‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ brings Queen and Freddie Mercury to the big screen

In the history of pop music, there isn’t another frontman quite like Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and it’s not just his extraordinary voice, singular stage presence, or that magnificent overbite.

Mercury is like something out of a comic book, a rock ’n’ roll superhero whose audacious life and AIDS-related death — he was just 46 when he succumbed, in 1991 — make him an almost mythic figure, utterly human and yet oddly unknowable.

That it’s taken Hollywood until now to tell the singer’s origin story is surprising, but “Bohemian Rhapsody” opens Nov. 2. Rami Malek, best known for his role on the TV drama “Mr. Robot,” plays Freddie, and the film’s soundtrack is a potent reminder of just how popular Queen was in its heyday.

The 37-year-old Malek, starring in a feature film for the first time, says he approached the project with a genuine sense of dread. Over lunch recently at the Verb Hotel, Malek said Mercury casts an intimidating shadow. What if Queen’s fiercely devoted fans — the band has sold hundreds of millions of records — didn’t buy him as Mercury? What if his onscreen performance of such hits as “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” and “Under Pressure” struck a wrong note?

“It was terrifying,” says the actor. “I had absolutely as much concern as you could have about doing Freddie justice and doing the band justice.”

That concern was shared by at least two of Queen’s three surviving members — guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor — who took an active role in approving the film’s cast, reviewing the screenplay, and overseeing the music. (Queen’s bassist, John Deacon, gave his blessing to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but otherwise stayed away.)

On one level, the movie, which takes its name from Queen’s 1975 opus that is still one of pop music’s most unconventional hits, is a straightforward biopic, the story of a young man who ditches his job as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport to join a band.

But there isn’t much about Mercury that’s straightforward. Born Farrokh Bulsara to Indian parents, the aspiring singer was an immigrant, which made him more exotic — and, for a predominantly white audience, potentially less relatable — than the pasty-faced, private-school lads who were playing rock ’n’ roll in England at the time.

And then there’s the matter of his sexuality. In his 20s, Mercury had a long-term romantic relationship with Mary Austin, played in the movie by actress Lucy Boynton. He eventually began having liaisons with men — a lot of them — but his bisexuality, while presumed by fans, was not something he or the band discussed publicly, even after the singer tested positive for HIV/AIDS in the mid ’80s.

Some would no doubt enjoy a movie that focuses on the furtive Freddie Mercury, the profligate carouser. (He used to frequent gay clubs in Boston when Queen was in town to perform at the Garden.) But “Bohemian Rhapsody,” executive produced by his bandmates, is not that movie. And that, says Malek, is just fine.

The actor, who was joined at the Verb by two of his costars — Gwilym Lee, who plays May, and Joseph Mazzello, who’s Deacon — says the goal was to make a movie about Mercury that’s honest and respectful in equal measure.

“I think, first and foremost, we wanted to celebrate the human being, and if you explore the illicit, the gratuitous, the salacious side, you really don’t get to experience Freddie in all of his might and joy and glory,” says Malek. “You can dip into those parts that some might call seedy, but that’s not the only story I want to tell about Freddie Mercury.”

The immigrant aspect of the singer’s story especially resonates with Malek, whose own parents are Egyptian.

“I know that guy,” the actor says of Mercury. “I said, ‘Let’s tell a great story about an underdog who’s trying to discover his identity and blossoms in such a unique way.’ ”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was not an easy movie to get greenlit. Indeed, executive producer Graham King, whose credits include the Oscar-winning films “Argo” and “The Departed,” had tried for several years to make it, but investors and studio bosses were skeptical.

It also took time to get the script right and to settle on a cast. Before Malek was on board, “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen was attached to star, and then English actor Ben Whishaw was rumored to be up for the role of Mercury.

Even after filming began, there were delays. Although Bryan Singer is credited as the director of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the American filmmaker known for directing the big-budget superhero movie “X-Men” and its sequel “X2,” was fired just a few months into production, replaced by English director Dexter Fletcher. Variety reported that Singer had been showing up late on set, sometimes not at all, and Malek had grown increasingly unhappy with the director.

Asked about Singer’s dismissal, neither Malek nor his costars mention him by name. Instead, they credit Fletcher and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel for rallying the cast and crew to keep going.

“Dexter brought an energy to the set that was infectious. He was so positive,” says Mazzello, who played Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz in David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” “There were all of these issues, but he came in and brought everyone’s energy back to the first day. He got all of us moving again.”

“We were all adamant that we were going to finish this thing,” adds Lee.

The music — and vocals — in “Bohemian Rhapsody” are Queen, but before filming started, Mazzello, Lee, and Ben Hardy, who portrays Taylor, spent several weeks taking music lessons, learning to play their respective instruments. Malek, meanwhile, studied Mercury’s mannerisms, working with a movement coach to imitate the singer’s exaggerated gestures and stiff-legged strut, and he watched hours and hours of concert footage.

“Collectively, I think we’ve seen the majority of the archival footage that exists. I’d watch some guy’s camcorder recording from 50 rows back at a concert in Japan in the ’70s,” says Malek. “I studied Freddie almost the way you’d go to school and dissect an animal.”

On the first day that the actors performed together as a band — re-creating Queen’s remarkable performance at the 1985 benefit concert Live Aid — May and Taylor showed up on set.

“They wanted to see us play,” says Mazzello, laughing. “We were a little nervous.”

Before filming, Malek also was fitted with dentures that mimicked Mercury’s distinctive overbite. The prosthesis took some getting used to — forming certain words proved difficult at first — but his prominent choppers are as much a part of Mercury’s public persona as the sleeveless white T-shirt, cape, and crown he often wore onstage.

Careful viewers will note that Mike Myers makes a cameo in the movie, playing a fictional record executive who refuses to release “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a single because he thinks the song’s operatic passage is self-indulgent twaddle. Myers is actually a huge fan of Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody” was used to great effect in the opening scene of “Wayne’s World,” the 1992 comedy costarring Myers and Dana Carvey.

“He’s such a Queen fanatic,” Malek says. “He came with the whole character worked out and with his own makeup artist.”

“Wayne’s World” made “Bohemian Rhapsody” a hit again, and it’s likely the new movie will do the same. It’s been many years since Queen ruled the Billboard charts, but the band is still popular. Since 2014, May and Taylor have teamed with former “American Idol” contestant Adam Lambert to perform as Queen + Adam Lambert, selling out shows around the world.

Asked if May or Taylor has seen the film, Malek nods.

“I got an e-mail from Brian after the screening saying how proud he is of the work we’d done,” the actor says. “It was very nice to hear.”

Mark Shanahan
can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MarkAShanahan.