Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has earned over $472 million worldwide, putting it on track to become the highest-earning music biopic of all time. While the film has received some mixed reviews, nearly all critics have praised Rami Malek’s portrayal of legendary frontman Freddie Mercury.
Guitarist Brian May has even put his support behind the actor, who is most known for his role on Mr. Robot.
“He’s incredible… without doubt, he’ll be on the nominations list for an Oscar and well deserved as well,” May told the Press Association.
“He inhabited Freddie to the point where we even started to think of him as Freddie. Really remarkable.”
May noted that the project had been in the works for nearly a decade, and he’s ecstatic that it’s doing so well at the box office.
“It came out to s—ty reviews, as some of our work has before, but the public has embraced it magnificently. Everybody gave 200 percent, from the actors and technicians to the production team and hair and makeup, everyone.”
May was also pleased with the performance of actor Gwilym Lee, who plays him and looks remarkably like the guitarist.
“You don’t get any lukewarm responses. The guy who plays me should be getting awards all over,” May commented.
Malek, who spent a lot of time studying Mercury to portray the singer as accurately as possible, recently admitted he wanted to “delve deeper” into Mercury’s relationships with men, including the one with his boyfriend Jim Hutton.
“I just kept pushing for more of that aspect of his life,” he told Australian publication Who. “I don’t know if we ever felt fulfilled by it.”
Malek learned a lot about Mercury while preparing for the role.
“There’s just an eloquence and elegance to him that you see when he’s on stage, and then you can [see] where all that was birthed from,” Malek said. “I mean, not many artists are wearing an entire head-to-toe leather outfit, sipping a champagne flute and telling their audience to strip naked if they please. And he still comes off with this essence of royalty.”
