Bohemian Rhapsody: Rami Malek reveals the "massive task" in becoming Freddie Mercury - video

23 October 2018, 12:40

"It all required quite a bit of work, but I enjoyed every second of it."

Bohemian Rhapsody, one the most-anticipated films of 2018, is finally released tomorrow (October 24).

Rami Malek plays late pop icon Freddie Mercury in the biopic, which documents the singer and his band Queen's rise to fame in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The actor was joined by Gwilym Lee - who plays Brian May - in the Smooth studio to reveal all the hard work that went in to portraying such beloved legends.

"With the weight of it all, obviously, of trying to portray one of the greatest icons of any field, it’s a massive task," Rami told Smooth's Kate Garraway.

"So I dove right in: singing classes; I worked on the dialect; piano; and then I did choreography slash movement for almost three or four hours a day, every day.

"And it proved to be very useful. I mean, he’s so unique – not only a human being, but his physicality, his mannerisms, the way he speaks, the way he holds himself. It all required quite a bit of work, but I enjoyed every second of it."

Gwiylm said of diving into Queen's classic songs: "It’s been really cool to go back to the origins of those songs to find more obscure songs in the back catalogue, to find out all these things that I didn’t know about Queen.

"Because we take the music for granted because it’s so universal. But to go back and learn about how they got back together, and to learn about Freddie’s private life – I didn’t know much about Mary Austin, for instance. He had a soul mate who he kind of remained friends with for his entire life, and I didn’t know anything about that."

Speaking about wearing Brian's infamous hair, Gwilym added: "I loved it, and I grew very attached to it for the shoot, but it’s fine. I was happy to say goodbye to it. It’s quite warm, that hair, actually."

Rami also revealed that he kept the teeth he wore for Freddie, saying: "Of course. Yeah, I do. It's not a party trick."

Speaking about pretending to be a rock star for the film, Rami added: "I thought acting was an adrenaline rush in and of itself. And then you add on this, and you really start to realise why rock stars want to go out as soon as the show is done.

"It just feels like you’re chasing that high. It’s an unbelievable high, to have that experience."

Bohemian Rhapsody also stars Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon and Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, and opens at UK cinemas on Wednesday (October 24).