E NEWS sat down with the cast of the forthcoming Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” movie, where they spoke about the work that went into recreating the characters.
EXTRACT:
RAMI MALEK (screen Freddie Mercury) speaking from Las Vegas Park MGM Hotel: “I was very cognoscente of the work it was going to take to get anywhere close to becoming Freddie Mercury. I flew myself to London and put myself up and just got hammering away… piano lessons and worked with a movement coach and singing lessons—everything I could possibly do. And then I watched copious amounts of Freddie Mercury performances. I just went to YouTube. Thank God for that now. It’s just something I drew from every night and just sat there and tried to replicate it.”
Creating the look…
GWILYM LEE (screen Brian May): “We had an amazing costume designer and a great hair and makeup designer and every day was different. It was something to look forward to every day to see how outrageous, flamboyant and over the top we looked.”
JOSEPH MAZZELLO (screen John Deacon): “They gave me a perm on day one. We had like six different wigs. We had looks through like 16 years. I’ve known Rami for 11 years…so when he put on that moustache and the teeth and all of it, it was truly wild, I got goosebumps because he just embodied him so perfectly. It was a crazy thing to know someone so well and just be who are you?”
RAMI: “I think he [Freddie] would genuinely just hope that people enjoyed it, that they loved the music, that he felt like we captured these characters and his essence well enough and close enough, and he’d probably just want to go have a pint afterwards.”
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