Elton John is still standing . With the release of his highly anticipated biopic Rocketman , british singer 72-year-old shows that he is still one of the greatest names in the history of pop-rock. After projection, out-of-competition film in Cannes two weeks ago, the star had been very moved, embracing his double film Taron Egerton as a sign of recognition. In a long column published in the Guardian , Sir Elton is back on his reaction to the rendering of his life on screen. «I was in the cinema for 15 minutes before you start to cry,» he says. I was not prepared for the strength of what I saw.»
» READ ALSO – Rocketman: the music fuse
Elton John has discussed at length its intent, is very recent, to adapt his life on the film. «I have written songs and soundtracks for films with success, but I never liked to see me on the big screen,» says the British. He has embodied his own role in Spice World or The Country Bears , «no not really a film to the Oscars». His participation in the second part of Kingsman by 2017, however, had shown its capacity for self-deprecating humor, and was much amused the public. His one true important role the cinema has been one of a champion pinball in Tommy , adapted from the rock opera the same name from the Who, «even if this was not really acting, but rather try not to fall off bearing Dr. Martens 1-meter 30.»
Elton John sings Pinball Wizard Who in the film of 1975 adapted from their rock opera Tommy:
Elton John admits to also having never been interested in a retrospective on his career. A position that began to change when the singer became a father at 63 years old. From this time on, he said that he «began to imagine [her children] in 40 years, you can see or read my version of my life. I became less determined to keep everything for me. I liked the idea that they have a movie or an autobiography where I would be honest.»
«At the bottom, I was disgusting and horrible»
This change starts to unravel at Elton John with the release in 1997 of Tantrums and Tiaras , a documentary film about him directed by his husband David Furnish. «A lot of people have told me that I was crazy to allow the release of the documentary, but I loved it because it was sincere, tells the musician. There are moments in it – and also in Rocketman – where I am completely disgusting and horrible. And in reality, at this time, when I was at my lowest, I was disgusting and horrible, and there is no reason to pretend the opposite.»
» READ ALSO – Cannes under the lens: day 4, the magic of the duo Elton John-Taron Egerton
Then to his biopic, Elton John wanted the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, be told. At the risk of alienating the producers, who wanted a format-conformist in the line of the cinematographic genre that is the biopic. «Some of the studios wanted it attenuates the sex and the drugs for the film to be PG-13 [classification warning that the media may be inappropriate for children under 13 years of age, but minors under the age of 18 years old can watch it, ED.], except that I have not led a life PG-13. […] Everybody knows that I’ve taken a lot of drugs during the 1970s and 1980s,» says the singer, lucid. He has refused the idea of a scenario showing the «back calmly after each concert in my hotel room with for only companions a glass of warm milk and the Bible of the Gideons.»
Taron Egerton «has captured something for me»
Sir Elton explains also be kept away from the production, to share to give «advice and say yes or no to a few important decisions.» «Everyone would have been embarrassed to have the person which he speaks of Rocketman hanging around in the vicinity», he says. A distance which explains its emotion and surprise for the finished film. What he needs to in large part to his interpreter on the screen, Taron Egerton. «It does not do an imitation of me, approves of Elton John, it is not like me especially. But he is like me, he has captured something of me.» Finally, if the film is a success, it is, according to him, because he is «chaotic, funny, crazy, horrible, awesome and dark, like my life. Not everything is obviously not true, but it is still the truth.»
Elton John and his double film Taron Egerton on the red carpet in cannes, prior to the screening out of competition on may 16. Stephane Mahe/REUTERS
