Rami Malek Is GQ's September Cover Star

Rami Malek is meticulously prepared. All the time. When he set out to become Freddie Mercury for Bohemian Rhapsody, he went through an extensive—maybe even obsessive?—process perfecting Mercury’s accent. As writer Molly Young relays: He located "footage of Mercury’s mother speaking in her Gujarati accent and then [mastered] a Gujarati accent, which sounded nothing like Mercury, and then [mastered] an accent that was 80 percent Gujarati and 20 percent British, which still sounded nothing like Mercury, and then [mastered] an accent that was half and half, which was closer, and finally [worked] his way up to an accent that was almost entirely British but with the faintest smidge of Gujarati intonation, like 98 percent to 2 percent, and, voilà, that was Mercury."

Right, easy stuff. But it makes sense. As Young writes, early on he "spent hours stuffing envelopes with headshots and résumés to hand-deliver to agencies and film schools," and prior to Mr. Robot, all he could claim to his name were "a string of small roles in esteemed projects." Now, the man who has a starring role in Mr. Robot, a Best Actor Academy Award win for his Freddie Mercury portrayal, and the villain role in the next James Bond flick also has a GQ cover shoot with Ryan McGinley to his name.

Below, read even more about how Malek’s become more like Elliot Alderson (his Mr. Robot alter-ego), Malek’s on-set issues with gravity, and why Tom Hanks thinks we can’t get enough of Rami.

Read "Rami Malek, An Overnight Sensation 15 Years in the Making"

Originally Appeared on GQ