Rami Malek has taken home the award for ‘Best Actor’ for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Being the first Arab-American to win the award, Malek made note of the fact that he’s comes from an immigrant family, just like Freddie was, in his acceptance speech.
“We made a film about a gay man, an immigrant, who lived his life just unapologetically himself,” Malek said. “The fact that I’m celebrating him and this story with you tonight is proof that we’re longing for stories like this. I am the son of immigrants from Egypt, a first-generation American. And part of my story is being written right now.”
It was a huge night for the film, having picked up three other awards for ‘Best Film Editing’, ‘Best Sound Mixing’ and ‘Best Sound Editing’.
The entire award show opened up with a special performance by the original members of Queen, with Adam Lambert fronting them. They performed ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions’.
Another big musical moment came at the hands of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, who performed their all-conquering hit ‘Shallow’, which also took out the award for ‘Best Original Song’.
Watch Malek’s acceptance speech below.
In a heartfelt speech, Oscar winner Rami Malek praises his mom, says he knows his dad is looking down on him, thanks Queen, and says the world "is longing for stories" about people being "unapologetically" themselves.
Watch the whole thing: https://t.co/zSrvQG8ZE6 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/uXxpfORcPx
— ABC News (@ABC) February 25, 2019
