'Bohemian Rhapsody': How Rami Malek Was Transformed Into Freddie Mercury | THR News - video Dailymotion

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Capturing the energy and flamboyance of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury for Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody meant a dramatic transformation for Rami Malek, best known as the twitchy lead character in USA's TV drama 'Mr. Robot.'

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00:00Can you go a bit higher?

00:01If I go any higher, only talks will hear me.

00:04Try.

00:06Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody hit theaters November 2nd, with Mr. Robot star

00:10Rami Malek bringing the band's charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury back to life

00:14in a performance that has gained widespread praise.

00:16For Malek to embody Mercury's energy and flamboyance, he had to undergo a

00:20dramatic transformation which involved some serious makeup and the guidance of a

00:24movement coach.

00:25Hair and makeup department head Jan Siebel was the artist tasked with taking

00:2937-year-old Malek from Mercury at age 19 into his late 30s.

00:33Certainly parts of his face really look like Freddie, but then there are other parts

00:36that don't, says Siebel.

00:37Rami's nose was a bit bigger, so he put on a tiny prosthetic nose to give him the very

00:41straight aquiline nose that Freddie had, and because that also helped bring Rami's

00:45eyes in a bit.

00:46Siebel used eye makeup with shading to make his eyes appear closer together and

00:50shaded in his cheeks.

00:51Rami has a fantastic jawline, not too different from Freddie, but I brought that

00:55out even more, she says.

00:57The department also had multiple mouthfuls of teeth made to more closely match

01:01Mercury's distinctive pearly whites.

01:03According to Siebel,

01:04We went through many pairs until we got the pair that we thought would do what we needed

01:07them to do, but wouldn't take over.

01:10Turns out, the precision of Siebel's artistry was proven when Queen Band member

01:13Brian May's wife Anita came to set.

01:16Says Siebel,

01:17He came up to the stage as Freddie in his later look, and she burst into tears.

01:20It was so emotional.

01:22Meanwhile, movement director Polly Bennett was given the job of getting Malick to move

01:25like Mercury.

01:26At their first meeting, Bennett told the Mr. Robot actor she wasn't going to teach him

01:30choreography in the traditional sense.

01:32You need to understand why this man moves the way that he did, she told him.

01:36That's what's helpful for an actor.

01:37Rami isn't a dancer, therefore I shouldn't be treating him as one.

01:41In order to help Malick truly inhabit the role, Bennett did a deep dive into Mercury's

01:45life, not just examining footage of interviews and performances, but also delving into his

01:49youth so she could deconstruct Mercury's movements.

01:52Everyone moves differently because of what they've experienced, what they've seen, who their

01:57family is, what space they've grown up in.

01:59This is what I've called a movement heritage, she says.

02:02Two interesting discoveries were that Mercury frequently masked his mouth using a microphone,

02:06cigarette or glass because he was self-conscious about his teeth, and that he had been a long-distance

02:11runner in his youth, which contributed to the way he sprinted across the stage.

02:15Bennett explains that her greatest challenge was combining Mercury's spontaneity with the

02:19film's faithful frame-by-frame recreation of Queen's 1985 Live Aid performance.

02:24There was no freedom in it, she says.

02:25So to make it not look learned or structured and to teach it in a way that felt free was something

02:30I had to be mindful of.

02:32While Sewell's moment came in the form of Anita May's emotional reaction, for Bennett it was when

02:36she watched Malick perform the 20-minute Live Aid set from beginning to end.

02:40Says the movement coach,

02:41when he did the whole section, beat by beat, gesture for gesture, breathing at the right time,

02:46flipping the microphone at the right time, not skipping a line, picking up a guitar, playing the

02:50right chords, Proud doesn't even begin to describe it.

02:53To read more on this story, head to THR.com.

02:56For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.

'Bohemian Rhapsody': How Rami Malek Was Transformed Into Freddie Mercury | THR News

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