Not like we expected him to, but let’s never forget that Bohemian Rhapsody did not direct itself, and though Bryan Singer is nowhere to be found this award season, he benefits from all the trophies being thrown at his movie. He remains empowered because he makes people money and now, wins people awards. The casting of Red Sonja will be interesting to watch, especially to see which agents and managers recommend their clients read for it because, well, look what working with Bryan Singer did for Rami Malek? This is exactly the blunt instrument used by Harvey Weinstein—look what I can do for you—and now we’re going to see it applied to Bryan Singer because Bohemian Rhapsody raked in cash and prizes.

The question is, of course, how much do we begrudge Rami Malek? He isn’t responsible for Bryan Singer. But he is responsible for working with him (claiming he’d never heard of the allegations) and being part of a perpetuating a system which now sees Singer benefitting from Rhapsody’s success. Red Sonja producer Avi Lerner—the subject of his own gross allegations —cited the success of Rhapsody as a reason for keeping Singer on his movie, even after the release of The Atlantic piece last week. So it is all connected. The question is only how much of this do we lay at a specific actor’s door. 

It is amazing to me to that the Bryan Singer expose wasn’t a bigger story last week. I thought it would, like the Weinstein exposés, be the biggest story and all we talked about that day, but it was barely in the top ten of stories last week. I know we live in a nightmare dystopia where too much is happening all of the time, but we were waiting for this! From the moment the Weinstein story broke, we were waiting for Bryan Singer, and then when the moment finally came, it was barely a blip. And Bohemian Rhapsody is just walking through award season with very little pushback, particularly for the surviving members of Queen and producer Graham King, all of whom INSISTED on hiring Singer. I definitely put them ahead of Malek in the queue for people who need to answer some questions about perpetuating the cycle protecting Singer.