RAMI OPENS UP ON UNDER PRESSURE BRYAN SINGER
Actor Rami Malek, who played the legendary singer-songwriter and stage icon Freddie Mercury in his biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), did not have a pleasant working relationship with Bryan Singer, who gets director’s credits for the film.
Singer’s services as the helmer of the Queen biopic were terminated under the pay-or-play provision of his contract due to his repeated failures to show up on the set. The film was later completed by Dexter Fletcher.
Malek, who has been nominated for the best actor Oscar this year, recalled working with Singer on the film. “I’ve sat here and talked about how everyone deserves a voice and anyone who wants to talk about what happened with Bryan deserves to have their voice heard. In my situation with Bryan, it was not pleasant. Not at all. And that’s about what I can say about it at this point,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter.
He said the filmmaker being fired from the job was a bolt out of the blue.
“For anyone who is seeking any solace in all of this, Bryan Singer was fired. Bryan Singer was fired, I don’t think that was something anyone saw coming but I think that had to happen and it did,” the former Mr Robot actor said.
Malek also showed support for people who were allegedly sexually harassed by Singer — in a report nearly two weeks ago in The Atlantic, four men alleged that in the 1990s, the director had sexual encounters with them when they were underage. The director denied the charges.
Malek, who previously said that he was “not aware” of the allegations when he started working with Singer on the film, added, ‘It’s awful. It’s remarkable that this happens. I can appreciate so much what they’ve been through and how difficult this must be for them.”