If you’ve seen not seen Bohemian Rhapsody yet, why not? Even if you’re not the biggest Queen fan, Rami Malek’s performance as the band’s late frontman, Freddie Mercury, is pretty damn impressive!
And when I say pretty impressive, in case you’re not aware of all news Tinseltown-related, the film has been hotly-tipped to pick up a few Oscar nominations (Academy Award nominations are announced next month). Not to mention it’s now the highest grossing movie biopic.
Even the band’s legendary guitarist Brian May, has stated how he feels Malek deserves the Best Actor Award for his ‘incredible’ performance.
Speaking to UCR, May said:
He’s incredible! Without doubt he’ll be on the nominations list for an Oscar, and well deserved as well.
He inhabited Freddie to the point where we even started to think of him as Freddie. Really remarkable.
If you’ve seen the biopic, you’ll know how astonishingly accurate Malek was in his portrayal of Mercury – especially for the Live Aid reconstruction.
Speaking with news.com.au, Malek revealed he prepared for the scene by watching the YouTube video ‘probably somewhere around 1500 times, maybe more’, adding:
That’s something we tried to get move for move, even just gesture for gesture perfectly.
Every day we did (filmed) a song. Day one, Bohemian. Day two, Radio Gaga. Day three, Hammer To Fall and the Day-O. Four we did Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Five, We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, and on the sixth day we rested.
Then we did the entire show which was the most phenomenal experience one could ever ask for.
Now, Malek has revealed the startling lengths he went to in order to get everything perfect. In particular, his physical transformation.
In a recent interview with The Wrap, the 37-year-old actor spoke about his crash diet, and having to find the energy to be able to perform without being out of breath:
I didn’t really want to bulk up, per se — I just wanted to get my body into a place where I could do a 22-minute concert over and over for five days and not be out of breath.
Well, it’s highly impossible to do that. There were days when I found myself laying on my back trying to just absorb as much air as possible.
But at the same time, I was on a very specific diet. I bulked up for that first week and immediately had to drop muscle and weight and go into shooting young Freddie, who is very scrawny.
I just had to be really cognizant of when to work out and when to crash diet. I don’t recommend it for anyone.
The Golden Globe-nominated actor also revealed how he felt wearing fake teeth. Mercury was born with four extra teeth in the back of his jaw, pushing his front teeth forward in a manner which gave him the nickname ‘Bucky’.
Malek was subsequently forced to wear fake teeth, which he states was ‘difficult’:
They started out being pretty difficult to deal with. We tried out all different sizes and when they first went in I felt very insecure, but immediately I compensated.
Despite an initial reluctance, Malek admitted, ultimately, they made him feel more like Freddie:
Physically, I started to sit with more posture and elegance and I thought, ‘Oh, he is so elegant!’ You see him covering up his lips and his teeth all the time, and I could never quite get the hang of it.
But as soon as those teeth went in, it was done. It was little things like that that were very informative for me.
Incredibly, once production had wrapped, Malek had the fake grill cast in gold, and is planning to auction it for charity, ‘in true ostentatious Freddie fashion’.
Brilliant!
Bohemian Rhapsody is in cinemas now.
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