Bohemian Rhapsody’s Golden Globes win for Best Picture was a stunning upset — but as the movie’s stars and producers took the stage to claim their prize, there was a much bigger elephant in the room: sacked director, Bryan Singer.
Despite being completely left out of the celebrations at the Hollywood awards night, Singer, 53, still went out of his way to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for delivering the movie two coveted statues.
In stark contrast, the star of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek — who also won Best Actor — was deafeningly silent about Singer when taking the stage throughout the evening.
The director was fired from the Freddie Mercury biopic in December 2017 a couple of weeks before filming wrapped, amid rumoured tension with Malek, 37, and other members of the cast. The unexpected sacking caused production to temporarily shut down before British director Dexter Fletcher stepped in to finish the job.
Responding to why he hadn’t thanked Singer in either of his speeches, Malek was firm but evasive: “There’s only one thing we needed to do and that was to celebrate Freddie Mercury in this film.
“He is a marvel. There is only one Freddie Mercury and nothing would compromise us giving him the love, celebration and adulation he deserves.”