This Robin Hood is unlike any you’ve seen before.. he has real vulnerability and wobbliness
It feels like last week that I was working in Peacocks TARON EGERTON ON HIS WHIRLWIND RISE TO FAME
School choir from an early age. But, as soon as he appeared in his first performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, his mind was set on being an actor.
There was one problem: money. Getting a working-class boy from North Wales to Hollywood might seem like a stretch too far for most. But Taron’s mum, who had remarried, and his wider family chipped in to cobble together the money he needed to attend auditions in London.
Taron said: “We never had any money when I was growing up, but I never wanted for anything.
“There was never any expectation that I would make money, but they encouraged me to do what made me happy and I think they felt I was good at. And it was lovely to have that support. It was a real family effort to get me there.
“My mother... my auntie, my father, my mother, my stepfather – they each gave me £40 or £50 to go and audition.”
Determined make their investment worthwhile,
Taron put his head down at RADA. And it was money well spent.
Now, his chiselled face is familiar as the snazzily dressed spy Eggsy in the Kingsman films alongside Colin Firth, 58. And he starred as Eddie The Eagle, next to Hugh Jackman, 50. More recently, Taron adopted a slightly different look. His hair was shaved to create a bald patch to portray Sir Elton John, 71, in the biopic Rocketman, due out next year. Taron says: “I had this awful hair, so I shaved it cos they had thinned it right out and given me this bald patch. It was very cathartic getting rid of it and, also, I split up with my girlfriend [Emily Thomas] not long ago and it weirdly felt a bit like reinvention. It felt empowering to change the way I look.”
Taron jumped at the chance to play Sir Elton, who had a cameo in his 2017 movie Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
He said of the moment he was offered the part: “I was like, f ****** hell, are you joking? It was a long journey, but it’s been phenomenally rewarding.”
Taron’s last film, Billionaire Boys’ Club, released earlier this year, tanked due to sexual assault allegations surrounding its star Kevin Spacey, 59. “He was never inappropriate with me,” said Taron.
“There’s a fine line, though, isn’t there, between someone being an audacious flirt and being predatory? I thought he was the former. But it’s sad that his professional demise threw such a shadow over our film.”
Speaking of changing fortunes, few in the showbiz word have seen theirs turn around as quickly as Taron. Ten years ago, he was a local comp teen with a part-time job in Peacocks fashion chain, struggling to pay to get to his audition for RADA. Now, he is dressed by Giorgio Armani and counts A-listers as pals.
But despite success, he’s still got his feet very firmly on Welsh ground.
He said: “It feels like last week that I was working in Peacocks. Any success I’ve had still feels like my family’s success. I bought my mother a house in 2016, and I’m very proud to say that.”