50 Fun Facts About Rocketman

Which Welsh star of the Kingsman films plays Elton John in Rocketman, doing all of his own singing?

Taron Egerton learned to play the piano for the role and sang live in every take during filming. Reviews of the film praised his performance in particular.

Elton John bursts into a rehab meeting at the start of Rocketman dressed in a flamboyant costume of what?

A devil's outfit is what he wears as he walks in, and the session frames the whole film: he tells his life story to the group in flashbacks.

Rocketman's star had already belted out an Elton John hit as Johnny the gorilla in which animated film?

Sing arrived in 2016, three years before the biopic, and a year after that he shared the screen with Elton himself in a Kingsman sequel.

Rocketman's end-credits song brought Elton John a second Oscar; which Disney film had earned him the first?

The Lion King brought him that first statuette with lyricist Tim Rice, so the Rocketman win was his first Oscar shared with Bernie Taupin after more than 50 years of writing together.

Which comeback anthem does a sober Elton write in Rocketman's finale, though it really came years earlier?

I'm Still Standing was recorded in 1982 and released a year later, well before he entered rehab in 1990. The film moves it to give the story a triumphant ending.

In 2019 an Italian newspaper reported that a fund backed by which unlikely institution helped finance Rocketman?

The Vatican link surfaced when Corriere della Sera said an inquiry into church donations had found a 1 million euro stake from Centurion Global Fund, a Malta-based firm supported by the Holy See.

Under what birth name does Elton John grow up in 1950s suburbia in Rocketman's early scenes?

Reginald Dwight is the shy boy of the film's early scenes. A touring soul singer later tells him to leave his old life behind if he wants to be a star.

In Rocketman, Elton John is rushed from a hospital bed straight onto the stage of which packed American venue?

Dodger Stadium hosted him for two sold-out nights in October 1975, the shows where he wore a sequined version of the home team's baseball uniform.

Which actor, who danced to fame as a boy in Billy Elliot, plays lyricist Bernie Taupin in Rocketman?

Jamie Bell won the Best Actor BAFTA at 14 for that debut, becoming the youngest winner in the category. He was picked from more than 2,000 boys for the part.

Which Game of Thrones and Bodyguard star plays Elton John's manager and lover John Reid in Rocketman?

Richard Madden rose to fame as Robb Stark. Oddly, another Game of Thrones actor, Aidan Gillen, had played the same manager in a Queen biopic a year earlier.

Which American star of the Jurassic World films plays Elton's cold, unaffectionate mother Sheila in Rocketman?

Bryce Dallas Howard is the eldest child of filmmaker Ron Howard, and she performs on the soundtrack as part of the family's number in the childhood scenes.

Which former child actor from Bugsy Malone directed Rocketman, his second film with the same leading man?

Dexter Fletcher was Baby Face in the 1976 gangster musical, and acted in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels before he turned to directing in 2011.

Which screenwriter, Elton John's lyricist on Billy Elliot the Musical, wrote the script for Rocketman?

Lee Hall earned an Oscar nomination for the original Billy Elliot screenplay, then wrote the stage show's book and lyrics to Elton's music.

Which This Is England actor plays Dick James, the blunt publisher who signs Elton John in Rocketman?

Stephen Graham plays him as a foul-mouthed cockney, a portrait that the real publisher's son and one of Elton's former bandmates both called unfair.

Which future star of Netflix's Heartstopper plays the teenage Elton John in Rocketman's early scenes?

Kit Connor shares the early years with a younger actor who plays the boy at the piano, and broke out three years later as Nick Nelson.

Which actress, Madam Pomfrey in the Harry Potter films, plays Elton's supportive grandmother Ivy in Rocketman?

Gemma Jones's Ivy is the loving one in a cold household. The actress is also familiar as the heroine's mother in the Bridget Jones films.

Which Kingsman director agreed to produce Rocketman on the condition that his Kingsman lead played Elton John?

Matthew Vaughn heard about the stalled project while editing a Kingsman sequel, then won over a studio with test footage of his star performing two Elton numbers.

Which Canadian-born filmmaker, Elton John's husband, spent almost two decades trying to get Rocketman produced?

David Furnish produced it through the couple's own production company, and the film's closing title cards mention their marriage and their two children.

Which actor, The Dark Knight Rises villain Bane, was cast as Elton John in 2013 before Rocketman stalled?

Tom Hardy left after creative differences between Elton and the first studio halted a shoot planned for autumn 2014, and the project sat idle for several years.

Which tender ballad do Elton and Bernie create in Rocketman while lodging at Elton's family home, their first big hit?

Your Song takes shape at the family piano in the film. In life the pair spent two years as staff songwriters for Dick James, writing for acts such as Lulu.

Which hit does Elton play at his American debut in Rocketman, even though it was not written until two years later?

Crocodile Rock dates from 1972, while the real show was in August 1970. The film also invents the guitarist on stage, since Elton's band had none until 1972.

Which West Hollywood club, where Neil Diamond introduced him in 1970, hosts Elton's breakthrough show in Rocketman?

The Troubadour was opened by Doug Weston as a small coffee house in the 1950s, and Elton came back in 1975 for a run of anniversary concerts.

Which song plays in Rocketman as Elton watches Bernie leave a Los Angeles party to spend time with a woman?

Tiny Dancer marks the moment he feels abandoned despite his success. Minutes later he is approached by the manager who will change his life.

Which song do Elton and manager John Reid share as a duet in Rocketman as fame and excess take hold?

Honky Cat is the one soundtrack number that credits the actor playing the manager. It marks the point where the star's career soars as his private life unravels.

