Why Rami Malek Almost Rejected Cannes Drama ‘The Man I Love’ [Cannes]

Rami Malek became the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).

After his breakthrough success, Malek starred in several notable films, including The Little Things (2021), played the main antagonist Lyutsifer Safin in the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021), appeared in Oppenheimer (2023), and later starred in The Amateur (2025) and Nuremberg (2025).

Malek told reporters on Thursday at a press conference following the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.“When I read the script, I said, ‘I can’t do this. There are too many similarities. It could be problematic.”

“We have a legend in Freddie, who really had a destination, whereas Jimmy is just searching for creativity and love and intimacy and joy and pleasure in every moment,” Malek said. “He can sing. Does he sing as well as Freddie? No. If he needs to learn kabuki, he’s going to throw himself into it, and [throw himself] into Onnagata, and I did. Was it ever going to be perfect? Didn’t have to be. It was just about this element of creating and living and joy. New York, in that period, was a very different time.”

While audiences can draw similarities between the two queer men, Malek added, “I see them as two radically different figures altogether — especially as I have some more distance from it.”

Ira Sachs’s The Man I Love emotionally resonated with audiences and received an 8-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, years after his 2019 Cannes competition film “Frankie” was criticized at the festival.

The Man I Love follows artist Jimmy George, played by Rami Malek, a gay actor living in 1980s New York who is battling AIDS while experiencing a fragile window between sickness and mortality. After nearly dying and being intubated in the hospital, Jimmy has now somewhat recovered and begins taking medication as he tries to rebuild his life.

Tom Sturridge plays Dennis, Jimmy’s devoted partner and caretaker, whose love is tested as he becomes aware of Jimmy’s affair with their younger neighbor, Vincent, played by Luther Ford. The film also stars Rebecca Hall as Jimmy’s sister, who struggles to accept the reality of his condition.

Ira Sachs began his directing career with short films like Vaudeville (1991) and Lady (1993) before making his feature debut with The Delta (1996). He gained widespread recognition with acclaimed films such as Keep the Lights On (2012), Love Is Strange (2014), and Little Men (2016), later premiering what many consider the best film of his career, Passages (2023), at the Sundance Film Festival.