Brian May Reflects On Freddie Mercury’s Number One Expectation From ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Movie

Queen released episode 48 of their short documentaries about the band’s adventures on their YouTube channel. In this episode, Brian May talked about the creative process behind Queen and Freddie Mercury’s biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ He revealed what Freddie would have wanted the film to be above anything else.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a long-awaited film depicting Freddie Mercury’s life, including the formation and career of Queen and his AIDS diagnosis. The movie starred Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. He portrayed the musician so well that he won an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and British Academy Film Award for best actor. Being Freddie Mercury in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ became one of the most prominent roles in his career.

Queen’s members were heavily involved in the making of the biopic and made important decisions regarding how Freddie was portrayed. They were also excited to reveal the events of their lives in the Freddie era. The production began in 2010, and Sacha Baron Cohen was hired to play Freddie. He parted ways with the production due to creative differences, and the project was paused. Malek was cast in 2017, and the production resumed. When it was released in 2018, it achieved significant success at the box office and grossed over $900 million worldwide. This success made the movie the sixth highest-grossing film worldwide in 2018.

In the documentary describing the making of the film, May said that they prioritized the portrayal of Freddie’s humanity and musicianship. It wasn’t easy to depict such a strong and important character that was a part of their lives, so they were very cautious about his representation. According to May, if Freddie were here, he would want the movie to be entertaining and make people laugh above anything else.

Here are May’s words about what would Freddie want:

“We all felt we wanted to portray Freddie’s humanity, to portray him as a human being, like Roger says, as a musician. And it had to be truthful, and it had to be not too indulgent, and it had to be watchable, and, I think Freddie would say, number one, it had to be entertaining. And I think you have to laugh, you have to cry, and I believe people do with this movie.”

You can watch episode 48 below.