Taron Egerton as Elton John in Rocketman

[LoveNDino]

[YOUNG_LA_DOM]

He’s a hot fucker

[YOUNG_LA_DOM]

TROUBADOUR

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[+ WilliamM]

The New York Times

"Rocketman"

 

It’s Going Great for Richard Madden. That’s What Worries Him

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• May 31, 2019
  
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  • When it comes to award shows, always listen to Julianne Moore.
    

Richard Madden knows this now, though he didn’t in January, when the Scottish actor who is the co-star in "Rocketman," found himself

. Madden had received his first Globe nomination for playing a British politician’s PTSD-stricken protection officer in the hit mini-series “Bodyguard,” and before the names in his category were read, Moore leaned over to strategize.

 

“She was like, ‘O.K., sweetie, if you win, do you want to come out behind me or do you want to go around the other way?’” Madden recalled. He responded incredulously: Of course he wouldn’t win.

But he did. And as the orchestra began to play, Madden had no idea where to go. With a professional’s ease, Moore stood up, stepped back and coaxed Madden past her to the stage. “And then when I came back to the table after,” he said, “she was like, “I asked you which way you wanted to go!’”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When it comes to navigating his path through Hollywood, the 32-year-old Madden prefers to figure it out on the fly. This week, you can catch him in the musical “Rocketman,” where Madden plays a cunning music manager whose seduction of Elton John extends past the boardroom and into the bedroom. It’s a far cry from Madden’s best-known role as Robb Stark, the virtuous, doomed “Game of Thrones” character who perished during the show’s notorious “Red Wedding” episode.

 

 

That series only got bigger and bigger as it went on, but after his third-season exit, Madden was no longer around to partake in the spoils. Still, being killed off early has its benefits: It let Madden gradually age out of callow-prince roles and start playing complicated adult men. His role on “Bodyguard” last fall served as a reintroduction of sorts, a signal to the industry that Madden’s matinee-idol looks had grown gratifyingly flinty. Even his vulnerability now seemed dangerous.

“I’m so used to playing the good guy that bad things happen to,” Madden told me in a Cannes hotel room this month, just days after “Rocketman” premiered at the film festival there. Initially tired from a day of doing press, Madden became warmer and more animated as he spoke, his blue eyes widening often for emphasis. “I was interested in playing a slightly darker character, with different motivations to him.”

 

His “Rocketman” role, John Reid, lets Madden play the Machiavellian type with a jolt of sexual electricity: When Reid tells the young, untested Elton John, “You’re so humble, it’s embarrassing,” Madden makes his taunt sound like a come-on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What Richard has as an actor is great weight and assuredness,” said Taron Egerton, who plays Elton John in the film. “People call it sex appeal — and hell, there’s no doubt he has that — but it’s more than that. The sex appeal is a byproduct of his strength. You feel safe around him, because he has this certainty about things.”

 

Ask Madden about that certainty, though, and he seems startled that anyone would think he possesses it. “You have to summon the strength to try and fake it,” he said. The character of John Reid may seem like a shark, but Madden conceived him as a big bluffer working hard to conceal his nerves, “because that echoed me on set, trying to be the cool character but actually panicking underneath.”

 

Madden has felt that sense of precariousness since he was a child actor growing up outside Glasgow, where classmates teased him relentlessly for leaving school to pursue roles. Even when Madden got his big break on “Game of Thrones,” it came with a catch: Many of his co-stars were recast after the pilot was shot, an early reminder that “you’ve got to bring your best to this show, because it’s going to go on with or without you.”

 

Eventually, the show did just that, though not before bestowing Madden with a level of fame that surprised him. “I thought it would just be like a niche, cult show,” Madden said. “I didn’t think it was going to be, like” — he paused to think of something appropriately huge — “‘Game of Thrones,’” he said finally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still, even that series couldn’t quite prepare Madden for the level of attention he’s received since “Bodyguard” debuted. A twisty, sexually charged action drama set against the war on terror, “Bodyguard” was a sensation in Britain when it came out last fall on the BBC (the show later debuted worldwide on Netflix), though Madden kept expecting the other shoe to drop.

 

 

“You’re always waiting for it to fail, or go wrong,” he said. “I did it with every episode of ‘Bodyguard,’ thinking, ‘This will be the week where the audience turns on us and starts hating the show.’”

 

They never did, and the frenzy kicked up by “Bodyguard” has led to new roles — Madden is soon to shoot the Sam Mendes-directed World War I drama “1917” and, it’s rumored, the Marvel movie “The Eternals” — as well as new scrutiny. Paparazzi attention has become so prevalent in London, where Madden lives much of the year, that his neighbors have started a group chat to warn the actor if any photographers are lingering outside.

Tabloid interest in his personal life has increased, too: Madden, who was in a relationship with the actress Jenna Coleman until last year, has recently been photographed several times with the actor Brandon Flynn, who used to date the singer Sam Smith. Are the two men an item?

