HIGH FLYER
This is Robin Hood as we’ve never seen him before: no Kermit-green tights, no feather in his cap and strictly no thigh slapping. Taron Egerton plays the legendary outlaw as a haunted war veteran – fighting wealth corruption to help the impoverished, while also battling post-traumatic stress – in Robin Hood, out today.
Winning the lead in the movie, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, 44, and co-starring Jamie Foxx, 50, and Jamie Dornan, 36, catapults Welsh actor Taron to the height of his powers as a leading man in Hollywood.
Taron, 29, says: “None of us wanted to make a Robin Hood movie that people have seen before. There’s no mullets.
“I liked the idea of doing a version of a very famous hero, but giving him some real vulnerability and wobbliness – these are the things I find really interesting.”
Taron’s role in the new, dark, edgy Robin Hood is sure to make Hollywood sit up and take notice. Because the fairy tale has been dramatically shaken up.
Robin is a hoodie-wearing corruption fighter and his love interest, Maid Marion, played by Eve Hewson, 27 – daughter of U2’s Bono – is just as tough.
The Sheriff of Nottingham, portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn, 49, is a politician who blames his bad behaviour on sexual abuse that he endured as a child.
Jamie Foxx stars as Little John, an Islamic militant who smuggled past border patrol to land on British soil. And Jamie Dorman’s Will Scarlet is a workers’ rights activist trapped in a love triangle with Robin and Maid Marian.
And Taron believes Robin Hood’s theme of rich versus poor still rings very true today. He says: “I think we live in a world of widening wealth gaps. It is becoming so hard for people who aren’t earning above average to stay here. And that’s happening across the world, and our story taps into that.”
Despite now having an estimated fortune in excess of £6million, and living in a plush £1million home in London, money struggles are something that Taron can truly relate to.
Coming from a working-class family, he relied on private benefactors to pay his way through the prestigious drama school RADA in Central London. Now, he is helping to prove that working-class actors can reach the pinnacle of their profession.
“Our joint income in my family was less than £30,000, which makes you very eligible for all sorts of things,” he said.
“I could never have afforded RADA if it weren’t for the thousands and thousands they gave me in grant money.”
Born in Birkenhead, Merseyside, Taron’s parents split when he was three.
He spent his early childhood in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey, before moving to Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. Despite being born in England, he said: “All my friends are Welsh. I speak Welsh and I feel very Welsh.”
Taron maintained a good relationship with his father, who used to run a B&B and now plays in punk band Dataslaves. CHEEKY Taron in his younger days But he was brought up by mum Catherine, 52, known as Tina, who gained a first-class honours degree in psychology and worked as a social worker.
Taron’s love of performing was evident from a young age, perhaps most hilariously so during his first trip to the cinema, to see the Disney classic Bambi.
He said: “We already had it on VHS, so I knew the songs. And while I don’t remember it, I’m reliably informed there was a platform in front of the screen and I got on there and sang, Drip, Drip, Drop, Little April Showers, during the movie.
“Much to the amusement of some and the annoyance of others, I imagine.”
Taron sang in the Ysgol Penglais