Elton John's one request for Rocketman biopic

To have your own life played out on screen sounds like a confronting prospect, but Elton John has thrown his full support behind Rocketman, but on one condition.

The music legend told actor Taron Egerton and director Dexter Fletcher he didn’t want to be simply ‘imitated’ in the biopic, but instead have his story brought to life with a resonant flair.

“What we endeavour to do and what Elton was very clear about and said [was], ‘Don’t do an impression of me, do your version of me’,” Fletcher reveals to Yahoo Lifestyle Australia.

For Egerton, landing the role was the opportunity of a lifetime. He knew how important it was to get this right and meet Elton’s request to not simply imitate him.

“I wouldn’t say I’m doing an impersonation but of course it brings a weight of pressure. I think when you see the movie it all makes sense, I hope,” he reveals.

“And it’s not to say I play it as me. I alter myself and I keep an eye on who Elton is so my accent changes over the course of the film.

“It’s not that impersonating was the absolute pinnacle of what we set out to achieve because what we were trying to achieve was to capture the spirit of his story and to capture the magic of his music.”

Rocketman chronicles the maestro’s life from his fractured childhood through to a turbulent 20-year period which was dominated by alcohol and drug abuse.

The movie comes on the heels of the mega-success of last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which landed its star Rami Malek an Oscar and grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.

“It’s scary for a number of reasons because I’m coming off the back of some phenomenal music biopics,” says Egerton about the pressure to nail this role.

“You just don’t know how people are going to react because we’ve taken some risks and when people say ‘we get it, it’s great’ it’s just like, ‘thank God for that’.”

Rocketman is in Australia cinemas from May 30.

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