{"id":452977,"date":"2026-05-21T14:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/452977\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:29:13","slug":"rami-malek-had-fear-of-starring-in-gay-drama-after-freddie-mercury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/452977\/","title":{"rendered":"Rami Malek Had ‘Fear’ of Starring in Gay Drama After Freddie Mercury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRami Malek<\/a> had been itching to work with Ira Sachs<\/a> for some time \u2014 going as far as to ask his representatives to get him a meeting with the filmmaker. But when he got the script for Sachs\u2019 next movie, \u201cThe Man I Love<\/a>\u201d \u2014 about a New York theater performer navigating life, love and his devotion to his art after being diagnosed with AIDS \u2014 Malek admits he hesitated at first, because he was fresh from his Oscar-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in \u201cBohemian Rhapsody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I read the script, I said, \u2018I can\u2019t do this. There\u2019s too many similarities. It could be problematic,’\u201d Malek told reporters on Thursday at a press conference following the film\u2019s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was a certain sense of fear,\u201d Malek continued. \u201cI started to really think about what I was afraid of. Was it the similarities? Was it the singing? Was it what was going on in the period? \u2026 I knew I had to address the fear. If there\u2019s anything Freddie taught me, it was [to] address the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Malek contemplated what to do, he kept in mind that Sachs \u201cmakes unique cinema unlike any other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew I was in extraordinary hands, and that if he was choosing me, I could rely on him,\u201d he said of the \u201cPassages\u201d and \u201cKeep the Lights On\u201d director. \u201cNot only to depend on him throughout the film, but to elevate it, to push myself, to force myself to race into that fire. When I raced into it, I started to discover that these men were similar, but they were also worlds apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIra Sachs, Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge and Luther Ford attend the \u201cThe Man I Love\u201d premiere during the 79th Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tPlaying Jimmy in \u201cThe Man I Love\u201d would require him to sing on camera again. But those intimate performances weren\u2019t like playing the Queen frontman playing to crowds of thousands in \u201cBohemian Rhapsody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a legend in Freddie, who really had a destination, whereas Jimmy is just searching for creativity and love and intimacy and joy and pleasure in every moment,\u201d Malek said. \u201cHe can sing. Does he sing as well as Freddie? No. If he needs to learn kabuki, he\u2019s going to throw himself into it, and [throw himself] into Onnagata, and I did. Was it ever going to be perfect? Didn\u2019t have to be. It was just about this element of creating and living and joy. New York, in that period, was a very different time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile audiences can draw similarities between the two queer men, Malek added, \u201cI see them as two radically different figures altogether \u2014 especially as I have some more distance from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSachs \u2014 who appeared on the press conference dais alongside Malek, his co-stars Tom Sturridge and Luther Ford, as well as the film\u2019s artisans \u2014 offered his take on the comparison.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love how you describe Jimmy specifically as someone who does have ambition, but it\u2019s almost internal ambition,\u201d Sachs said as he turned to face Malek. \u201cAs opposed to someone like Freddie, who\u2019s looking for external.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs a character, Jimmy represents a period in 1980s New York and the artists who inhabited it, where \u201cthere was a courage to do things because they wanted to impress the person who lived next door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was not this fantasy of globalization. It was a very local time,\u201d Sachs said. \u201cBeing as ambitious as someone like Jimmy is, but with the idea of proving things for yourself and for the artist who lives in the hall next door to you, who lives just around the corner. This is something which, in a way, gives me a kind of courage, because you need to aim small in a certain way, and you need to aim into yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMalek chimed in: \u201cThere are a lot of people who aspire to be someone like Freddie Mercury, there are a lot of artists in the world who don\u2019t get to that level, but still have an immense abundance of talent and skill, and a world to offer that just maybe is unseen by the masses, but communally gets some recognition. Or they recognize it in themselves. And perhaps that can be almost as gratifying. And I think that was for Jimmy, in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gratification of landing the cover of the Village Voice \u2014 as Sachs and Malek believe would be Jimmy\u2019s ultimate goal \u2014 is certainly wonderful, but receiving an eight-minute standing ovation<\/a> in the Palais des Festivals \u2014 which \u201cThe Man I Love\u201d did after its debut in competition on Wednesday night \u2014 just might top that. Malek shed a tear during the massive applause for the deeply emotional film, which has been described as a \u201cmusical fantasia of a city under duress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the press conference, Sachs, who co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Mauricio Zacharias, revealed why Malek was his top choice for the role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith a film like this, you needed someone who had a certain kind of mystery, a certain kind of potential for the unexpected, but also truly a star quality,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause there is a whole universe which revolves around Jimmy and Rami in the film. A star is someone who emits light and also asks to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMalek and Sachs further discussed \u201cThe Man I Love\u201d during a special Kering Women in Motion conversation<\/a> earlier this week. During the talk, Malek credited Sachs for bringing out \u201ca performance in me that I don\u2019t think I would give in another situation,\u201d adding: \u201cIra is an actor\u2019s director, among all the other things he can do. We believed in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also reflected on his historic Oscar win for \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d and how becoming the first Egyptian actor to take home the prize inspired future generations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rami Malek had been itching to work with Ira Sachs for some time \u2014 going as far as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6403,146,85,189085,46,397,2834,211197],"class_list":["post-452977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-ira-sachs","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-rami-malek","tag-the-man-i-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}