The next time Joe needed to go to set, I got to go with him. He told me he would formally introduce me to the other guys and I got very excited. Of course, I was excited when I met Brian and Roger, but I was also excited to meet Rami, Gwilym, and Ben. On our drive over to set, Joe told me that the scene they would be filming was one where Freddie leaves the band to start a solo career.
"They plan on using the perm for those shots," he explained. "I guess they didn't want to film them right after I got this so that it would look a little more natural," I laughed. "What?"
"That can never look natural," I pointed to his head while I talked.
"Yeah, I know. But, you know what I mean," I nodded and we kept driving. We came upon this beautiful house. It was extravagant and wonderful. It was about 3 stories high and the outside was made of beautiful red brick. The driveway out in front of it was lined with white, windowless vans that transported all of the filming equipment there. Some crew members were still unloading things when we parked the car. We walked up to the house hand in hand. Joe opened the front door like it was nothing and he pulled me into the house. I think the main reason he was holding my hand was to make sure that I didn't stop in one place for too long and get in someone's way as I admired the design around me.
The interior of the house was even more elegant than the outside. There was a spiral staircase up to the second floor, the tiled floors were perfectly waxed and clean, and all of the furniture and wallpaper looked like it had been pulled from the eighties. Which I guess was perfect for the time period they were going for. The crew probably brought the furniture themselves, but it was all still very beautiful. We passed a room that had a yellow and tan theme to it. A big camera and lights were being set up there. I could only assume that this was where the scene was going to be filmed.
Joe kept pulling me through until he stopped to talk to someone I didn't know. They told him that they were using the rooms on the third floor as their 'trailers'. As they talked, I admired the place even more. And I stayed quiet. I didn't want to bring any attention to myself that wasn't already being brought with Joe and me holding hands. Once Joe had finished talking, he pulled me over to the stairs and we walked up together. Once again, I was being dragged along behind him as I admired the wallpaper and the banisters along the stairs. When we got up to the third floor, we saw that each of the rooms had signs with the actor's names on them.
We walked up to the first room and Joe knocked on it. He reached his hand back and pushed me forward by the small of my back. I hadn't read the name on the door, yet. The hallway was dark, only lit by the windows by the staircase.
"Are you decent?" Joe asked. I was just looking at him, questioning what he was doing.
"Never," I heard behind the door. A deep English accent ringed in my ears.
"Are you dressed?" Joe asked.
"Yes," Joe opened the door and pushed me into the room as he walked in. Ben was sitting in a chair by the vanity. He was on his phone, dressed in, what I could only assume, was his costume for the scene. He didn't have his wig on and a jacket was lazily slung on the vanity. He was leaning back in his chair. Two of the legs were no longer on the floor as he rested his feet on the counter of the vanity. It was obvious that this used to be a bedroom, but the bed was gone and all there was in the room was a vanity, a couple chairs, and a couch.
"Ben, this is Julie," I took a step forward on my own this time as I realized what was happening. Ben yanked his feet off the vanity and threw his phone down on it. He had a surprised look on his face as he got up from his seat; the chair making a slight bang as the two legs reunited with the ground.
"So, this is Julie? It's very nice to meet you," I reached my hand out for him to shake. He took it willingly, his big hands almost engulfing mine in the process. "Joe has told us a lot about you."
"Hopefully all good things," I chuckled.
"Only good things," he replied with wider eyes. He let go of my hand. "We were beginning to doubt if you were real. You seemed too good to be true," I chuckled at the thought of Joe never mentioning one of my flaws. I couldn't hold back a small smile as Ben talked. Ben leaned a little closer to me. "Has he complained to you about the perm?" he loudly whispered.
"Every day," I replied in the same tone of voice.
"Hey!" Joe butted in. "Come on, it's not every day," He cocked his head to the side as he talked. I chuckled a little bit.
"Yeah, well, it feels like it." Ben directed toward Joe. Ben looked back at me. "I can't wait till we finish shooting so I won't have to hear anything else about that bloody perm," I laughed. Ben gave Joe a knowing smile to make it clear he was joking. I knew Joe would never stop talking about it, but I didn't want to burst his bubble. Ben stood back up to his full stance. There was a small lull in the conversation and Joe took this as a chance to move on to the next person.
"I'm going to go and introduce her around to the guys. We'll see you later." Ben looked at Joe and then at me.
"Alright, but that was a bit brief mate. Didn't really get to know her that much. All I know is that she hates your perm." I let out a sudden laugh. Ben was right, Joe didn't give us much time to know each other yet.
"She'll be coming to set with me a lot, trust me. I'm sure you'll have time to talk to each other then. I just want to show her around a bit before call." I looked at the clock on the wall. Joe had about 10 minutes to introduce me around to people before he needed to change and get ready. I looked at Ben and shrugged.
"We'll talk," I said with a nod. "I'll see you out there." Ben gave me a smile and a small wave. Joe took my hand and I waved back. Joe pulled me over to the next room. He yanked me over so fast I almost fell down as I tried to close the door behind me. "Slow down," I joked. "I almost died just then," I looked at Joe's face. He had a twinge of nervousness in his eyes. "Hey," I whispered. Joe looked down at me. "Ben liked me. You shouldn't worry if they'll like me or not. You and I both know that they will. And if they don't..." Joe lifted his eyebrows at me. "I will make them like me," I held a fist out in front of me. This made Joe chuckle a little bit and he let out a breath. He knocked on the second door.
