FILM · 2018 · USA
Bohemian Rhapsody
- Directed by
- Bryan Singer
- Runtime
- 135 min
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, GK Films
226 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass guitarist John Deacon take the music world by storm when they form the rock 'n' roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury's increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
Summary: TMDB
Bohemian Rhapsody — Career & Awards (12 facts)
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
At roughly 1 hour 26 minutes, Freddie mocks the rest of the band at one point, saying that without him they would all be in ordinary jobs. He claims in particular that Brian, a former astrophysics student, would be Dr. Brian May writing an article no one would read. In reality, Brian May received his doctorate in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007. In the same scene, Deacy apparently tells Freddie for the first time that he studied electrical engineering. In reality, John Deacon created the Deacy Amp, which Queen used throughout its career.
- #036
Contains a major spoiler — show
A fact not mentioned in the film but still an important part of Queen's history is that Freddie Mercury and David Bowie had known each other since 1968 or '69. Mercury was of course a student at Ealing Art College from the mid-to-late 1960s, and Bowie was a struggling musician. Mercury had played a few university concerts as an amateur musician and worked in the same circle at roughly the same time as Bowie, so they knew each other (Bowie actually gave a concert at Ealing Art College in 1968). Freddie and drummer Roger Taylor also ran a second-hand clothes stall in Kensington market at the time, so Bowie would occasionally visit and they would help him if he wanted something specific. Bowie's career began two or three years before Queen's, but in the summer of 1981, both Queen and Bowie ran into each other in the cafeteria of an EMI recording studio in Germany while working on separate projects and began talking. Both the group and Bowie thought it would be fun to collaborate on a song and immediately wrote 'Under Pressure' during a half-hour tea break. Bowie then went into the studio with Freddie, quickly recorded his lines in a few takes, and then returned to his own studio while the Queen members finished preparing the rest of the song's instrumental parts. The song was released as a single in the autumn of the same year and rose to number 1 in many countries. The song appears briefly in the film, in keeping with Freddie's time in Germany. Many Queen and Bowie fans believe this was Bowie's way of thanking the group for helping him during the difficult early days of his career.
- #044
According to the actor himself, Steven Spielberg apparently did not recognize Jurassic Park (1993) star Joseph Mazzello in the role of Queen bassist John Deacon. In a comment on IGN, Mazzello mentioned that Spielberg is one of the people he has stayed in regular contact with since the early days of his acting career. "Steven is probably the person I've stayed most in touch with. This past year we were sending each other a bunch of letters. Literally still handwritten letters, which is great. We just talk about everything: our careers and [how] he saw [Bohemian Rhapsody], and apparently he didn't recognize me because I was wearing a wig and had an English accent. He leaned over to his guest and said, 'Who is that? Who is that actor?'".
- #094
According to Brian May, Queen rehearsed tirelessly for the Live Aid set. At that point in the band's career, extensive rehearsals were not common.
- #104
With his Oscar win, Rami Malek became the first actor of Arab and Egyptian origin (male or female) to win an Oscar in an acting category and to be nominated for and win Best Actor.
- #108
The film's recreation of Queen's landmark 1985 Live Aid concert was shot on the first day of production on a replica of the London Wembley Stadium stage at Bovingdon Airfield in Hemel Hempstead. The original Wembley twin towers were demolished in 2003 when the site was redeveloped.
- #148
By playing Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar, becoming the sixth man in the last seven years to win Best Actor for playing a real-life person. Before him were Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln (2012), Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014), Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass in The Revenant (2015) and Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (2017); the only exception in that stretch was Casey Affleck, who played the fictional Lee Chandler in Manchester by the Sea (2016).
- #181
In January 2019, just as the film awards season was beginning, new sexual abuse allegations against director Bryan Singer were published. As a result, GLAAD withdrew Bohemian Rhapsody's nomination for this year's GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Film – Wide Release category, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts removed Singer's name from Bohemian Rhapsody's BAFTA nomination for Best British Film.
- #189
Among the eight Best Picture nominees, the film tied with Green Book (2018) for the fewest Oscar nominations, with five each. The film nevertheless won the most Oscars of any nominee, taking four awards, while Green Book won Best Picture.
- #192
According to Lady Gaga, her name was actually inspired by Queen's song "Radio Ga Ga." When she was young, her friends and family gave her the nickname "Gaga," and when she began her music career she decided to use it as her stage name.
- #217
Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for this film, following his Oscar nomination for the role.
- #223
Oscar Isaac turned down the role of Freddie Mercury, saying: "At the time I was saying, 'I don't think anyone's going to want to see someone pretend to be Freddie Mercury.' And of course everyone wanted to see someone play Freddie Mercury." Bryan Singer had previously directed Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).
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