Rami Malek’s winning night at the Oscars took a concerning turn on Sunday. The actor, who took home the Best Lead Actor award for his role as Freddie Mercury in the hit film Bohemian Rhapsody , fell off the stage and into the audience area just as the ceremony concluded, People reports. Malek was clutching his Best Actor statuette as he stumbled off the stage, and the star reportedly looked surprised as he was helped up by others in the area. Photographers captured the star’s tricky tumble and images were splashed across news sites and social media.
Malek was quickly treated by paramedics, who seated him in the nearby front row and then moved him to a private backstage area. The newly crowned Oscar winner appeared to be physically fine and did not show any signs of injury as he spoke with reporters in the press room after the incident.
Rami Malek was later spotted in good spirits at the Governors Ball and posed for photographs, according to The Hollywood Reporter .
Aside from his stage stumble, Rami Malek had a winning night at the 91st Academy Awards. Not only did the 37-year-old actor win the coveted Best Actor Oscar, but he beat out some serious competition with seasoned fellow nominees Viggo Mortensen ( Green Room ), Christian Bale ( Vice ), Willem Dafoe ( At Eternity’s Gate ) and Bradley Cooper ( A Star is Born ).
Rami Malek surrounded by medics after fall at #theOscars https://t.co/4Qy008eyeQ pic.twitter.com/eDURm1gKNN
— The Scottish Sun (@ScottishSun) February 25, 2019
During his Academy Awards acceptance speech, Rami Malek made it known that he was not “the obvious choice” to play the late Queen frontman in Bohemian Rhapsody (Sacha Baron Cohen was on serious contention to be the movie’s original lead), but he added that in the end everything “worked out” for him. Malek called his unlikely Oscar win a “monumental moment,” and he thanked Freddie Mercury’s surviving Queen bandmates seated in the audience. Queen opened up the 2018 Academy Awards with a riveting performance of “We Will Rock You” with Adam Lambert.
After his Oscar win and brief timeout to attend to his tumble, Rami Malek headed to the Governors Ball where he promptly decided to shake things off at the prestigious after-party by shaking up a bottle of champagne, according to Metro .
As Malek waited for his Oscar trophy to be engraved by Hollywood and Highlander, he grabbed a bottle of bubbly and let it pop. Photogs captured that moment too, and it was a lot more fun than his stage slip.
