Cameras don’t start rolling for a few months on the Elton John biopic Rocketman starring Taron Egerton, but the Kingsman actor already has been laying down tracks for the movie.
John’s husband, producer David Furnish, tells The Hollywood Reporter he was with Egerton when he recorded three songs recently at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios. “When I played the songs for Elton, he was blown away, really blown away,” Furnish says as he shows THR a photo on his phone of Egerton in the studio wearing a vintage Elton John concert T-shirt. “Elton was like, ‘It can’t get any better for me.’”
Egerton has already performed a John classic in a movie — he sang “I’m Still Standing” in Universal’s 2016 animated movie Sing. The film will trace John’s start in the business through his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction in the 1990s because, Furnish said, “the rehab recovery moment was a real watershed moment in his life, and it’s a great way to focus the storytelling around that.”
He added, “Elton has told Taron, ‘Don’t copy me. Don’t think you have to sing it exactly the way that I sang it. Don’t think you have to perform it the way I performed it. I think it’s the challenge for the actor to embody the spirit and not get into thinking they have to do an impersonation.”
A version of this story first appeared in the March 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
