Having broken through to mass recognition with his starring role in Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek has spoken about the strict fitness regimen he had to undergo in order to transform himself into Freddie Mercury.

Malek, 37, had to both slim down and add muscle to his body, all the while ensuring that he built enough energy reserves that he could credibly perform Mercury’s legendarily active live routines – most notably, the piece-de-resistance of Bohemian Rhapsody of Queen’s Live Aid set in 1985.

“I didn’t really want to bulk up, per se,” Malek told The Wrap. “I just wanted to get my body into a place where I could do a 22-minute concert over and over for five days and not be out of breath.”

“Well, it’s highly impossible to do that. There were days when I found myself laying on my back trying to just absorb as much air as possible."

Rami MalekRami Malek filming 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

On top of all that, he also had to play the younger, much thinner version of Mercury before he found fame.

“I was on a very specific diet,” the ‘Mr. Robot’ star continued. “I bulked up for that first week and immediately had to drop muscle and weight and go into shooting young Freddie, who is very scrawny. I just had to be really cognisant of when to work out and when to crash diet. I don’t recommend it for anyone.”

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Malek also spoke about how he dealt with having to wear false teeth, in order to fully pull off a Freddie Mercury image.

“They started out being pretty difficult to deal with,” he said. “We tried out all different sizes and when they first went in I felt very insecure, but immediately I compensated. Physically, I started to sit with more posture and elegance and I thought, ‘Oh, he is so elegant!’ You see him covering up his lips and his teeth all the time, and I could never quite get the hang of it.”

“But as soon as those teeth went in, it was done. It was little things like that that were very informative for me.”

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