So, playing Sir Elton in Rocketman, with the greatest of respect to the Kingsman films, is it fair to say this is the best thing you’ve done?
I mean, not by a country mile, by light years! I just got such an interesting part to play, but also just about the opportunities that it afforded me in terms of singing and playing someone who’s very vulnerable, but also really imposing, and so much changes over the course of the story. It’s everything you could want for a role. I mean, it’s just bloody wonderful.
I’ve actually seen it twice. It’s better the second time.
That’s so nice to hear. And you’re not the first person to say that. I think it’s because there’s such a great attention to detail in it. And I think when something’s been crafted with great care and affection it does stand a little bit more than one viewing. I’ve actually seen it four times now and I’ll watch it again.
The first thing I noticed is just the voice, which you get instantly. Was there a fine line between playing Elton and impersonating him?
The way we thought about it, it’s not mimicry, the performance, but there are this about him that I wanted to try to emulate. One of the things that really interested me about him was that, a bit like Michael Caine, his voice is just so different in terms of his register – it’s completely different over time. If you listen to Elton in his first interviews, he sounds like a North Londoner, but now he’s nearer to sounding like an American and partly that’s because he’s been with a Canadian [David Furnish] for 25 years. So that was quite a nice little way of tracking where I was, because I started playing him as he was in 1960-something all the way through to about 1990. It’s a long time. And the voice is quite a useful way, along with losing his hair, of tracking where you’re at.
Was there anything you were worried about when you took on the role?
The thing I was nervous of... There’s a certain amount of trepidation around playing a gay character when you’re a heterosexual. Because you don’t want that community to feel you’re doing some sort of caricature or something. I didn’t want to camp it up, because Elton is not a camp man. I knew quite acutely that wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Was that a worry when the film came out?
I was aware of it before we started filming. I knew it would be something that some people would take issue with. But I also knew that the film was very, very celebratory about that side of the character. So I felt that, generally, people would be accepting.
What was the first thing Elton said to you when he saw the final thing?
He said that he didn’t think it was me. He thought it was him.
Not bad!
Yeah, I know! And he said he wouldn’t change a single thing about it. I mean, I’ll say it because he said it publicly and not because I’m being fabulously self-congratulatory and self-aggrandising: he really does love it. I’m going to stay with him next week, actually. He still wants to be my mate, which is lovely! The really great thing is that the movie is a studio film, but there are a lot of things in it that are alarm bells for the box office. You’re going to do a gay sex scene. Right. OK. Cool. You’re not going to get a Chinese opening. Then you insist on having the sexuality woven into the fabric of the film, rather than just tokenism that can be filleted. Great. You’re placing a ceiling on your box office, because there are, sadly, still territories in the world that aren’t going to accept that. But, God, does it leave you with a warm feeling of satisfaction because you haven’t compromised your integrity and had to rewrite the whole thing.
On that subject, I have to ask you about the sex scenes that were cut from the Russian version. Are you still a bit angry about that?
It was a decision made by the Russian distributor. That was horrifying for all of us. It just felt exhausting, because so much work has gone into the movie and we’d all been so unwavering and, frankly, militant about preserving the integrity of it. So when someone who has got nothing to do with the film, in a part of the world where actually [being gay is] not illegal, comes along and changes it… You know, that film could have been a beacon. I receive messages on Instagram from young people, some teenagers, old people, who say they really wish this film had been there when they were growing up. And I think that’s what’s really sad about it. It’s just depressing. And I think for Elton, as someone who’s been a standard-bearer for that community for a long time, I’m sure it’s really difficult.
Have you watched the film with your parents?
Yeah. My dad was the last to see it. He saw it with me a couple of weeks ago. My mother was with me in Cannes, in London and New York, actually.
Was it awkward watching the sex scenes at all? Not because they’re gay sex scenes, just because they’re, you know, sex scenes…
I have very liberal parents. My mum is my mum, but she’s also one of my best friends. We’ll happily drink a bottle of wine together. I honestly didn’t have any trepidation about that. There was never any sense of having conservative, overbearing parents. I’m lucky in that way. I actually quite like the challenge of seeing if I can make my mum blush. And I think when I watched that scene between myself and Richard [Madden, who played Elton’s lover and manager John Reid], our friendship is so a gazillion miles away anything like that, it doesn’t really feel like us. But, equally, it never felt awkward or difficult or strange. I’ve done some intimate scenes with a woman before and found it much harder. I’m not in any way repulsed by the male form. It doesn’t bother me. It’s just… I would find it harder if the person I was doing the scene with was a nob. You know, those people you just don’t connect with and conversation with them is strange. I’d probably sooner it was with Richard than…
Some stunning A-lister who was a dick…
Exactly!
