Queen guitarist criticises Ali G actor for becoming ‘an arse’ and telling ‘untruths’ about the project in the press

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Queen’s Brian May has lashed out at Sacha Baron Cohen, declared he is not a fan of David Cameron and said he would love to stop Donald Trump.

Cohen was in talks with May and Roger Taylor about playing the part of Freddie Mercury in a long-awaited biopic, but the talks broke down and Cohen spoke to the press about the process, which drew criticism from the guitarist.

“Sacha became an arse,” he told the Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine. “We had some nice times with Sacha kicking around ideas, but he went off and told untruths about what happened,” he said.

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The Ali G and Borat actor claimed that Queen had wanted to sugarcoat Mercury’s story, prompting May to say that the group had never been the kind of people to duck from the truth.

He said they were now hoping that Ben Whishaw, who plays Q in the most recent James Bond films, would play Mercury as “he’s fabulous, a real actor”.

May is also known for his views on politics and animal rights. During the general election campaign, David Cameron is said to have used the Queen hit One Vision to motivate his team.

Referring to this, May said: “I certainly didn’t give permission for that. Don’t put me down as anti-Tory but you can put me down as anti-Cameron.

“I think we’re in a shocking, awful, awful, awful state, and it’s getting worse.”

Adele recently asked Donald Trump not to use her music in his presidential campaign. Asked if he could stop Trump from using Queen’s anthems, May replied: “I would love to stop him. I’d love to stop him any way I can. Give him enough rope and he’ll probably hang himself. Let’s hope.”