# Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) to star as Freddie Mercury **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079 "2016-11-08T16:53:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079/1 "2016-11-08T16:53:05Z")
> **[Rami Malek “Mr. Robot “will embody Freddie Mercury | The Siver Times](https://sivertimes.com/rami-malek-mr-robot-will-embody-freddie-mercury/886)** Bryan Singer (X-Men director) is leading the helm to direct a long delayed biopic of Freddie Mercury and Queen. He has recently cast Rami Malek, the current star of the USA Channel’s _Mr. Robot_. The role was previously to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen, who dropped out of the project in 2013. Other than Mr. Robot, I’ve only seen Malek in the _Night in the Museum_ franchise of movies as King Tut. I’m not sure he’s got the flamboyance to play Mercury. No doubt, he’s good actor, so it will be interesting to see his interpretation of Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079/2 "2016-11-08T17:41:09Z")
I’ve got a Meh feeling about this. SBCohen was getting old for the younger days of Queen, but man, he had the complex, layered, flamboyant-but-self-deprecating-and-aware fundamentals that Mercury requires. Rami Malek is of North African descent and intense, but I haven’t seen much complexity. And no clue how they will do the vocals. I also recall reading that SBC left because the band wanted something PG-13-ish and focused on Queen overall, not Freddie. I love Brian and Roger, but that ain’t right. Here is a quote from Vulture: [Sacha Baron Cohen Explains More About Why He Left That Freddie Mercury Biopic You Thought He Was Perfect For](http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/baron-cohen-on-leaving-freddie-mercury-biopic.html) > [@](#): > > In 2010, Sacha Baron Cohen was cast as Freddie Mercury in a biopic of the late Queen front man. He dropped out of the project three years later, citing creative differences with the surviving members of the band. Now, in an interview with Howard Stern, the comedian has shed more light on exactly why the long-gestating film never happened. (It’s currently languishing without a director or star attached, though Ben Whishaw’s name has been bandied about.) “At the end of the day it really was an artistic difference,” he explained. The band wanted a PG-rated film that climaxed with its surviving members finding the strength to carry on after Mercury’s death, while Baron Cohen wanted … not that. “A member of the band, I won’t say who, he said, ‘This is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie,’” he revealed. “I go, ‘What happens in the middle of the movie?’ He goes, ‘Freddie dies.’” For his part, Brian May has said that the band ultimately felt Baron Cohen “would have been distracting.” In the end, I guess, they did have to stop him now. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079/3 "2016-11-08T19:35:09Z")
Yeah I dunno about Rami, either. I didn’t see him in the \*Museum \*movies but I saw him on \*Colbert \*a couple months ago and he seems to not be acting too hard when he plays his character in _Mr. Robot_. That guy is pretty opposite of what I imagine Freddie was like. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079/4 "2016-11-08T20:55:02Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Yeah I dunno about Rami, either. I didn’t see him in the \*Museum \*movies but I saw him on \*Colbert \*a couple months ago and he seems to not be acting too hard when he plays his character in _Mr. Robot_. That guy is pretty opposite of what I imagine Freddie was like. Yes. He seems perfectly friendly and everything but not exactly brimming with vitality. It’s kind of hard to picture Rami being exuberant but I’ll watch anything that has to do with Queen in general and Freddie in particular. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rami-malek-mr-robot-to-star-as-freddie-mercury/771079/5 "2016-11-08T21:18:17Z")
Yeah I’ll watch anything about Freddie and I am so intrigued by Rami that I would watch anything with him so I am guaranteed to watch this, no matter how shitty I think it might be 😃