freddie Mercury, suggesting that focusing on the darker and seedier aspects of the Queen front mans life is not a worthwhile expenditure of anyones time.
There is that movie, Rami told Metro.co.uk, a very explicit, gratuitous and salacious version of this story.
But he suggested that although the Bryan Singer-directed film, out on 24 October in the UK, touches upon some of those moments of Freddies life, an entire movie is not a worthwhile expenditure of his nor an audiences time.
I think we touch on enough of those moments that it elevates how profoundly incredible he was as a musician and performer and human being, how he spoke to audiences in a way that no one really has since and probably may never will – he could have you in the palm of his hands until it was okay to be your most authentic self, it was okay to be exactly who you want to be, he said.
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He didnt allow himself to be categorised or defined, put in any box, he was a revolutionary, so to make a movie about some aspects of his life that were darker and seedier than the ones I want to celebrate is not a worthwhile expenditure of my time, or an audiences as far as I am concerned. There is that movie, its just not the one I choose to make.
Rami signed on to play Freddie after Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Whishaw walked away from the project; Sacha had made it clear that he did not believe the script delved deep enough into Freddies AIDS diagnosis and suggested that Brian May and Roger Taylor wanted the biopic to be about them as a band than the more tragic life of Freddie, who died in 1991.
The film however has been in the works for 10 years, with Brian previously revealing a mix of production issues and creative differences across the board; director Bryan Singer was later fired from the movie.
The movie will premiere at Wembley Arena – right next door to where the bands most iconic gig took place at Live Aid in 1985 – and that scene was also the cast and crews first day on set, a moment Rami called extremely terrifying.
Its considered one of the greatest rock performances of all time and in my mind he is the greatest front man that has ever graced the earth, so you can imagine my heart, how fast it was beating on that day, he said.
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You come out and see that piano that is just shiny and glossy, it has the Pepsi cups on top and everything is recreated so accurately, its almost surreal, the closest thing to an out of body experience.
It was the greatest adrenaline rush you could ever every imagine.
Speaking on the divisions between himself and Bryan, which had been widely reported, Rami revealed that it was a tumultuous set there is no doubt about it.
It came to a place where there was a lapse in time when our director was not present and we needed to find a new director, and I think that says it all.
It is extremely daunting having what feels like the weight of the world on your shoulders – [Freddie] is everything to everyone and I just never wanted to let him down and every day I went in there and reminded myself this had nothing to do with anybody and had nothing to do with me or anyone in the crew, any one of the actors.
We were here to honour and celebrate this human being, and no one is getting in the way of that.
Bohemian Rhapsody is out in the UK on 24 October.
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