Fired ‘Bohemian’ director Bryan Singer celebrates Golden Globes win
At the tail end of 2017, he was sued over an accusation he raped a teen boy
Bryan Singer was AWOL at Sunday night’s Golden Globes ceremony, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t celebrating the triumph of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’
The director, who was fired from the Freddie Mercury biopic before the conclusion of filming, posted to Instagram after the ceremony with gratitude to the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.
“What an honour,” Singer wrote as a caption to a behind-the-scenes still featuring himself in the director’s chair on set during filming. “Thank you #HollywoodForeignPress.”
Singer was fired by 20th Century Fox in December 2017 after rumoured clashes with the film’s star, Rami Malek, as well as other cast members. Production was temporarily shut down before Dexter Fletcher stepped in to complete filming. Singer still received directing credit on the finished film.
At the tail end of 2017, Singer was sued over an accusation that he raped a 17-year-old boy, a charge he denied.
Not only did Singer not appear to attend the Globes ceremony, but members of the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ cast and crew also were none too keen to discuss the wayward director.
“It’s not something I really wish to talk about tonight,” producer Graham King said in the backstage press room Sunday night.
“It’s a good question, though,” Queen guitarist Brian May added.
Malek, who took home the award for actor in a drama, tackled the issue of why Singer wasn’t thanked in either of the night’s acceptance speeches for the film.
“There’s only one thing we needed to do, and that was to celebrate Freddie Mercury in this film,” Malek said. “Nothing was going to compromise us giving him the love, celebration, adulation he deserves.”
The press were not the only ones asking questions about Singer at the end of the night, however.
Actress Evan Rachel Wood tweeted in the wee hours on Monday, wondering about Singer and what she saw as a Hollywood open secret.
“So we just... we are all still supposed to be pretending we don’t know about Bryan Singer? Cause it worked out really well with #Spacey and #Weinstein,” the ‘Westworld’ star wrote.
Wood appeared to be referring to the repeated accusations that have long dogged Singer regarding sexual misconduct.
The director released a statement in October 2018 preemptively denying a rumoured Esquire piece that he deemed an attempt to tarnish his career. The article has yet to publish.