Rami Malek took inspiration from Freddie Mercury when playing a Bond villain in the upcoming No Time to Die.The 38-year-old bagged a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the late Queen frontman in the musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody earlier this year, and he revealed that his performance as James Bond's mysterious adversary Safin was heavily influenced by the flamboyant rocker. "If I went in there and tried to make a carbon copy of someone, what joy or fun would that be for anybody? I guess that may be a lesson I learned from Mr. Mercury," he told the January issue of Empire magazine. "If it's not original, then why bother? I've pocketed some things from some of my favourites. But I tried to every day imbue this character with something I thought made sense for the character, but might also at the same time be shocking and unnerving," Rami added. He also revealed that he teamed up with his Bohemian Rhapsody voice coach to achieve the perfect dialect for his mysterious Bond villain. "I wanted to create something that we couldn't quite peg from any particular part of the world," he teased. Daniel Craig returns for one final outing as the infamous MI6 super spy in No Time to Die, which will be released in April 2020. The 25th instalment of the James Bond franchise is directed by True Detective's Cary Joji Fukunaga and also stars Lashana Lynch, Lea Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw.
