Star’s confession about playing Elton John: ‘I felt a weight of responsibility for a depiction to be proud of’

Taron Egerton, who played Elton John in the film Rocketman, explains the ‘weight of responsibility’ he has felt taking on big Hollywood roles.

British actor Taron Egerton, right, shot to fame playing Elton John in Rocketman. Picture: AFP

There’s something about fire that is especially alluring for Taron Egerton.

While the British actor understands the appeal of dramas with emergency services workers

at their core – given they’re both high stakes and relatable – he finds stories

that focus on fire the most magnetic.

“Because we have an intrinsic relationship with fire as a species, don’t we?” he says.

“It’s both a huge part of how we’ve been able to conquer the world, and it’s also this undeniably destructive, dangerous force.

“So it’s both the danger and the key to everything. It’s viscerally fascinating. It’s hypnotic. It’s got all of these very seductive qualities.”

Taron Egerton at the premiere of Smoke in New York. Picture: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Speaking on stage at the 2025 Tribeca Festival earlier this month. Picture: Getty Images

So it tracks that Egerton’s latest TV series, the nine-part crime drama Smoke, showcases all the elements that make fire such a powerful force for good and evil.

In the show, he plays Dave Gudsen, a swaggering renegade arson investigator who teams up with ambitious but damaged police detective Michelle Calderone (Jurnee Smollett) to track down two murderous pyromaniacs terrorising the city where they live.

Smoke is loosely based on Firebug, a podcast about the real-life crimes of serial arsonist John Leonard Orr.

The former US fire captain is believed to have set alight more than 2000 fires between 1984 and 1991, making him America’s most prolific arsonist.

In addition to the podcast, Orr’s story has also been investigated in a 2004 episode of Forensic Files, and inspired the 2018 bestseller Burned (a collaboration with Orr’s daughter) as well as the 2002 TV movie Point Of Origin, starring John Leguizamo and the late Ray Liotta.

“I think the beauty of an episodic format like this is that you can really play with perspective,” Egerton explains of Smoke, which – in a full-circle moment – also features Leguizamo.

In 2020, Taron Egerton won the Golden Globe for Rocketman. Picture: Getty Images

A candid moment with Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes in 2020. Picture: Getty Images

“If the story of [Breaking Bad’s] Walter White had been done in a movie, you could do time jumps that would show his change from mild-mannered chemistry teacher to dastardly drug baron.

“But it wouldn’t be satisfying in the way that it is watching it happen gradually over years. That’s the beauty of the medium.

“And that’s what I’m hoping for with the character of Dave. You spend time getting to know him, yet [you realise you do] not know him at all as the show progresses.”

This is far from Egerton’s first rodeo bringing real-life stories to the screen.

He won a Golden Globe for his performance as Elton John in 2019’s Rocketman, and was Emmy-nominated for his turn as real-life FBI operative James “Jimmy” Keene in the 2022 series Black Bird.

During his Rocketman era. Taron Egerton, Elton John, David Furnish and Kit Connor in Cannes in 2019. Picture: AFP

“There’s a pressure with the other real people I’ve played, where I wouldn’t want to upset anyone,” he admits.

“Certainly, in the case of somebody like Elton, I felt a weight of responsibility for a depiction to be proud of.

“I guess with a guy like this – and I’m not playing John, I’m playing Dave Gudsen, and that’s an important distinction to make – it’s obviously very inspired by that real-life case.”

Egerton hasn’t met Orr (who has been in jail since 1992), but he gained insights to his murderous activities by listening to Firebug. “It’s an amazing resource,” he explains.

“Because it’s a crazy story, and so much of it forms kind of the tentpoles of the structure of our story.”

He adds that thanks to screenwriter Dennis Lehane – whose novels have been adapted into the critically acclaimed movies Mystic River, Shutter Island and Gone Baby Gone – Smoke has its own unique voice and perspective.

As such, there are stretches of the series that veer far from its roots as a podcast.

“There’s nothing from John Orr there,” Egerton says, smiling proudly.

“It’s just unadulterated Dennis Lehane weirdness. When I read it, I loved it so much I couldn’t help but try and amp it up.

“So we had this great dialogue about how we made one scene as kinky and as strange as we felt we could. And I really liked that about my dynamic with Dennis. We’re probably as f*cked up as each other.”

Smoke premieres Friday on Apple TV+.

Read the full interview with Taron Egerton in the new issue of The Binge Guide, out today via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

Originally published as Star’s confession about playing Elton John: ‘I felt a weight of responsibility for a depiction to be proud of’