Brian May has defended the artistic licence used in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The Queen guitarist insisted that the Freddie Mercury biopic was not a documentary but an attempt to tell the story of the late frontman "as a human being", and the 71-year-old musician argued that obsessing over incorrect facts in the movie is a "waste of breath".
In an interview with MOJO magazine, he said: "It’s an attempt to portray Freddie Mercury as a human being. So an argument about whether he should have a moustache at a particular time is a waste of breath.
"The moustache is in the wrong place in documentary terms, but for telling the story we want to tell it’s in the right place."
The legendary singer died of AIDS-related bronchial pneumonia in 1991 at the age of 45 and one controversial scene showed Freddie informing his follow band members, Brian, Rodger Taylor and John Deacon of his illness before their famous Live Aid concert, when in reality he didn’t reveal the news until much later.
However May has argued that he and Fox bosses "took liberties" in order to best tell the singer’s story without adding "another hour of screen time".
He said: "Yes but to tell it that way would have required another hour of screen time. So we took liberties. Or rather the film-makers did.
"I learned this about film-making: you carry a story with you and you treasure it, but when you agree to sell it, it’s not yours anymore.
"Fox own this film, lock, stock and barrel, but they always treated us with great respect. Sometimes we’d say ‘You can’t do that’ and they’d say ‘Okay we won’t’ and other times ‘Yes we can because this is the story we all agreed to tell.’ "
Brian May defends artistic licence in Bohemian Rhapsody
