“Bohemian Rhapsody” surprised a lot of people by taking home two of the biggest prizes of the night at the Golden Globes on Sunday. But there was one person missing from the celebrations.
The credited director of the Queen and Freddie Mercury biopic, Bryan Singer, was not at the awards show last night, with the cast and crew of the movie not mentioning him at all.
Singer was fired from “Bohemian Rhapsody” after disappearing from the set for several days in 2017 due to what his rep said was a “personal health matter.”
Allegations had re-emerged at the time of sexual assault against a teenage boy, with a lawsuit filed against the director. Singer has denied the claims.
“Rocketman” director Dexter Fletcher stepped in to finish production on the biopic but Singer maintained sole credit on the final picture.
In his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, star Rami Malek did not thank or even mention Singer, focusing his attention instead on Freddie Mercury.
Backstage after the show, press peppered the cast and crew with questions about Singer.
One of the producers responded, “That’s not something we should talk about tonight,” but Queen’s Brian May chimed in, “Good question, though.”
Malek then addressed the questions about Singer himself, once again sidestepping the director by saying, “There’s only one thing we needed to do, and that was to celebrate Freddie Mercury.”
Singer himself acknowledged the film’s awards, sharing a photo on Instagram of himself on set in the director’s chair, with the caption calling the Best Picture award an honour and thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsUtnmCn68A/?utm_source=ig_embed
The controversy surrounding “Bohemian Rhapsody” also fell on the young star of the film “Eighth Grade” Elsie Fisher, who tweeted her joy for Malek and the film.
Fisher received backlash for her tweet, and later clarified that she was not aware of the allegations against Singer.
