Rami Malek Recalls What Happened The First Time He Performed As Freddie Mercury For Roger Taylor And Brian May
As Rami Malek recalled the first time he was auditioning for the role in front of Brian May and Roger Taylor, here's how it went.
Perhaps the movie Bohemian Rhapsody is not really raking in a lot of love from the critics and the audience. However, Rami Malek as the eclectic performer and Queen's lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, did manage to impress everyone with his uncanny looks and spotless performance. We'll have you know that he wasn't the first guy approached for the role of Mercury. Borat actor Sasha Baron Cohen was the first choice to play Freddie Mercury! But the actor walked out and Malek was roped in and we're glad that Mr Robot took on this challenging role.
As he recalled the first time he was auditioning for the role in front of Brian May and Roger Taylor, here's how it went. Malek quoted, “I went to Abbey Road to record everything, which was such an unforgettable moment for me. It is the holy grail of recording studios and it’s full of photographs of the legends that have recorded there. It’s incredibly inspiring. On my last day, when we got to go back and do a little more recording, I had a chance to play a little bit on the piano that The Beatles used, and it was unforgettable. This film has run the gamut of emotions for me but the highs have been higher than any you could hope for."
"Sharing what I got to record, which is a tape of me emulating Freddie, with Brian May and Roger Taylor was quite a moment. I thought they had seen it before we met and half way through our conversation I realized they hadn’t. And so I had to watch myself, interpreting Freddie for the first time standing between two of the people who know him better than anyone. You can imagine how intimidating that was.”
And what was their reaction? “Roger was characteristically cool and reserved and Brian, who I had noticed had been eyeing me up and down, came out with such a compliment that I was quite moved by. I had put all of myself into preparing for this and trying to do this person justice that getting that acceptance from them was inspiring and propelling.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 16, 2018 03:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).