Even though we’re coming up on a year since Bohemian Rhapsody hit theaters, Rami Malek still hangs out with Queen. Unlike some biopics and films about real life people, the band Queen was intimately involved in the production of Bohemian Rhapsody, with active, surviving members Brian May and Roger Taylor serving as executive music producers on the film. This naturally meant that they got to know Rami Malek, who in an Oscar-winning turn portrayed the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
After that extremely challenging role playing such a singular musician, Rami Malek maintained his friendship with Queen and in fact, he recently hung out with them at a very special event. The actor recalled:
Yes, very much so actually. We were together at the Global Citizens Fest this weekend, and I got to open up for them. And I was backstage in their dressing room, and they said ‘Hey Rami, how about you walk out with us backstage.’ So I did the walk that Freddie would do in the past, that I studied for a year, over and over. I saw him do it so many times with them. So it was the greatest honest and privilege to do that with them, and be a part of their lives.
Rami Malek came out on stage to introduce headliners Queen + Adam Lambert at the Global Citizens Festival on Saturday, September 28. The annual music festival is organized by the Global Poverty Project whose goal it is to extend extreme poverty around the globe. At this special event, Rami Malek not only introduced Queen to the Central Park audience, he also got to once again hang out with Queen.
As Rami Malek told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he was hanging out with Queen backstage in their dressing room when they asked him to walk out with them. Here he got to slip back in to his Bohemian Rhapsody role once again by doing Freddie Mercury’s walk. He may be out on karaoke for a while, but Rami Malek will still pull out some Freddie Mercury when the occasion calls for it.
Similar to the way Taron Egerton formed a bond with Elton John during and after Rocketman, Rami Malek seems to have formed a lasting bond with the members of Queen. As he told Colbert, introducing the band at the Global Citizens Festival was a privilege and an honor for him and that’s how he feels about being a part of their lives in general.
You can check out a somewhat grainy video of Rami Malek introducing Queen at the Global Citizens Festival in the video below.
Rami Malek does a seriously great job of playing the hype man for Queen here. He seems at ease being stage and thrilled to be introducing Queen. His speech gets the audience completely revved up to see the iconic band.
It’s cool to hear that Rami Malek still hangs out with Queen and hopefully he finally got to take them out for that drink following Bohemian Rhapsody's Golden Globe nominations. The actor seems to truly value the relationship he has with the band and that feeling seems to be mutual as far as I can tell.
In addition to having him introduce the band at this concert, Queen’s Brian May was quite vocal during the film’s run about his belief that Rami Malek deserved an Oscar nomination. He of course got that and more with his Best Actor win.
Rami Malek’s career will continue on its Mister Fahrenheit-like trajectory when he stars as the villain in next year’s James Bond film No Time to Die. That hits theaters on April 8, 2020. Check out our 2020 Release Schedule to see all the big titles filling up next year’s calendar.
