As we mentioned back in July, Rami Malek, who’s sexy in an eyeballs-and-mandible kind of way, is set to play Freddie Mercury in the forthcoming Bryan Singer-director Queen biopic called—what else?—Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek replaced Sacha Baron Cohen, who dropped out of the project all the way back in 2013.
On Tuesday, Entertainment Weekly released the first photo of the Mr. Robot star as Mercury, and it does not appear to disappoint, though it’s also not much to go on.
Mercury’s signature stache on the normally clean-shaven Malek is transformative (at least in profile), but how does he sound?
According to Malek, the vocals will be a blend of old Mercury recordings, his own voice, and other sounds. “We’re going to use Freddie as much as possible and use myself as much as possible,” Malek told EW. “I’m in Abbey Road [Studios] right now if that sound say anything to you. I’m not working on my acting.”