Where does one start, when telling the legacy of Queen? Is it in the studio, where they tirelessly worked on potential classics such as "We Will Rock You" or "Radio Ga Ga" over the years? Or is it on the stage, where lead singer Freddie Mercury truly shined? When we asked the Bohemian Rhapsody cast to name the one scene in their movie that best captures the spirit of Queen, leading man Rami Malek told us:
I think you'd have to look at, if you could call it a 'scene,' Live Aid. Because it is the culmination of what the trials and tribulations were that got them there in the first place, and they still have something monumental to overcome. So I think if you look at this film, a lot of it is about overcoming adversity and challenging every aspect of yourself and your friends -- learning who you are, in terms of family and friendship, and getting there... with a little help from your friends.
We didn't realize it until Rami Malek pointed this out (I guess that's why they chose him to play Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic), but Queen really wasn't a slam-dunk choice to play the massive Live Aid concert in 1985. A dual concert held in both London and Philadelphia, the live-music extravaganza boasted the star power of Paul McCartney, The Who, David Bowie, U2, Madonna and Led Zeppelin, to name just a few.
The new movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, posits that Queen had to fight for inclusion on the concert bill, and that the members -- estranged at the time -- debated whether they even wanted to get together to play. The band took Live Aid as a test, to prove to the world (and to themselves) that their music and showmanship still had an impact.
As Rami Malek told CinemaBlend during a London press event on behalf of Bohemian Rhapsody, the Live Aid concert perfectly exemplifies the struggle that Queen endured over the course of their entire career -- doubted by many at every step of the way, yet still able to triumph on the biggest stages.
In fact, the scene that captures the creation of the band's biggest single, the one that gives the movie its title, shows that a record executive at their label didn't even want "Bohemian Rhapsody" to be released, saying that no one on the radio would ever play a six-minute odyssey with operatic flourishes. But Queen believed. And look where it got them.
Here's Rami Malek, singling out what is, to him, the most important scene in Bohemian Rhapsody:
Directed by Bryan Singer (for the most part), Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Queen, from their climb out of the club scene to the struggles Freddie Mercury had with his own sexuality. It features a star-making turn by Rami Malek, and boasts a killer soundtrack you will want to download as soon as you get home.
Bohemian Rhapsody will be in theaters everywhere starting on November 2.
