Elton John was adamant about keeping all the sex and drug stories intact in 'Rocketman'
Elton John was extremely clear on his stance when it came to the portrayal of sex and drugs in his upcoming biopic 'Rocketman'. "Some studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating. But I just haven't led a PG-13 rated life," John wrote of the film, which took years to make, in an essay published on Sunday, May 26.
He continued in the essay, published in The Guardian, saying: "I didn’t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the '70s and '80s, so there didn't seem to be much of a point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I'd quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon's Bible for company."
The 72-year-old musician also wrote how it was important to him to keep the fantasy elements in the movie as well, despite studio protest. "That was missing the point," John wrote. "I lived in my own head a lot as a kid. And when my career took off, it took off in such a way that it almost didn’t seem real to me."
He continued, "I wasn’t an overnight success by any means … But when it happened, it went off like a missile: there's a moment in 'Rocketman' when I’m playing onstage in the Troubadour club in LA and everything in the room starts levitating, me included, and honestly, that's what it felt like."
The singer also spoke about how he sobbed watching the film about his life. "Not crying as in the occasional tear quietly trickling down my cheek: really sobbing, in that loud, unguarded, emotionally destroyed way that makes people turn around and look at you with alarmed expressions," he wrote.
It was also reported that Taron Egerton, who plays John in the upcoming movie, got extremely emotional after the Cannes Film Festival screening as the audience rose to give the 29-year-old a standing ovation. At the screening, after the credits rolled, Egerton performed the film's titular song onstage with Sir Elton himself.
John told the crowd: "Thank you to everyone for making my life come to the screen. Even if the movie doesn't make one penny at the box office, which will kill [Paramount boss] Jim Gianopulos, it is the movie I wanted to make." The rock legend added, "And that is sometimes a rare thing. I will never tire of watching it, and I will never tire of the performances by everybody in the cast."
Paramount Pictures describes 'Rocketman' as an "an epic musical fantasy about the uncensored human story of Elton John's breakthrough years", and which takes a deep plunge into the singer's personal life as well. Reportedly, the movie will not censor the details of John's life and will deal with his sexuality and struggles with addiction.
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