Rami Malek, who racked up another win Sunday evening for his turn as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, reminisced backstage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards about his years of hard knocks.
Malek said anyone who wants to be an actor has to be absolutely committed, citing the advice of casting director Mali Finn.
“If you have any doubt about it, you should probably find something else to do,” Malek said Finn told him.
“I spent years trying to figure it out,” Malek said, taking head shots to “every film school in Los Angeles” and constantly replacing them in hopes that someone, some day, would pay attention.
“I just woke up every morning and I stuffed manila envelopes with my head shots … for years” before he finally got a call from a casting director for “Gilmore Girls.”
He didn’t even have a Screen Actors Guild card at the time, but made the agent laugh and convinced her to wait 10 minutes for him to race over to Warner Bros. Malek got the job that night and joined SAG the next day.
Malek said backstage at the Shrine Auditorium he was somewhat awed by the “phenomenal challenge” of playing “a rock god” in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but said he approached it by “identifying with him as a guy named Farrokh Bulsara,” an immigrant with big aspirations.
“His authenticity and his understanding of self is something that shines very brightly with me,” Malek said.
Malek is still probably best known for his work in the television series “Mr. Robot,” but won a Golden Globe and is Oscar nominated for his portrayal of Mercury.