How ‘Bohemian’ re-created Queen’s show
Band’s epic Live Aid set was massive production
Spoiler alert! The following contains minor spoilers about the ending of Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
NEW YORK – Playing Freddie Mercury on the big screen is daunting enough. But having to re-create the Queen frontman’s most iconic concert on the very first day of shooting?
“It was a baptism by fire,” says Rami Malek, who charismatically performs the British rocker’s entire Live Aid show at the end of the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” (in theaters now). “You walk out there on that stage as it was replicated from the day, and there was a feeling like you could never imagine of extreme euphoria. You just need to live up to that moment.”
Live Aid, the charity concert for famine relief in Africa, drew more than 1 billion TV viewers worldwide on July 13, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. The lineup included pop and rock acts such as Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Elton John, U2 and Queen, who played a 22-minute set featuring hits “Radio Ga Ga,” “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.”
It serves as the centerpiece of the electrifying finale of “Bohemian,” which comes just after Mercury’s (Malek) dev- astating diagnosis with HIV/AIDS. Unsure how much time he has left, the ailing Mercury agrees to do the show and make amends with his former bandmates, whom he alienated when he left Queen to pursue a solo career. (In reality, Mercury hadn’t yet been diagnosed, and the band was still together.)
The rousing sequence was shot over the course of a week on an old airstrip in North London, where the stage of the since-demolished Wembley was built to scale. Cameras were hoisted on cranes and throughout the audience of 2,000 extras, who were multiplied with CGI to replicate the 70,000 concertgoers who packed the stadium for the benefit.
It was cold and rainy in mid-July when production started on the film, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic crowd on the set. Original Live Aid producer Bob Geldof was in attendance, as were Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, who weighed in on costumes and shared memories from the legendary concert with cast and crew.
“Everyone, from me to the caterer, was out there clapping along to the songs and cheering on (the actors), because it was all about the atmosphere and energy,” “Bohemian” producer Graham King says. By ending the movie with Live Aid, the goal is to “uplift audiences, rather than have them leave feeling depressed or emotional about Freddie and what he went through in his personal life. It’s a real celebration.”
Malek and his co-stars Gwilym Lee (who plays May), Ben Hardy (Taylor) and Joseph Mazzello (bassist John Deacon) had six weeks of rehearsal prior to shooting Live Aid, in which they worked with movement coach Polly Bennett and meticulously studied footage from the show on YouTube. After performing a different song every day, they ran through the whole set three times consecutively on the last day of filming – a Herculean feat that left Malek feeling “exhausted but elated.”
“Doing the entire run-through of that concert, you feel the peaks and valleys,” Malek says. “You’re so high off adrenaline that you realize that’s exactly how they were able to do what they were doing. It’s that quality that makes you feel, even just for a moment, that you’re superhuman.”