It takes a special kind of event to get me to travel to London and back after work these days now I’m queen of the early night and the early start, but the promise of seeing one of my favourite films of this year followed by a Q&A was something I couldn’t pass up.

This special screening of Rocketman was at held the rather lovely Picturehouse Central (which I need to revisit one day when I have time to explore) and was followed by a Q&A with Taron Egerton and director Dexter Fletcher for Empire Magazine‘s podcast.

Thanks to Katie we were seated slap bang in the centre of the front row, which made for a very intense viewing of the film (this wasn’t my first rodeo, more like my 20th) but a wonderful Q&A. Interviewed by Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine, the star and director gave their insights into filming the life of an iconic figure such as Elton John and their own experiences behind and in front of the camera.

 

Both Taron and Dexter talked with such passion about making the film, choices they made about aspects of Elton John’s life which didn’t belong in a film of his life, the friendship Taron struck up with Elton over the course of the film’s journey and what may (or may not) be next for both of them career-wise.

We also learned that the (very recently Grammy-nominated) Taron Egerton is ticklish, likes hot pants (“I fucking love hot pants” to be exact), is extremely humble, was surprised by congratulatory emails from actors such as Tom Hanks on his performance in Rocketman, and is ready to do Kingsman 3 next summer.

Dexter may look slightly different from my days of loving Press Gang but he’s as energetic as ever, engaging when discussing anything at all, does a mean Al Pacino impersonation and is clearly thrilled with the success of the film.

Some of these worked better in black and white so here are a few more shots from the Q&A. Link to the podcast is here.

It’s been a good couple of weeks for me regarding film, after a fairly uninspiring year The Peanut Butter Falcon melted my heart and I’d enjoyed Ford v Ferrari a couple of days before seeing Rocketman. Tomorrow I’m seeing Knives Out, and I hope it lives up to my high expectations…