Taron Egerton hit the cover of GQ UK this month for a cover story centered around his upcoming starring role in the Elton John biopic Rocketman.
Egerton told the publication he feels uncomfortable being “the ‘guy’, the ‘bro’, the ‘stunt guy’” as he was in Kingsman and feels much more at home in less heteronormative roles: “I always felt more at home in a gay club than at a football match, far more at home.”
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He later added: “I’m not someone who really subscribes to this binary view of male and female archetypes or ways of behaving. … Our concept of what a straight man or gay man looks like or is expected to behave in 20 years will be nothing like it is now.”
Egerton also commented on the (recently rumored to be threatened) sex scenes.
Said Egerton: “Well, the stuff we shot was pretty explicit. I mean, that’s why I made the film. … And for me, especially as a heterosexual actor, not to push the envelope as far as I can or try to make it a wholehearted celebration of being a gay man would be wrong. … What’s an extra $25 million at the box office? What are you willing to do for that? Sacrifice sleeping at night because you watered the whole thing down?”
GQ also spoke with Elton’s husband David Furnish, who serves as a producer, about the casting of Egerton: “When I first met Elton I was quite taken by his masculinity. He’s quite a blokey gay man. You can take him and put him in these costumes, pile up the feathers or the crazy stuff, and it all just kind of lands on him in a very masculine way. Taron has real gravitas and it’s very similar. He has the incredible -sensitivity and gentleness that Elton has, but he also has this manliness too. It’s a very complex quality.”
Furnish also doubts that the censorship that happened to Bohemian Rhapsody abroad could happen to Rocketman: ““I heard Bohemian Rhapsody is going to China with any reference to Freddie being gay taken out of it. Well, you can’t do that with our film, I’ll tell you that. It’s integral to Elton’s journey as an individual and as an artist.”
Check out the full GQ profile here.
