Taron Egerton was given access to Elton John’s personal belongings, including his diaries, while preparing for his role in Rocketman.
The 29-year-old British actor, who portrays Elton during the early years of his career, formed a close friendship with the I’m Still Standing hitmaker during filming of the movie.
In an interview on Australia’s Network Ten programme, Taron explained, “He and I have grown quite close, and he’s obviously a producer on the film, and we’ve spent a lot of time together.
“I did read his diaries in preparation for the role. I went and stayed at his house… I sat by this… lake at his house, and read his diaries from ’70 to ’76, and they are so hilariously pedestrian,” he added.
“Like, one entry will be, ‘The washing machine’s broken. Wrote a song called Honky Cat’. And that’s it for the day. Another one of my favourite ones read, ‘Wasn’t feeling great last night. Did a moody (tantrum), smashed a plate of french fries in the restaurant’.”
Taron enjoyed tapping into the various layers of Elton’s personality while depicting the singing legend onscreen.
“He’s a very unusual character and he has a lot of contradictions,” Taron tells The Rolling Stone. “He’s both at once incredibly vulnerable and incredibly intimidating… There’s a spark in him and you feel it when you meet him. There’s something and it’s not something you can define.”
Rocketman, which also stars Jamie Bell, Richard Madden, and Bryce Dallas Howard, is released in the U.S. on Friday.
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