Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek said he’d been put off karaoke after taking part in a lighthearted performance with his co-stars.

The incident took place in Japan while he and fellow cast members were promoting the Queen biopic, which smashed box office records, won two Golden Globes and is anticipated to do well at the Oscars next month.

“In Japan, they love karaoke, and I went with the members of our version of Queen, and we dressed up in animal onesies and we did 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the shape of the original music video,” Malek told W Magazine in a recent interview. “It was filmed by someone, and I'm sure someone will probably get drunk and throw it out there.”

He added that he's not "big on karaoke after doing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for six months.” However, prompted by co-interviewee and fellow actor Eddie Redmayne, Malek reflected on how playing Freddie Mercury in the biopic had changed him.

“I feel quite liberated,” he said. “I learned a lot from him. He's just so defiant, so authentic, so real, and that's what you get when you see him on stage. He is his own perfect, beautiful self and he looks out into the audience, he says, ‘You have the freedom to do the same thing, so I'll enjoy this and do this.’”

He noted that the onesie outfit wasn’t the only time he’d dressed up while working on the movie. “Since I had one of the greatest makeup artists in the world, we got off a little bit early and I had her turn me into Edward Scissorhands,” he said. “I did Beetlejuice once. … My favorite was I did Forrest Gump, but the young Forrest. I made the leg braces myself. … It looked pretty coo. So much that I got to do a film with Tom Hanks, and I thought, "I have to show him this, but will it be offensive at all?" But he just started laughing. He gets a laugh out of so many things, he just said, ‘Oh, you kooky kids.’”

Asked about the first album he ever bought, Malek said it was “Bob Dylan, I think. Blonde on Blonde, and I bought a Joan Baez album, I can't remember the name of it. But she sang on one of his tracks or maybe numerous tracks, but I had to have them both. And then I bought Leonard Cohen.”

 

 

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