The 'Need for Speed' actor doesn't mince words when telling the audience that portraying the Queen frontman is a difficult job, saying, 'This could be a career killer.'
- Apr 27, 2018
AceShowbiz - Twentieth Century Fox attended the Thursday, April 26 CinemaCon Festival in Las Vegas. Among the movie trailers presented at the event is the first trailer of upcoming movie "Bohemian Rhapsody". Rami Malek also took a chance to share his thought on playing Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury during the presentation.
The clip opens with Queen's classic song "Bohemian Rhapsody" playing in the background while young Mercury offers himself to be the lead singer of a band. Then, one of his future bandmates says, "Not with those teeth, mate." Somewhere in the clip, Mercury says, "If I go any higher, only dogs will hear it." The trailer ends with Mercury hitting the stage at the 1985 Live Aid concert as "We Are the Champions" plays in the background.
During the panel, Malek admitted that the role he took might turn his acting career upside-down if he did not do it right. He told the audience, "One thing I will say is when I got this role, I thought, 'Oh my God, this could be a career-defining performance.' And about two minutes later, I go, 'This could be a career killer.' I'm not kidding. You don't get this right, and it's trouble."
He further spoke about how playing Mercury was difficult as the late singer was a great performer. "He is, without a doubt in my mind, the greatest performer that has existed... There is no one like this human being." said Malek. He added, "What he does in his music is he gives everyone watching this ability to embrace all of their imperfections and sing as loudly as they can."
Malek also said that he received a compliment from Queen's guitarist Brian May after the latter watched the movie. "The greatest compliment I could get was the other day after Mr. Brian May emailed me after seeing the movie and saying how moved to tears he was, and that if Freddie were here today, he would not and could not be more proud of what we were able to achieve," he said. "And that is something I'm gonna take to the grave."
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is set to be released on November 2 in the United States.
