Aiden Gillen on the ‘strangeness’ of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

Aiden Gillen in “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Irish actor Aidan Gillen, who played the scheming villain Petyr Baelish in “Game of Thrones,” recently shared his childhood memory of listening to English rock band Queen’s popular song, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Gillen plays the group’s manager, John Reid, in the hit biopic of the same title.

“The thing is, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of the first records I ever played,” he recently told UK-based entertainment site Flickering Myth. “I’ve got brothers and sisters. We had a record collection. It’s not that many… I had about 40 singles. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was played quite a lot. It had a strange effect on me.”

The actor, who starred in the original version of the gay-centric series “Queer as Folk” in 1999, added, “For something that’s such a massive hit, it’s a strange song, really fatalistic. Structurally, it does things that hit songs don’t do—it’s like four different songs in one. It has strange chord progressions. It’s very dark. As a 6 year old, I was quite fascinated with it.”

On the importance of telling Queen’s story, Gillen said, “Freddie (Mercury) was an individualistic frontman who confounded people … the idea of some kid, who’s a misfit, finding [his] way to being a global superstar, I thought, was interesting. And even the songs deserve to be celebrated, too.”—OLIVER PULUMBARIT