 

“What Richard has an actor is great weight and assuredness,” his “Rocketman” colleague Taron Egerton said.CreditClement Pascal for The New York Times

 

 

 

 

 

Madden shrugged, unbothered by the question but in no hurry to answer it, either. “I just keep my personal life personal,” he said. “I’ve never talked about my relationships.” He’s working on a way to deter paparazzi interest in who he’s seen with: “I wear the same clothes days in a row, because if it looks like the same day, they can’t run the pictures,” he said. “There’s only so many photos you can have of me with a green juice walking down the street.”

 

He knows, though, that some actors court that kind of attention. “I’ll be at hotels and restaurants where they’ll tell you, ‘There’s paparazzi in the front, do you want to go out the front or go out the back?’” Madden said. “And you go, ‘Who wants to out the front?’ And they say, ‘Oh, quite a lot of people!’”

 

 

Madden shook his head, laughing. He had been invited to the Vanity Fair party that night, one of the biggest see-and-be-seen soirees of the festival, but decided to beg off another night of flashbulbs and schmoozing. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he explained. Instead, he’d opt for something more modest, satisfying no one’s appetite that night but his own.

“I’m going to eat a cheeseburger in bed,” he said, grinning.

 

 

Comment: Richard is likely bisexual

Edited June 1, 2019 by WilliamM

[+ WilliamM]

http://66.media.tumblr.com/5baedf2802d6667973f4756d4bc51971/tumblr_pp4ojkRwMS1x4mv0io3_400.gif

 

Richard Maddon

[tchm]

 

HOT AF! Your turn, Ansel Elgort.

[LoveNDino]

[TruthBTold]

Going to see Rocketman tomorrow. Actually very excited. I'm ready for some great acting.

[TruthBTold]

Going to see Rocketman tomorrow. Actually very excited. I'm ready for some great acting.

 

So saw Rocketman last night. Taron Egerton is great. Due his actually singing and dancing I am sure he will win him an Oscar all things being fair (or I hope so). He is an amazing singer. The unfortunate thing for him (I thought) is that the movie (Rocketman) is simply not as strong as Bohemian Rhapsody. And neither of them are all that great. It may just be that I like Queen's music more so I ended up liking the movie more. I also thought that the script was a bit better written and structurally better. So kill me. It is funny because the movies are very similar as far as what the men go through and how they deal with what they go through. And both movies I thought shoved a lot of the gay issues to the side although there was some discussion of how hard it was for the men to deal with their gay identities - which would have been expected considering the times. I would definitely recommend seeing both.

[rogerG]

I'm an Elton John fan, but I did not enjoy Rocketman very much. I did not think it was a very good film. It seemed like a bubblegum chewing version of Elton John's life, which is packed too full for a 2-hour bio pic. The dance scenes looked cheap and silly. Even though Bohemian Rhapsody had its problems (those fake teeth), I though it was a much better film.

 

Taron Egerton has talent, but I don't think he will be winning many awards for this film. While enthusiastic, I thought his performance was strained along with his voice. He seemed to be trying to imitate Elton's vocal sound at times, and it just didn't work. Elton John has a very unique singing voice, and without it, his songs aren't the same. Elton is sort of like Cher, not easy to cast, no matter how good the actor is.

 

The characters in the film, especially the parents, seemed cartoonish to me. Egerton and Maddon had no on-screen chemistry. Jamie Bell seemed miscast. Maddon looked unattractive. In fact, all 3 male leads did not look attractive. There was a serious problem in the wig department of this film. Everyone was having a bad hair day.

 

I'm surprised this film got as many good reviews as it did. Many people seem to like it.

[down_to_business]

I actually liked it a lot. I also think Egerton did a phenomenal job singing and making it his own as opposed to trying to do Elton John karaoke. Also in Egerton's defense, he actually was asked NOT to sound like Elton John, so it seems a bit unfair to want to ding his vocals for that ( source https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2474232/elton-john-didnt-want-taron-egerton-to-sound-like-him-in-rocketman ).

 

I guess I agree with your criticism of Madden, even though I really liked him in Game of Thrones and Bodyguard. I thought Bell, on the other hand, did a good job. I think I really (surprisingly) enjoyed Charlie Rowe ( from TV series Salvation) and Tate Donovan too in this film.

[rogerG]

Madden's face does not excite me sexually. He's simply not my type. But I loved the work he did in Bodyguard. Electrifying.

 

I read that Egerton was asked not to attempt to sound like Elton, but I had to ask on which song? I thought his Elton inflection was all over the place and he couldn't decide when or when not to follow that advice. I suspect the bad advice had something to do with Elton's masterful range, especially Egerton's need to rely on falsetto, which is when Egerton totally fails at sounding like Elton. Elton's songs are not easy to sing, that's how gifted an artist he is. I think the producers knew how difficult it would be to find someone who could sing like Elton. Elton does not seem to have a Marc Martel equivalent, who totally saved the vocals on Bohemian Rhapsody.

 

I think the idea of having an actor sing the role of Elton and not sound like Elton is utterly hopeless. Imagine asking audiences to tolerate an actor/actress not sounding like Cher, Ray Charles, or Tina Turner? Elton's voice is SO famous and so crucial to his sound. What a dumb idea for a biopic.

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Chemistry!