A local drummer is getting the credit for helping an actor convincingly play the drummer for Queen.
Bryan McLellan, who recently moved back to Chatham after living in the United Kingdom for 21 years, helped trained Ben Hardy to mimic Queen drummer Roger Taylor's mannerisms for the film, Bohemian Rhapsody.
McLellan said he got the gig while living in London, England last summer. He was teaching at the London Centre of Contemporary Music when one of his former students contacted him. The former student said she was working for Abbey Road Studios, which was assigned to find music tutors for the film.
"She got in touch and said they were looking for a drum coach for a new Queen biopic and it just went from there," McLellan said. "They sent me a list of songs and I went and worked with Ben Hardy. I went to his flat in Wimbledon and we just sat in his studio and worked on the songs."
McLellan said he didn't have to teach Hardy how to play.
"It was more about looking at Rogers' mannerisms and technique," McLellan said. "He pretty much had the playing already worked out which was quite impressive."
McLellan added it was a pleasure working with Hardy because he was a professional, really attentive, and detail oriented.
According to McLellan, teaching Hardy how to play like Taylor involved a lot of watching old videos on YouTube. He said while Taylor doesn't have an unconventional style, Hardy had to learn how to specifically hold the sticks like him and hit the drums in the certain ways Taylor would during famous gigs like the Live Aid performance featured in the film.
"[Taylor] might twirl the stick at a certain part in the song or crash with both hands instead of one," McLellan said. "Just little details like that."
MacLellan added this is easily the biggest film he has been credited on. McLellan said music from his band Vega 4 had been used in films and he has been credited for helping place music in movies.
"I emailed Ben the other day just congratulating him on the success," McLellan said. "He was quite surprised on how successful it's become. I think they knew it was going to be big but it has kind of taken the world by storm."
McLellan isn't the only person from Chatham-Kent credited on an Oscar-nominated film. Lisa Bechard worked on Spiderman-Into the SpiderVerse which is up for the Animated Feature Film award.
Both have a lot of momentum going into the Academy Awards. Bohemian Rhapsody won the Drama category at the Golden Globes for Best Picture while Spiderman won in the Best-Animated category.
The Oscars are set to air on Sunday, February 24 at 8 p.m.