You’ve duetted with Elton, which is a fairly unique thing to do. Ryan Gosling doesn’t get to go to the moon with Neil Armstrong…
Yes! I’ve done it three times. I did “Tiny Dancer” at the Elton John Aids Foundation dinner, then “Rocket Man” on the beach in Cannes. And then he asked me, for his first gig of his world tour in the UK, to come out and do “Your Song”. And so I progressively got more and more comfortable. And, of course, they are about spreading the word for the film, but for me they felt more about celebrating the friendship through this process with Elton. He’s very interested in other people. He’s very interested in making friends. To be honest – I’m putting words in his mouth – but I suspect that when your family were less than you would wish them to be in some respects, you pick your family from your good friends, and I think he’s got a real hunger for forming relationships.
What surprised you to learn about Elton during the process?
I mean, the really ugly side of taking that much cocaine and where that takes you. Some of the stuff he told me made my teeth itch! Which probably doesn’t need to go in the article…
Doesn’t it? Go on. One teeth-itching story…
He used to have so much cocaine he’d have seizures, be put in his bed and then wake up and immediately start taking more cocaine.
You talked about the trepidation of playing a gay man. The whole Scarlett Johansson thing blew up again recently, with her saying she should be able to play anyone no matter the ethnicity. Is that how you see it? Is there anyone you couldn’t play?
You can look at it through two prisms, I suppose. Lots of gay actors feel that by being public about their sexuality it denies them the opportunity to play heterosexual roles and that they get typecast. That is where the frustration with straight actors playing gay roles comes from. And that is the core problem. I don’t know that stopping straight actors from playing gay roles is the solution to that problem. I think that’s an inelegant, reactive solution. But I can understand it, it’s born of a deep-rooted frustration. But what it doesn’t do is promote inclusivity. It doesn’t promote celebration of things that are other from yourself. And it doesn’t promote creativity. And that’s how I feel about it. And I think, actually, that is possibly the best I’ve articulated how I feel about it! [Laughs.] I’ve been reaching for that for months!
Is it still a problem then? If you were a young, gay actor do you think you would still feel worried about coming out?
I do. I do. And I can understand that. And I think there’s probably still some justification to be concerned about it. But that being said, I think that it’s shifting for the better.
You’re going to hate this next question. Have you allowed any Oscar daydreams?
I mean… I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’ve not thought about it once. Other people have said it, so of course. My line about it is that I am the one person who can’t comment on it, because it’s my performance. It’s not for me to decide or speculate as to whether it’s worthy of any accolades. I mean, it’d just be perverse! But I would be overjoyed. [But I have] absolutely no gauge of whether it’s remotely realistic.
Do you know what you want to do next?
I want to play a character that has as much dimension and nuance as the one I just played, preferably with a filmmaker that I am champing at the bit to work with. Other than that I have no idea.
Sometimes people like to completely shift gear and take on some Marvel superhero films, as Madden has with The Eternals…
I know there’s been something online about me being rumoured. It’s absolutely unfounded, the Wolverine thing.
I can see it, actually. In the best possible way…
I’ll have spent a year in the gym!
Finally, where exactly are you spending the weekend with Elton?
I’m going to stay with him in Nice for three nights, with my girlfriend, him and David.
One of his own properties I assume?
Yes. We’re going to be there for a couple of nights and just hang out. I’ve been to a few of his homes. He has several. And, yes, none of them are bad. Although they’re not ostentatious and overly grand. They’re quite modest in terms of size, other than the main residence. But, yes, they are beautiful.
Styling by Tony Cook. Hair: Joe Mills. Grooming: Katya Thomas. Tailor: Hayley Cherkas. Set design: Pablo Cattermole; Chris Williams. Special effects: Bob Smoke. Photography assistants: Philip Banks; Alex Cornes; Coco Johnston; Roger Richards. Style assistant: Fiona Vosper
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