"Gwil? Are you decent?" Joe asked through the door.
"Yeah, come on in," Joe slowly opened the door to see Gwilym holding up a button-up costume shirt. He wasn't fully changed yet. He only seemed to be wearing the correct pants. He started talking before we entered the room fully. "Have you seen this shirt they're having me wear? It's ridiculous and I love it-" He was holding the shirt up to his eye level before turning to face Joe. He dropped the shirt to look at us and was surprised to see that Joe wasn't alone.
"Gwil, this is Julie," Gwilym hung the shirt back on the rack, only taking his eyes off of me for a quick second to guide the hangar to the right spot. He gave me a small smile.
"Hi, I can't believe I'm finally meeting you." He reached his hand out for me to shake as he walked closer to me. I shook it gladly and smiled at him in the process. "I've seen a couple pictures of you, but seeing you in person is a delightful sight," He was very English. Speaking in a very proper way, but letting out small slang phrases every now and then. Formal, but not too formal.
"I'm glad to meet you as well," I replied. We broke our handshake. "And I really like that shirt too," I gestured toward the shirt, now perfectly hung on the rack. It looked like it was ripped out of the eighties.
"It's wonderful. I wonder where they found it. I must have tried it on in our fitting, but I don't remember it at all." He pointed the last statement toward Joe.
"We tried on so many, you can't possibly remember them all," Joe replied.
"Very true," Gwilym looked down at his watch and realized what time it was. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I need to get ready. I still have to put on that wig," He pointed to the wig on a Styrofoam head on the vanity in his room. His room was just about the same size as Ben's and had all of the same furniture. "You're lucky you don't need a wig today," Gwilym pointed up at Joe's hair.
"Let's not mention it." Joe joked. Gwilym smiled.
"I'll see you later then," I said to Gwil.
"Oh, yes, of course. I'll want to know you're side to all the stories he's told us. There's no way they're all 100 percent true. I'll talk to you later," And with that, we left Gwilym's dressing room. There was only one person left and I knew who it was. Joe seemed more relaxed now. He had known Rami for almost a decade, so this was either going to be the easiest or hardest one. And by the look on Joe's face, it was going to be the easiest.
We walked over to Rami's door. I could read the sign in the dim light, but I already knew whose dressing room it was. Joe knocked on the door. Before he could even say anything, there was a voice speaking on the other end.
"Come in," His voice was quiet, yet it filled my ears with a familiar twang. I had only heard his voice in movies and interviews and over Face-Time calls that he would take over from Joe, but this was different. I was about to meet him. I was about to meet an actor whose work and ethics I admired very much.
Joe opened the door and we saw Rami sitting in his chair reading a book. He was in complete Freddie get-up. Teeth and mustache and all. It was very freaky to see since the last time I saw him like this was from a crowd watching him recreate Freddie on stage. He was sitting with perfect posture in his chair and looked up at us entering the room. A huge smile spread across his face as he realized who Joe had brought with him. Rami stood up and placed his book down on his vanity.
"Rami, this is-" Joe started.
"Julie, yes, the girl with the movie posters." I smiled at the thought that Rami had remembered our small phone conversation from what felt like forever ago now. Talking about all of the movie posters on my walls. Rami came over to me and hugged me, tightly. "I'm so glad you're here. I finally get to talk to you and get to know you. There's only so much you can get from a phone conversation." He said as we hugged and then he let go. "So, how are you doing? How is being on set?" He seemed genuinely interested in getting to know his best friend's girlfriend, and that made me happy.
"It's thrilling," I started. "Not only do I get to see how movies are made, but I get to see how a Queen movie is made. It's just incredible." I kept blabbing on about how much I liked being on set. Rami and I were engaging in a small conversation before someone opened the door.
"Mr. Malek, you're wanted on set." A woman poked her head in and stopped our conversation. Rami nodded toward her and she disappeared. He turned back toward me and excused himself.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go. We'll talk more later, I'm sure." I gave him a smile.
"Yes, I would love that. I'll see you later." Rami smiled and nodded at me. He hit Joe's arm as a sign of good luck and then left the dressing room. We weren't too far behind as Joe needed to get ready. We entered his dressing room, which was across the hall from Rami's, and Joe began to quickly throw on his costume. With it entirely on, it was difficult to tell where Joe stopped and where Deacy began. It showed how much of a difference clothes could make. I was on my phone as Joe changed, and when I looked up he was completely dressed.
"Well, hello Deacy," I said with a smile. He looked over at me as he fixed the collar on his jacket and smiled.
"Well, hello to you too, darling," he said in his Deacy accent. My mouth dropped open as it was the first time I had heard his Deacy impression. He giggled at my reaction.
"Woah," I replied after a while. "You really are him." He laughed again as he came over and kissed my forehead.
"We have to get out there now," he said. He grabbed my hand and we left his dressing room. I was staring at him the whole time, completely enthralled by how much he looked like John Deacon. When we started dating, I could only see it a little bit, but now he looked just like him and it was all I could see, and it blew my mind.
(Here's the chapter I couldn't get out a couple days ago. Oops. I don't like this chapter very much, but I thought it was necessary. Plus, I kept rereading it and I had no ideas on how to make it better. But, I hope u still enjoyed it! ❤️)