babs Aug. 7, 2021

Barbra Streisand Says ‘No, No, No, No, No, No’ to a Bohemian Rhapsody–Style Biopic

Portrait of Rebecca Alter

By Rebecca Alter, a staff writer who covers comedy and pop culture

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for BSB

We’ve found it, the one thing we have in common with actress, chanteuse, and dog-cloning pioneer Barbra Streisand: We both said “No, no, no, no, no, no” to Bohemian Rhapsody. Sort of. On Friday, Streisand appeared on the Just for Variety podcast to discuss her upcoming album of never-before-released tracks from her vaults, as well as the memoir she’s been writing. When asked by host Marc Malkin if she would ever consider doing “a scripted feature along the lines of Elton John’s Rocketman or Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody,” Streisand responded:

After I’m gone. Not while I’m alive. No, no, no, no, no, no. I’d just say, listen to the truth in my book and portray me truthfully, but not while I’m here. I get upset when something’s false or something’s a lie. That’s why I wrote the song, “Don’t Lie to Me.” I couldn’t help making a video. I probably really lost a lot of people, a lot of fans doing that. But you have to face the truth. I have to face my own truth. I have to face what I think is going on in the world. That’s who I am. I just believe in the power of the truth.

So Streisand, believer in truth, doesn’t want a biopic made about her that overly panders to her in her lifetime, unlike [cough] some other [cough] biopics out there. So don’t expect Bohemian Babsody anytime soon. And in other news, she said she’d like to collab on a duet with “H.E.R.” Sure!

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Barbra Streisand Says ‘No, No,’ to a Rocketman-Style Biopic

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