By John Hiscock
Bohemian Rhapsody beauty Lucy Boynton and her boyfriend, Oscar winner Rami Malek have been having fun quarantining together listening to Queen music.
Lucy, who played Freddie Mercury’s partner Mary Austin, opposite Rami Malek’s Freddie, says: “We’ve been quarantining in London when we arrived just before lockdown.
Talking via a video link-up she says: “It’s been such a wild experience taking every day as it comes. I’m really grateful to be living with someone so great throughout all of this and be doing it with a partner. I know it must be very difficult to do any form of quarantine if you’re alone. So, I’ve been I’ve been very fortunate in my experience.”
She and Rami are still involved with the music of Queen because the band’s guitarist Brian May has been in constant touch with them.
“He’s been amazing, especially at the beginning of the quarantine, uploading a lot of his guitar solos and Queen music and we were definitely enjoying tuning in to a lot of that.”
When not listening to Queen music, 26-year-old Lucy, who was born in New York but brought up in London, is preparing for her next projects. “I’m not someone who gets involved in baking banana bread,” she laughs. She is currently researching the life of Marianne Faithfull for the upcoming biopic Faithfull in which will play the iconic 60’s singer.
“I’m a big believer in trusting your gut instinct above all else and it’s definitely something that I apply to my day to day life and when I’m trying to discern the next project or trying to decide what the next step should be. Gut instinct has always been the answer. I think you can never really go wrong if you’re being led by your passion and instinct.”
She added: “And I had a good gut instinct about Rami.”
Lucy, who began her acting career when she was 12 years old as the young Beatrix Potter in 2006’s Miss Potter has been deeply involved in researching the turbulent life of Marianne Faithfull.
“It’s definitely been an education,” she says. “I think I was very much more aware of her as a symbol and someone who was at the epicenter of rock and roll and London in the 60s. But I didn’t know the in-depth information that I’m now researching.
“I’m looking into all of her interviews and just the contrast between the way that she was portrayed by the media and the way that she expresses herself and who she is, is something that I’ve been especially interested in investigating. I’m very excited.”
The film will chart Faithfull’s rise to fame until the age of 23. During that period she topped the charts with As Tears Go By, became Mick Jagger’s girlfriend and was involved in the highly publicized drug raid on The Rolling Stones in 1967.
“It’s a huge responsibility and one that I take very seriously,” says Lucy. “It’s such an honour to play someone like that and someone who has been so open with their story, in the hopes of shedding light on the way that she was treated, I think, specifically by the media, which I think is a very relevant story,” Boynton said.
She had arranged to meet Marianne Faithfull as part of her research but coincidentally she found herself sitting near her at a Paris fashion show.
“I didn’t realise we’d both be there, so it kind of speeded up our meeting,” she says. “It was supposed to be slightly further down the line. But it was a strange way for our worlds to collide.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, and she was so kind and immediately so warm and open, so I’m very, very grateful.”
“It must be very strange having this person intrude in your world and know all these things about you, so I’m trying to keep it at a respectful distance.”
She doesn’t know when filming will begin but, she says, “I’ve been trying to make as much use of this time in quarantine to just be more prepared for when we do finally get on the set.”
