Sacha Baron Cohen is being put on blast by Queen guitarist Brian May. Sacha dropped out of Queen’s biopic after being cast as legendary lead singer Freddie Mercury, claiming creative differences with the band were to blame.
May is speaking out now against Sacha’s claims. May told the Daily Mail, “Sacha became an arse. We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas, but he went off and told untruths about what happened.”
May claims that it was actually the band’s choice to do away with Sacha: “We decided he wasn’t right for the role for very good reasons, which will become apparent if you watch what he’s done recently. It’s obvious that it wasn’t going to work, him playing Freddie. It wouldn’t suspend your disbelief.”
Sacha left the film in 2013, telling of disappointment with the creative direction of the film, and saying the band were more interested in documenting Queen’s journey after Freddie’s death. Sacha told Howard Stern, “A member of the band, I won’t say who, he said, ‘This is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie. I go, ‘What happens in the middle of the movie?’ He goes, ‘Freddie dies.’”
