Anyone who objects to lip syncing Freddy Mercury’s voice isn’t really interested in watching a movie about him, anyway. So the filmmakers don’t have to worry about pleasing them, since they aren’t going to show up no matter what they do – and only bitch about trivia if they do.
If I watch a movie about Freddie Mercury, I don’t care about the singing - I want to see parties with midgets carrying trays of cocaine on their heads.
Gah, what an awful choice. This project would be much better served using an actor with a physical resemblance to Mercury. An unknown would be fine.
Seeing this silly, gawky over-sized Mercury is going to be painful. For most movie-goers, this will be Borat performing with Queen.
Not really, since there was no lip syncing of Loretta Lynn’s voice in Coal Miner’s Daughter. Spacek did all the vocals. She could really sing, and wanted to be a professional singer. In fact, before she became an actress, she had released a record, and had auditioned for Decca Records, which passed on her because they said she was too similar to one of their other artists. That other artist was Loretta Lynn. Sissy’s vocals were perfect for the film, as was everything else. She won that Oscar for a very good reason. Bevery D’Angelo sang Patsy Cline’s music in Coal Miner’s Daughter for three good reasons. She could really sing too, and did a great job, it would have been weird to have Patsy’s real voice when Loretta’s real voice wasn’t used, and the movie wasn’t about Patsy so there wasn’t much of Patsy’s music in the film anyway. Sweet Dreams was an entire movie about Patsy. If the producers weren’t going to hire D’Angelo, then it had to be lip synced.
Freddie’s voice simply cannot be done by another singer, they just can’t. The filmmakers would be making a very grave mistake if they do it that way. Please oh please let the music be lip synced.
I think it would be weird to go to a movie, see Sacha Baron Cohen playing Freddie Mercury, and then have the real Freddie Mercury’s voice suddenly appear during the singing.
I much prefer the Walk The Line or Coal Miner’s Daughter approach - have the actors do their own singing. Somehow, in some strange way, it feels more “real” that way. I’m not going to be taken out of the movie by suddenly hearing a voice that shouldn’t be there.
I bet that makes no sense, I hope somebody knows what I mean.
I know what you mean, but Freddie Mercury is is much different calibre of singer than Johnny Cash or Loretta Lynn. Those performers had distinct (and imitatable) styles, but they were not at the technical level of Freddie Mercury. He was one of the best rock vocalists of all time and had a technical prowess that exceeds the ability even most other professional rock singers, much less actors. I just find it hard to believe that SBH (or any other actor) would have the chops to pull it off. If Sacha Cohen could sing like Freddie Mercury he’d already be famous for that alone.
I’m sure you can find a lot of actors who can play the guitar, some might even be pretty good. But you won’t find many who can play like Stevie Ray Vaughn, and this is kind of the equivalent.
As long as he plays it “straight”, as it were, I’ve got no problem with it. Typically I despise Sasha Baron Cohen and everything he does, but as long as he does appropriate justice to one of the greatest rock stars of all time it’s OK with me, not that my approbation is necessary or even desired.
He will. I have no doubt he will. This is such a golden opportunity for Cohen he’s not going to blow it. Since the project has the approval of the Mercury estate and the band members, Cohen has already proven his dedication and worth to the people closest to Freddie. Don’t think they didn’t all have input into the casting selection. The casting was approved before a director was even chosen. The more I read about this the more excited I am.
Cohen is going to take this extremely seriously, work his ass off, and be brilliant. It’s his chance to prove himself as an actor and he’s going to surprise the hell out of a lot of people.
The perfect writer is in place. The perfect casting is in place. Now we need to hear that the perfect director is in place. I’ll bet every name director in the UK is clawing to do this. I’d love to know what’s going on behind the scenes.
Borat…aka Sacha Baron Cohen…has been selected to portray Freddy Mercury, frontman of the rock group Queen.
http://entertainment.caledonianmercury.com/2010/09/21/the-freddie-mercury-movie-sacha-baron-cohen-be-representin/00999
Discuss.
Interesting.
I like Baron Cohen, and i’m a big fan of Freddy Mercury, but this doesn’t seem like quite the right fit to me. Still, if they had to choose someone else, i’m not really sure who would be the right person.
Mercury was so flamboyant and talented, and Baron-Cohen certainly has an air of showmanship that might fit the bill, but Mercury was also very distinctive-looking. He was also, i believe, pretty short, so they might need to have all the other actors on platforms or something.
Wait, so Sacha is going to play Borat playing Freddy? You’re giving me a headache here.
HARRUMPH!
I searched Cafe Society to make sure I was not pre-OP-ed!