Rami Malek's response to question about Freddie Mercury being a gay icon doesn't go so well

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment

Bohemian Rhapsody has had no shortage of drama and now people are talking about Rami Malek‘s answer to a question about Freddie Mercury’s sexuality.

Rami Malek, seen here at the London premiere of <em>Bohemian Rhapsody</em>, is being criticized for the way he answered a question about Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. (Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Twentieth Century Fox)
Rami Malek, seen here at the London premiere of Bohemian Rhapsody, is being criticized for the way he answered a question about Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. (Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Twentieth Century Fox)

The movie’s star was asked by INTO if he saw Mercury as a gay icon, amid criticism that the rock star’s sexuality is played down in the film, which opens Nov. 2 in the U.S. Malek took a moment to find the right words.

“Um… I don’t — I think the way…” he began. “What’s really great about him is that he never, uh, wanted to or thought of himself as being boxed into anything. … I’ve heard him say, you know, when asked, he says, ‘I’m just me. I’m just me.’ So ‘icon’ — I think it encompasses whatever the way you identify, I think. If he’s an icon to one, there’s no reason that it, uh, requires another adjective as far as I see.”

That post kicked off many comments about Malek’s reply. While the editor-in-chief of INTO, who posted the clip, clearly didn’t like the answer — or “non-answer,” as some called it — others agreed.

One issue was that in Malek’s answer, he didn’t even say the word gay (or bisexual or pansexual).

But people defended him, noting Mercury didn’t like to label himself. He was a star at a different time.

And some suggested that Malek had studied Mercury so thoroughly that he was answering the way Mercury would have.

It was also noted that the movie does depict Mercury’s relationships with men.

Some raised the point that the movie was about Queen the band and just not Mercury’s sexual orientation.

Others asked why he had to be labeled at all.

People felt Malek was wrongly being criticized, given that he helped bring this story to the big screen.

And there was at least one Megyn Kelly reference.

But many weren’t appeased by his answer.

Some even said they wouldn’t see the film. Yes, the “b” word.

Malek and the film have been accused of straight-washing from the start, and the actor addressed it in an interview in September. He called it a “shame” that people were “making remarks” after the one-minute teaser was first released — “where you just wanna see the music,” as Malek told Attitude. Describing the topic as “difficult,” he defended the movie’s treatment of the subject. “Let me say that I don’t think the film shies away from his sexuality or his all-consuming disease, which is obviously AIDS. I don’t know how you could avoid any of that, or if anyone would ever want to.”

Talking about Mercury’s battle’s with AIDS, Malek added, “The film needed to approach it in a delicate manner. You can’t shy away from it. It was an important moment to have in the film, one that ultimately is very sad but also empowering in a way. It shows you just how resilient human beings can be and how much we rely on the strength of our friends and family to get us through tough times. This pandemic is still very much a horrific threat to so many people in the world. It exists as a reality for so many that I think it would be a shame not to address it.”

Of course, another big drama related to the film was the fact that its director, Bryan Singer, was fired during production. Here’s how Malek address that in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment:

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