Sir Elton John has said he is “blown away” by Kingsman actor Taron Egerton’s performances of his songs in Elton’s upcoming biographical movie Rocketman.
Twenty-eight-year-old Egerton will play the music icon in the long-awaited film, but Elton’s husband David Furnish says the singer has told Egerton not to attempt a strict impersonation.
“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,” Furnish told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I think it’s the challenge for the actor to embody the spirit and not get into thinking they have to do an impersonation.”
Furnish told the publication Egerton had recently recorded three songs recently at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
“When I played the songs for Elton, he was blown away, really blown away,” Furnish said.
“Elton was like, ‘It can’t get any better for me.’”
Rocketman has been in development since at least 2011, and last July it emerged that 28-year-old Egerton had replaced British actor Tom Hardy in the lead role.
The film will trace Elton’s start in the music industry through to his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction in the 1990s because, Furnish told The Hollywood Reporter, “the rehab recovery moment was a real watershed moment in his life, and it’s a great way to focus the storytelling around that.”
