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Cape Town – Elton John recently interviewed Taron Egerton during his Rocket Hour show on Apple Radio.
Taron plays the iconic singer in the biopic Rocketman which releases in cinemas on Friday, 7 June,
In the interview, they discuss Taron's approach to playing Elton, how Taron sings all the songs in the film himself, and his new version of the 1972 song Rocket Man.
ELTON AND TARON DISCUSS SINGING ALL THE MUSIC FOR ROCKETMAN
Elton: For those of you who don't know, in Rocketman, I don't sing anything. Taron has recorded, re-recorded, all the songs that are in the movie, and sings them quite brilliantly. Did you find it challenging to sing them?
Taron: I think I would have found it harder if it wasn't for the fact that you were so encouraging. I think that was a big part of what was an enabler and facilitated me to feel kind of relaxed enough to do them in the way that we have, and, of course, Giles Martin, who produced them, who is just the most incredible man, who I didn't know before this process. I know you did. I owe a lot of it to him, I think.
Elton: I didn't get involved in any of it. I just let you go ahead ... I knew you could sing because I heard I'm Still Standing, which you did in the film Sing. You've redone that in this film, so I think you should do an album of ten different versions of I'm Still Standing. It's not Bohemian Rhapsody where the brilliant Rami Malek, who played Freddie, lip-synced. You're actually doing the whole thing. I can't congratulate you enough.
TARON DESCRIBES WHAT IT WAS LIKE PLAYING ELTON IN THE FILM
Elton: How did you approach playing me?
Taron: Our film is different from Bohemian Rhapsody in the sense that we sing some of yours and Bernie's songs, not only as performance pieces but as legitimate pieces of musical theatre. I know you were always very keen on this idea of a fantasy. That's what our movie is. It's a musical fantasy. What I focused on was looking at the similarities between you and I, or the things that I perceived to be similar to you and I, and dialling those things up in me, and dialling those things down. I am someone who is prone to some of the extremes of existence, I would say in some respects, and I know that's you too. It felt like a very important film to me, to tell the story in a certain way. It's always something that I felt very emotionally connected to. I've loved it, but in terms of me trying to demystify the process of acting, I don't know really. You just sort of throw yourself into it.
