Queen guitarist Brian May has revealed that he decided to hand over some of his best outfits from the band’s heyday for the making of Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, just so costume designer Julian Day could nail his look for the film.
Day recalled his meeting with May during a BAFTA film session panel this weekend.
“Brian came on set – I hadn’t met him – but I had all the fittings done for him. I was thinking, should I show him them or not?,” he said. “So I spoke to my assistant and she encouraged me to do it.”
After being fairly unimpressed with the costumes he had seen, Brian complained that he “never tucked [his] shirt in” – even though there is plenty of evidence out there to the contrary.
That fateful meeting actually took place during the recreation of Queen’s now iconic Live Aid performance, which also happened to be the first day of filming.
Julian went on to say that May invited him to his house to plunge into his wardrobe, “and borrow some of his outfits from the 70s and the 80s”. The actual size of May’s wardrobe – if it has enough space to store clothes from nearly forty years ago – is anyone’s guess.
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Malek, who this weekend won the best actor BAFTA for his portrayal of Mercury, also spoke out to reveal the charming story of how the frontman was persuaded to play Live Aid, long before the event became the most famous performance in the band’s history.