Which song by the Who does Elton perform in Rocketman, having first played it in the 1975 film Tommy?

Pinball Wizard is one of the few soundtrack numbers not written by Elton and Bernie. Pete Townshend wrote it for the Who's 1969 rock opera album.

Which 1973 album's title track do Elton and Bernie share in Rocketman as Elton heads for rehab?

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the only soundtrack number with a vocal credit for the actor playing Bernie. The 1973 album topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Which swaggering hit is the first musical number in Rocketman, as Elton begins telling his story in rehab?

The Bitch Is Back runs under two minutes on the soundtrack, where it is labelled an introduction. The same album closes with the one song written new for the film.

Which 2001 Elton John single is shared in Rocketman by his younger self, parents and grandmother at home?

I Want Love is passed between four members of the household in the film. The original music video starred Robert Downey Jr., and its director used the last of 16 takes.

Which new song, written for Rocketman's end credits, won Elton John and Bernie Taupin an Oscar?

(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again is the only track on the soundtrack to feature Elton's own voice, and he performed it at the Oscar ceremony at a red piano.

Which London conservatoire does the young Elton earn a place at in Rocketman, as he really did at age 11?

The Royal Academy of Music took him on a junior scholarship. His father, indifferent in the film, wrote to congratulate him, by his stepmother's account.

Which prize did Rocketman's leading man win for playing Elton John, in its musical or comedy category?

The Golden Globe Award came in January 2020. He was also nominated for a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild award for the role, but won neither.

Before Rocketman, its director was hired to finish which troubled 2018 music film after the original director left?

Bohemian Rhapsody still credits only Bryan Singer as its director. Under guild rules, the man who completed it received an executive producer credit instead.

Which star, who played a young Elton in a 2001 music video, was the singer's own first choice for Rocketman?

Justin Timberlake had impersonated the 1970s Elton in a video made by a celebrity photographer, who was once lined up to direct the biopic himself.

Rachel Muldoon appears in Rocketman as which singer, Elton John's partner on a chart-topping 1976 duet?

Kiki Dee recorded the duet with him in 1976, yet the film places it before his famous Los Angeles concerts of 1975, one of several timeline shuffles.

In Rocketman, Elton John walks out before a show at which New York venue and heads straight to rehab?

Madison Square Garden did lose an Elton concert, but that was in 1984 and down to illness. He actually entered rehab in Chicago in 1990.

In which festival city did Rocketman have its world premiere in May 2019, to an ovation from the audience?

Cannes hosted the premiere on 16 May 2019, and the director was nominated there for the Queer Palm. British cinemas got the film six days later.

In Rocketman, Elton John meets his future wife Renate Blauel while she is doing which job on one of his albums?

Sound engineer was her real job too, though the film moves their meeting from the 1983 sessions for Too Low for Zero to an album made four years earlier.

Which mythical hero's name, a song title on the Rocketman soundtrack, did Elton legally take as a middle name?

Hercules became part of his legal name in 1972, about five years after he had started using his stage name.

Rocketman's director and star had already teamed up on which biopic about a British ski jumper?

Eddie the Eagle was the director's third feature, following his debut Wild Bill and the Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith.

Which Hollywood studio agreed to finance Rocketman in 2018 after its boss was shown test footage of two songs?

Paramount Pictures was run by Jim Gianopulos, who knew the Kingsman team from his previous studio. An earlier deal with Focus Features had fallen apart over creative differences.

Which son of the Beatles' celebrated record producer produced the soundtrack album for Rocketman?

Giles Martin, son of George Martin, had earlier reworked the Beatles' catalogue with his father for the Cirque du Soleil show Love, which won him two Grammys.

Which band does Elton John join in Rocketman, backing touring American soul acts before he goes solo?

Bluesology was a band he had helped form with friends in 1962, and its saxophonist, Elton Dean, supplied half of his future stage name.

Michael Gracey, first hired to direct Rocketman in 2013, ended up making which hit screen musical instead?

The Greatest Showman kept him busy when the Elton project was revived, so he stayed on only as one of its executive producers.

In which country did Rocketman's local distributor cut about five minutes, a move Elton John publicly criticised?

Russia saw a version stripped of every scene involving homosexuality or drugs by the distributor Central Partnership, a decision the film's studio also condemned.

Rocketman credits a Beatle for the surname, but which blues singer really inspired Elton's stage name?

Long John Baldry had hired the young pianist's group as his backing band in 1966, and was admired as one of the few openly gay figures on the music scene.

In Rocketman, Elton meets manager John Reid at a Los Angeles party hosted by which 1960s pop star?

Mama Cass, the Mamas & the Papas singer, hosts the party on screen. The real pair met at a Motown Christmas party in Britain in December 1970.

Which Pacific island nation's censors banned Rocketman outright in 2019, while calling it a good story?

Samoa's principal censor praised the tale of a man overcoming a hard family life, but said some scenes were against the law in the conservative Christian nation.

Which US airline was accused in 2019 of screening an edit of Rocketman with its same-sex love scenes removed?

Delta Air Lines replied that its content rules never asked for such cuts and promised to review how its edited films are chosen, after a magazine editor complained.

Elton's marriage to Renate Blauel, shown in Rocketman, really began in which city on Valentine's Day 1984?

Sydney hosted the wedding only four days after he proposed, and the couple announced their divorce in November 1988.

Which Hollywood designer, also famed for dressing Cher, created the sequined baseball uniform that Rocketman recreates?

Bob Mackie, nicknamed the Sultan of Sequins, made it for two Los Angeles shows in 1975, and it became the star's most enduring stage costume.