Rami Malek says his new role in The Man I Love initially frightened him because of the similarities between the character and Freddie Mercury.
The Academy Award-winning actor plays Jimmy George, a gay man diagnosed with AIDS, in the new film from director Ira Sachs, which recently wowed audiences at Cannes.
Set in the 1980s, the film follows Jimmy, a downtown performance artist who also sings. For Malek, who won an Oscar for playing Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, the parallels were impossible to ignore.
“When I read the script, I said, ‘I can’t do this,’” Malek told reporters at Cannes, explaining that he saw “too many similarities” between Jimmy George and Mercury.
“It could be problematic,” Malek said. “There was a certain sense of fear. And I started to really think about what I was afraid of. Was it the similarities? Was it the singing? Was it obviously what was going on in the period? And the fear was, I knew I had to address the fear.”
Malek says Freddie Mercury helped him face the role
Jimmy George is described as a downtown performance artist living in what the film’s synopsis calls an “extraordinary moment between great illness and death when, still, all beauty and love is possible.”
According to Deadline, Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias spent 15 years developing the screenplay, which was inspired by Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh.
Malek said he reflected on his Oscar-winning performance as Mercury to find a path into the new role, focusing not only on the similarities between the two men, but also on what made them fundamentally different.
“If there’s anything Freddie taught me, it was ‘address the fear.’ And when I raced into it, I started to discover that these were men that were similar, but they were also worlds apart,” Malek said at a news conference.
“You have an icon, a legend in Freddie, who really had a destination, whereas Jimmy is just searching for creativity and love and intimacy and joy and pleasure in every moment. And he can sing. Does he sing as well as Freddie? No.”
A story about living
Malek said he became “utterly fascinated” by Jimmy George’s refusal to surrender to adversity.
“I kept thinking about this refusal, this stubborn refusal to disappear for Jimmy all throughout. And of course, this undertone of death throughout the film,” he said. “But predominantly, it’s about living.”
The film also stars Tom Sturridge, Luther Ford, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
With Sachs directing, The Man I Love began production in New York City on 21 September 2025 and filmed over 28 days, wrapping on 29 October.
Malek said Sachs’ vision ultimately helped him overcome his hesitation.
Sachs is known for acclaimed independent dramas, including Forty Shades of Blue, Keep the Lights On, Love Is Strange, Little Men, and Passages.
Malek said he trusted Sachs to make “unique cinema unlike any other”.
“I knew I was in extraordinary hands and that if he was choosing me, I could rely on him,” Malek said. “Not only to depend on him throughout the film, but to elevate it, to push myself, to force myself to race into that fire.”
At Cannes, The Man I Love received strong praise, with Entertainment Weekly reporting that the film earned an eight-minute standing ovation.
