This weekend sees the release of the highly-anticipated Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Despite an incredible performance by Rami Malek, the film is getting mixed reviews from critics as its poised to have a big showing at the box office. However, even with all these other storylines, the most talked-about part of the film is the behind-the-scenes antics of the director Bryan Singer. In a new report from THR, we learn that even with Singer’s dismissal from the film coming as a shock to many, Fox was well aware that this was a possibility even before filming began. And even with this knowledge, they made the film with Singer, anyway.
According to the report, Bryan Singer has made a name for himself over the years as being a bit difficult to work with on set. In fact, Fox, the studio behind “Bohemian Rhapsody,” knew this firsthand, as they have worked with the director on numerous films, including his famous “X-Men” franchise. An insider tells THR that on Singer’s previous film, the Fox feature “X-Men: Apocalypse,” the director was apparently “emotionally very frail” and was prone to fits of crying if confronted by colleagues. In addition to his apparent instability, Singer would also be known to fly friends in from out of town during shooting and causing more distractions.
However, even in spite of this hard evidence proving that Singer was a liability, Fox put him at the helm of Bohemian Rhapsody. Why would they do that? According to THR, Singer was incredibly passionate about the Queen biopic and even had images of Freddie Mercury all over his hotel room while filming in London.
And Fox even sat down with Singer before the filming on “Bohemian Rhapsody” began to warn him that any infractions would be dealt with immediately. The warning was clear — show up to work every day, don’t break the law, and if you cause any issues, there will be consequences. Of course, we know how that turned out.
An insider on the set of the film said that Singer immediately was up to “his old tricks.” The insider said, “[Singer] would shoot, he’d be exhausted, [cinematographer] Tom Sigel would shoot.” The report says that Sigel has been known to step into the director’s chair multiple times over the course of previous Singer films.
However, Fox became involved when Rami Malek and other actors began taking notice of Singer’s shortcomings, often waiting around for the director to show up on set. One actor, Tom Hollander, was reportedly so fed up with the director’s antics that he quit the film for a short period of time.
This boiled over into an altercation between Malek and Singer, which reportedly ended with the director throwing a piece of electrical equipment. Malek then filed a complaint with Fox, who reportedly came to set and deemed that the incident wasn’t actionable. Singer says, “Any discussion about fights between myself and Rami Malek are simply an exaggeration of a few creative differences that were quickly resolved. This is normal on a film set. And I think the work speaks for itself.”
The final nail in the coffin came after Singer told Fox that he needed to fly to New Jersey to take care of his mother, who was “gravely ill.” However, when Fox told him that he needed to stay on set, Singer flew home anyway. While this doesn’t seem like a terrible thing to do, it is reported that Singer actually ended up flying back to LA only after a few days. That’s when Fox fired Singer from the film and replaced him with Dexter Fletcher, who finished the principal photography and post-production.
Surprisingly, these well-documented on-set behaviors, combined with his alleged sexual assaults, have not affected the director at all, professionally. He just recently signed on for a reported career-best payday to helm the upcoming “Red Sonja” film.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” hits theaters tomorrow.