Rami Malek inspired by Freddie Mercury while creating 'James Bond' supervillain Safin in 'No Time to Die'
You'd think actors who play supervillains study mass murderers or criminal masterminds to carve their own niche for the character, but as it turns out musical geniuses would work too. Rami Malek, who will be playing a 'James Bond' supervillain in the upcoming 'No Time To Die', has been inspired by Freddie Mercury, the singer he embodied in the movie 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
During an interview with Empire, Malek said that the role of Safin — the Bond villain — was partly inspired by the singer. “If I went in there and tried to make a carbon copy of someone, what joy or fun would that be for anybody? I guess that may be a lesson I learned from Mr Mercury. If it’s not original, then why bother?” he said, adding, “I’ve pocketed some things from some of my favorites. But I tried to imbue this character with something I thought made sense for the character, but might also at the same time be shocking and unnerving.”
Malek also went on to reveal the dialect coach he worked with on 'Bohemian Rhapsody', William Conacher, has also been helping him for this role. Considering his role as Mercury won him an Academy Award, we aren't all that surprised that Malek does not want to mess with a success formula. “I wanted to create something that we couldn’t quite peg from any particular part of the world,” he revealed.
The actor is all set for a great professional year in 2020, considering he not only has a great role in an iconic franchise such as 'James Bond', which will see Daniel Craig return as the titular character but also because he will be voicing Chee-Chee the gorilla in the highly anticipated 'Dolittle' movie. In the upcoming crime thriller 'The Little Things', we will see him portraying Detective Baxter opposite Denzel Washington's Deke.