Rami Malek’s Roller-Coaster Journey from Bohemian Rhapsody to the Oscars

As Sunday’s ceremony approaches, let’s take a moment to reflect on the best-actor front-runner’s wild, bumpy ride.

February 21, 2019

As Bohemian Rhapsody heads into Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, Rami Malek seems like a pretty safe pick for best actor. His film has been a hugely popular hit, setting a new record as the highest-grossing music biopic of all time—and catapulting Malek into an awards odyssey, despite middling to poor reviews for the movie itself and the dark scandal surrounding its fired director, Bryan Singer. Despite the mixed reception the film has received, Malek’s performance has widely been praised, and, as of now, the Mr. Robot star has scooped up not only a Golden Globe, but also BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards for his performance as Freddie Mercury in Singer’s Queen biopic. To paraphrase Queen, good luck stopping him now. (Sorry.)

As Malek readies his surprised face and finalizes his list of People to Thank, let’s take a moment to reflect on his wild, occasionally troubling ride of an awards season.

Bohemian Rhapsody got off to a rocky start before the film was even completed, thanks to on-set tension caused by Singer’s reportedly repeated absence from set. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malek complained to the studio about Singer’s unprofessional behavior—and eventually the two got into an altercation that did not turn physical, but did involve Singer throwing an object. At the time, Singer said he was dealing with the dire health of a loved one, but even after he and Malek supposedly resolved their problems, Singer did not return to production following a Thanksgiving break. In a statement at the time, Singer wrote, “Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true. While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving.” In December, Fox fired Singer from the film. Dexter Fletcher eventually took over, helming the production to completion.

Luckily for Malek, things got easier from there—at least for a while. Last October, as the film was ramping up for its November release, Malek found himself in a mild P.R. dilemma, courtesy of a viral fan video. In the clip, he’s seen politely declining to send a video message to a fan’s friends, before realizing that her phone is already recording video. Malek’s publicist alerted him to the video—and when he finally brought himself to watch it, the actor ended up being relieved by what he saw. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s not that bad,’” Malek told V.F.’s Julie Miller at the time. “I don’t find myself offensive.’”

“I am happy to take photos with anyone,” Malek clarified. “I just want to be aware of what people are doing in the moment. When someone films you automatically, it’s a bit intrusive.”

In the end, all was well; the ordeal made for a fun news item for a few days. It did not slow down the Bohemian Rhapsody train—and neither did mediocre to negative reviews for the film itself, which was widely derided for a paint-by-numbers approach and factual inaccuracies that undermine Freddie Mercury’s story. But the film still flourished with audiences, and eventually began an impressive awards sweep.

In January, Malek found himself on stage at the Golden Globes, accepting his first award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. He cited Mercury in his speech: “Thank you to Freddie Mercury for giving me the joy of a lifetime. I love you, you beautiful man,” he said. “This is for and because of you, gorgeous.” He went on to do the same thing at the SAG Awards, where he said, “I thank Queen and Freddie Mercury. I get some power from him that is about stepping up and living your best life, and being exactly who you want to be, and accomplishing everything you so desire. I feel that, and he allows us all to feel that. So this is, again, for him.”

But Malek’s most memorable Golden Globes moment did not occur during his speech. Instead, it came when he accepted Bohemian Rhapsody’s best-drama award from presenter Nicole Kidman. Malek tried to hug Kidman, but the actress unwittingly snubbed him, turning around just as he reached out to her. The actor tried to diffuse rumors of tension by swearing he’d known Kidman for years, and, indeed, Kidman said a few days later that she was “mortified” when she realized that she had accidentally ignored him: “I just did not feel his hand on my back.”

While Christian Bale could nab the best-actor award at Sunday’s Oscars for his performance as Dick Cheney in Vice, Malek’s odds at this point look pretty good—especially given Bohemian Rhapsody’s seemingly unstoppable ascent. Even when a new report dropped in January, re-invigorating scrutiny of Singer—who has been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct for years—the film’s momentum refused to stall. (Singer has denied the allegations, claiming that the latest report “rehashes claims from bogus lawsuits filed by a disreputable cast of individuals willing to lie for money or attention,” and calling it a “homophobic smear.”)

Before the report was published, Malek and his co-workers seemed determined not to address Singer, if they could help it; neither producer Graham King nor Malek mentioned Singer during their acceptance speeches at the Golden Globes, and when asked about the matter backstage, King said, “That’s not something we should talk about tonight. Every single person collaborated and did [the film] out of passion [for] making this story. That was everybody.” Added Malek, “There was only one thing we needed to do: celebrate Freddie Mercury. He is a marvel. Nothing was going to compromise us. We’re giving him the love, celebration, and adulation he deserves.” Later, Malek also said he did not know about the allegations against Singer when he signed on for Bohemian Rhapsody.

But days after the report emerged, Malek finally discussed his relationship with the director, as well as the allegations against Singer. “My situation with Bryan, it was not pleasant, not at all,” Malek said, referring back to Bohemian Rhapsody’s difficult production process. He also expressed empathy for victims of sexual misconduct: “My heart goes out to anyone who has to live through anything like what I've heard and what is out there . . . I can appreciate so much what they’ve been through and how difficult this must be for them. In the light of the #MeToo era that this somehow seems to exist after that, it’s a horrible thing.”

Hollywood has certainly seen no shortage of fraught awards-season races over the past few years—but even by those standards, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rami Malek have had to navigate several major bumps on their way to the Oscars. But it seems unlikely that the baggage surrounding Singer and the film will hurt Malek’s chances either way come Oscar night—so brace yourself for a surge of “We Are the Champions” jokes come Sunday night.

Laura Bradley