Bohemian Rhapsody: Rami Malek warned producer he couldn’t ‘sing, dance or play piano’

Malek plays the late Queen icon in the new movie, which has been a big box office success despite lukewarm reviews. It is on course to overtake the likes of The Greatest Showman and La La Land in terms of global box office takings, Queen’s music is shooting back up the charts, and Brian May even thinks the lead actor deserves an Oscar nomination.

But Malek revealed in a recent interview with Deadline that it was a long road to get him up to scratch.

“I could not have done without Graham [King, producer], who gave me everything I needed,” he said.

“We sat down for a six hour meeting and he’d really only seen me in Mr Robot, where I played this profoundly alienated, socially anxious human being who’s a pretty far cry from Freddie Mercury.

“Graham saw something in me with Dennis O’Sullivan, and gave me a shot.”

He added: “I said, ‘listen, I’m not a singer. I don’t play the piano. I move in a very interesting way on a dancefloor – I don’t know if I’d call it rhythm!’

“But somehow, I just said, ‘if I have the time, I can get there. If you help me out with the things I need.’”

And King, it seems, came through for him.

“He got me all the lessons to sing, the piano lessons, a movement coach, a dialect coach, teeth to wear a year in advance! And I got used to it,” Malek recalled.

Bohemian Rhapsody also stars Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor and Joe Mazzello as John Deacon.

Lucy Boynton, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, Allen Leech, Mike Myers and Priya Blackburn also star, with current Queen singer Adam Lambert having a cameo role.

The project was first announced way back in 2010 with Sacha Baron Cohen as Mercury, but he departed the project in 2013. Malek was cast in 2016.

He will next be seen in the drama Papillon, out in the UK on December 21. Watch an exclusive clip here.

Bohemian Rhapsody is out now.