The character of Jimmy George, the main protagonist in the new film that wowed audiences at Cannes, is played by Academy Award winner Rami Malek. Jimmy is a gay man, diagnosed with AIDS, who sings in the movie that is set in the 1980s.
Sound familiar?
It did to Malek, who told reporters at Cannes that when he first read the screenplay for The Man I Love, by director Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, it scared him.
"When I read the script, I said, 'I can't do this,'" said the star of 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody, who saw "too many similarities" between Jimmy George and Freddie Mercury.
"It could be problematic," Male said. "There was a certain sense of fear. And I started to really think about what I was afraid of. Was it the similarities? Was it the singing? Was it obviously what was going on in the period? And the fear was, I knew I had to address the fear."
Rami Malek plays Jimmy George in "The Man I Love" / Photo by Jac Martinez www.out.com
We're told George is a downtown performance artist living in what the film's synopsis calls an āextraordinary moment between great illness and death when, still, all beauty and love is possible." As Deadline reported, it took Sachs and Zacharias 15 years to craft the screenplay inspired by Maurice Pialatās Van Gogh.
Malek said he reflected on his Oscar-winning performance as Queen's iconic singer to find a way forward; to see not just the similarities but also the vast differences between these two gay men living with AIDS.
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"If there's anything Freddie taught me, it was 'address the fear.' And when I raced into it, I started to discover that these were men that were similar, but they were also worlds apart," Malek explained at a news conference this week.
"You have an icon, 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. And he can sing. Does he sing as well as Freddie? No."
Malek said he was "utterly fascinated" by Jimmy George's refusal to surrender to adversity.
"I kept thinking about this refusal, this stubborn refusal to disappear for Jimmy all throughout. And of course, this undertone of death throughout the film," said the actor. "But predominantly, it's about living."
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The movie also stars Tom Sturridge, Luther Ford, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
With Sachs in the director's chair, The Man I Love began production in New York City on September 21, 2025, and filming stretched over 28 days. They wrapped just a little over a month later, on October 29, Deadline reported.
Malek said what primarily helped him overcome his fears was Sachs' ability to make "unique cinema unlike any other." He is perhaps best known for several acclaimed indie dramas, including Forty Shades of Blue, Keep the Lights On, Love Is Strange, Little Men, and Passages.
Praise for The Man I Love was abundant at Cannes, where the audience gave it an eight-minute standing ovation, according to Entertainment Weekly.
"I knew I was in extraordinary hands and that if he was choosing me, I could rely on him," Malek said. "Not only to depend on him throughout the film, but to elevate it, to push myself, to force myself to race into that fire."
