Movies

Taron Egerton’s transformation for Rocketman was so exact even Elton John couldn’t tell it wasn’t him


Taron Egerton’s transformation into Elton John even fooled the man himself (Pictures: Rex/Getty)

Taron Egerton’s magnificent turn as Elton John in Rocketman has rightfully gained the actor a host of awards and nominations, but his transformation into the singer was so on point that even Elton himself couldn’t tell them apart at times.

For the role, Taron had to undergo a huge transformation to turn the 30-year-old actor into Elton at various stages of his life, something which was in large part down to the extensive hair and make-up he had to undergo.

Lizzie Yianni-Georgiou, hair and make-up designer for Rocketman who has been nominated for a Bafta for her work on the film, told Metro.co.uk about the meticulous process behind turning Taron into Elton – something they pulled off so well, even Elton mistook Taron for himself at times.

She explained: ‘When Elton saw the first few photographs that got released, he saw a photograph of Taron sitting on the plane that he used to travel around in, and Elton went “I don’t remember taking this photo?!”

‘And then he realised when somebody said to him, “Actually that’s not you, it’s Taron!”

‘I thought that’s great, if even Elton is thinking that was a photograph of him then we’ve done something right.’

This photo of Taron on Elton’s famous plane had the singer convinced it was actually an old photo of himself (Picture: Marv Studios)

Despite the amazing feat they managed to pull off, Lizzie revealed that they didn’t have loads of time to prepare for the shoot – they had just eight weeks to prepare, something she had negotiated up from six.

Lizzie, whose previous credits include Guardians of the Galaxy for which she received an Oscar nomination, explained how she was drafted in to work on the movie: ‘The ball started to roll really fast so the pressure was on to get someone that could work well with Taron that Dexter [Fletcher, the director] really liked, and also had enough experience to pull it off well, because it was it was a complicated film to pull off.’

Lizzie manged to get Taron’s time in hair and make-up down to two and a half hours each day (Picture: David Appleby/Paramount)

One of the difficulties of working on a production like Rocketman was the fact that the hair and make-up would have to withstand some intense scenes, which meant more meticulous planning was needed to ensure a hair was never out of place.

She added: ‘I mean, even when I first read the script, I didn’t realize it was a musical. All the looks have got to work well for all the dancing and the movement, so that adds another layer of complication because you can’t just do these beautiful looks that are just going to be photographed, everyone’s going to be dancing and hanging off wires and quite a few stunts to do as well.

I knew that there’d be these big dance numbers and I knew that the costumes were going to be large. We were also shooting in the summer and Taron’s a very physical actor as well.

‘We had a lot of empathetic scenes where he would have to cry and where he’s in bed with people and all that, so once you’ve made them up you have to actually let them play the scene out.

Lizzie is nominated for a Bafta award for her work on Rocketman (Picture: Peter Ashenhurst)

‘There would be continuous shooting and you can’t keep going in and out but you would have to keep your eye on it.’

In order to make the transformation as spot-on as possible, Lizzie and Dexter scoured photos of Elton at various stages in his career as well as from his personal collection to select the outfits and moments they wanted to recreate.

One of their major aims with the production was to make sure Elton’s core fan base was also happy that the film had done justice to the iconic entertainer, something which the movie definitely managed to do.

Lizzie explained: ‘Dexter was very aware of that as well. He kind of said “Oh, you know, we only need an essence of Elton”, but I think we took it further than that.

Taron’s transformation included a host of hair pieces, sideburns and prosthetics as Elton aged throughout the movie (Picture: Rex Features)

‘I was very aware that we didn’t want to overload Taron, but with lots of little tricks like eyebrows and sideburns and contouring and wigs, we did manage to get more than just the essence.’

While Taron’s transformation looks effortless, there was plenty that went on behind the scenes to turn him into Elton – including giving him the iconic tooth gap as well as thinning out his hair to give it the appearance of it receding.

‘He was really up for it,’ Lizzie explained. ‘I shaved his hair back and thinned out all of his hair at the front and then I then I started to pluck out some of the hair on the back of his head to get that male pattern baldness.

‘But I could see him like jumping for each one of it, so I snuck in a little bit of hair remover on a little cotton but, and then sort of just pulled it away and he went “Well that didn’t hurt, that’s good!”’

Elton’s iconic tooth gap was painted on to Taron’s teeth (Picture: Paramount)

She added: ‘I think by the time it came to it, he already had it in his head [that his hair would need to be thinned], so I didn’t really have to convince him, I just had to prove that we could do it really well.

‘And it was really brave of him as a young man to go the whole hog with it. He got a lovely collection of hats from our costume designer, which I think really suit him!’

Getting into hair and make-up can be the most time-consuming part of the day on a shoot like this, but Lizzie and her team manage to cut down Taron’s time in the make-up chair to around two and a half hours each day.

‘It depends on the look,’ she explained. ‘The longest look was about two hours thirty, but that was with the bald cap [towards the end of the film].

Elton and Taron have formed a close friendship since the movie (Picture: FilmMagic)

‘You would have to prep his hair underneath, push the hair back, get it all slicked down, then apply the bald cap and then all the [prosthetic] eyepieces and eyebags and mouth to nose labials and the chin pieces would go on.

‘Then I come in and start doing eyebrows, sideburns, any shading, any sort of aging that you have to do around that.

‘We managed to get that down to about two and a half hours from about three and a half when we started.

‘There were three people working on him together, we didn’t have time to mess around and also he’s in every scene so you have to be really aware of how long he spends in makeup because that makes the day even longer.’

One of the clever tricks Lizzie and her team used on Taron was to paint Elton’s tooth gap onto Taron’s own teeth rather than using fake teeth which could affect his ability to sing and speak throughout the shoot.

From the hair and make-up to the costumes and scenes, everything was meticulously planned out (Pictures: Getty/Paramount Pictures)

‘We did have a little mouthpiece made but we’re worried because he had to sing and dance and all of that. And Dexter was really sort of pushing to lose it and Taron said he really wanted to keep the tooth gap because that is such a big thing of Elton’s.

‘Taron’s got such lovely big white teeth and Elton’s are quite characterful, so I used to paint into the four teeth.

‘It’s a special type of paint similar to what we use to give characters tattoos but it’s specially made for teeth, to either dirty them down or lose a tooth in the shot.

‘It meant that he could sing and it didn’t really change the shape of his mouth, but it was trial and error trying different things and different colours.’

Taron’s make-up had to withstand the physical aspects of filming in large, cumbersome costumes (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

Rocketman gained rave reviews from viewers and critics alike, and has continued to be a firm fixture in awards nominations since its release, including winning two Golden Globes.

Elton himself was closely involved in the production, which was a no-holds-barred look at his life through the years including his struggle with addiction and his first steps towards his enduring sobriety.

Rocketman is currently up for four Bafta awards for outstanding British film, best actor in a leading role, best sound and best make-up and hair for Lizzie Yianni-Georgiou.

The EE British Academy Film Awards will take place on Sunday, 2 February 2020.



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