Taron Egerton: What Elton John REALLY thought of star and Rocketman
ELTON JOHN movie Rocketman hit cinemas earlier this year but what did the singer really think of the movie and Taron Egerton’s performance.
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Back in May, the musical biopic of Elton John’s life hit cinemas to rave reviews and box office success. But what did the singer really think of Rocketman and the star who played him, Taron Egerton?
Well, according to Egerton himself, he sat between Elton and Bernie Taupin – the star’s lyricist – during a screening.
Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel earlier this year, the 30-year-old highlighted how he and director Dexter Fletcher watched on nervously for their reactions.
Egerton said: “We watched the whole movie at this [sideways] kind of angle, to try and ascertain if he approved of it.
“He’d seen bits, rushes, dailies, and the trailer but not the whole movie.”
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The actor continued: “It was the first time I’d seen it with all the VFX and everything.
“To see him watch the scene in which they [Elton and Bernie] meet, and grab each-other on the knee…
“And then about fifteen minutes from the end, he absolutely broke down. He was blubbing.
“And then the lights come up and I’m very moved - because Elton is moved.”
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He added: “But Elton, because he’s an old pro, has managed to get himself looking immaculate again, whereas I am just melting with all these cameras on me!”
Elton also told The Daily Telegraph how he found it difficult to watch Rocketman.
The 72-year-old said: “This is how my life was, and I didn’t want to cover it and gloss it over.
“And it’s difficult to watch because I thought, ‘God, I don’t want to go back there. Thank God I came out of it’.”
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While the musician praised Egerton’s singing of his hits in Rocketman.
Speaking on Zane Lowe’s Beat 1, Elton said: “I’d heard him sing ‘I’m Still Standing’ on the Sing soundtrack.
“I knew he could sing and I definitely wanted in this movie people to know that it wasn’t me singing.
“I didn’t want lip-syncing. So he was given the brief of ‘you’re going to sing everything’.”
He added: “My songs aren’t easy to sing.
“I know because loads of musicians have told me that they’re hard to sing.”
And when it came to the recording sessions for the Rocketman soundtrack, Elton said Egerton “blew his mind”.
The 72-year-old explained: “What he’s done is quite extraordinary because he sounds like me, but he also sounds like Taron.”