Taron Egerton has been reflecting on his decision to make two movies that would go onto be box office flops in 2018 – Robin Hood and Billionaire Boys Club. The British actor has since gone onto the critically-acclaimed role of Elton John in musical Rocketman, and is starring in an Apple TV true crime series – Black Bird.
Egerton is a rare thing – a working class British actor who has made it big, since his breakthrough role as Eggsy in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) directed by Guy Ritchie. He also played working class hero Eddie the Eagle in 2015.
Speaking to The New York Times about Robin Hood and Billionaire Boys Club, Egerton said; “I ignored my instincts on those two jobs because I was offered quite a lot of money to do them. And that’s just fatal. You can’t pick roles that way. But I feel like I should be kinder to myself. I was a 25-year-old kid who was raised by a single mother with very little money.”
Egerton continued; “I wanted to make money, not just for me, but for people who are important to me. And as much as I was not pleased with how those two movies turned out, I can see very clearly, in retrospect, why I did them.”
Egerton also spoke about working with Ray Liotta in one of his last roles [in Black Bird]; “I loved that relationship,” Egerton said of his and Liotta’s characters – who are father and son. “These two complicated, very, very flawed, imperfect men, but with this real love for each other. He [Liotta] had such an edge and such a toughness to him, but also this incredible capacity to be very open and quite childlike and vulnerable.”
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