- Hi.
- [Angela] Angela Bishop, from Network Ten Australia, Taron.
- Hi, we've met, yeah, how are you?
- [Angela] Yeah, great to see, congratulations.
- Thank you.
(audience member whooing)
- [Angela] Yeah, hear, hear, from the room
- Thank you.
Did you have to convince yourself
at any point that you could pull this role off,
given everything you had to throw into it:
the singing, the dancing,
you know, having known Elton,
and having to somehow put that on screen.
What sort of pressure did you feel you were under?
- Of course it's a great deal of pressure,
but, you know,
in my experience,
short that it is,
it seems to me that a lead actor is only equal,
is only as good as the people he has around him.
I'm very blessed in that I had an incredible director,
an incredible creative team, a brilliant crew,
and of course, you know,
Elton, Bernie, David Furnish's patronage,
and they were all adamant that I was the man to do it.
So I began to believe that,
and felt confident enough
to have a good time and enjoy myself,
as well as do a lot of hard work.
- [Dexter] You're brilliant!
- Yeah, you have to say that, thank you.
(crowd laughs) (Taron laughs)
Yeah of course,
there's always doubts and fears,
but, yeah, that's the director of the film.
Yeah, yeah.
(Taron laughs)
[Male Audience] We were brilliant (mumbles) amazing.
(audience cheering)
- Yeah, yeah, thank you.
Thanks Angela, thank you.
[Organizer] Next question.
- [Natasha] Hi I'm Natasha from Germany.
- Hi.
- [Natasha] Great performance, I loved the movie.
- Thank you.
- [Natasha] I actually saw it three times.
- That's good! Thank you!
- [Natasha] I loved it!
- Thank you!
- [Natasha] Is there an advice
that Elton John gave you personally before shooting?
- A lot of what Elton says you can't actually repeat,
because (laughs) it's quite naughty a lot of it,
but he said to me,
the thing that he said to me that was really lovely,
he said, "Don't worry about sounding exactly like me."
You know the movie is,
you know it's inspired by Elton and Bernie's legacy,
it's in the spirits of their story but it's hopefully,
very personal as well, and what Elton very kindly did
was give me the license to
withdraw as Martin and Dexter and everybody else,
reinvent the songs and create a character
that's a kind of a hybrid him and me,
because it's a very personal situation
that the character find themselves in,
this journey of recovery in a therapy room,
so it needs a little bit of you
as well as a little bit of Elton.
Bit of me as well as Elton.
Thank you.
- [Male Interviewer] Hi Taron!
- Hi!
- [Male Interviewer] Hi congratulations!
I'm just wondering,
how did you prepare for this very important role,
I know it's one thing to,
portray a role for someone who's still around,
and someone who is no longer around,
with Elton John he's still around.
Did you have any fear, you know,
tell us how was working with Elton John?
- Yeah of course, there's always an element of trepidation
and fear I think,
particularly when you're portraying someone
that's so well loved,
but fear can be galvanizing if you don't let it rule you,
and it can be harnessed to your benefit,
and it can be an aide.
In terms of preparation, I just listened to Elton's music,
read as much as I could, watched as much as I could,
and spent time with him,
and spent a lot of time
talking with Dexter Fletcher, the director,
about building a character,
and spending as much time
as you can making it feel intensely personal.
So that it's not something that feels,
so that it's something that feels,
raw and true to you, and is,
you know based on your own experiences
as well as the experiences of the person you're depicting.
When I was in drama school, someone said to me
that imagination is memory mixed up and reused,
and I think acting when it's good,
is all about bringing your own experiences to bare,
and putting it through the filter of a character
and that's what I felt this part afforded me
the opportunity to do.
Thank you.
Thank you so much,
I'm really pleased!
Thank you! (clapping)
(air whooshing)