David Furnish found it harrowing to watch the new Elton John biopic Rocketman as he doesn’t recognize the “monster” his husband was in his younger days.
The couple are producers of the new movie, which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Thursday (May 16, 2019), and insisted on a warts-and-all portrayal of the excesses he indulged in during the 1970s.
As a result, David found it a difficult watch, as he barely recognizes the older, wiser, and kinder man he began dating in 1993 and married in 2014.
“Elton John is somebody that I think I know incredibly well, but then also it’s like watching a film about somebody you don’t know at all,” he told Variety. “The Elton in all that madness is not the Elton I know. At times, he’s a bit of a monster and also, deeply unhappy. That’s hard.”
“Many times as I watched the film, I wanted to go and give him a hug, like I could help him. I thought, ‘God, you’ve been through a lot.'”
According to David, Elton, 72, had no problem recognizing himself in the film’s star, Taron Egerton, as he thought an early publicity photo was a real snap.
“It’s a picture of Taron sitting on the Starship, the private jet Elton had in the ’70s, a big Boeing 707,” the film producer explained. “He’s on the sofa with the glasses and the hot pants. I sent it to Elton and Elton said, ‘I don’t remember taking that. When did I take that picture?'” He thought it was him. Elton was like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. It’s uncanny.”
Rocketman is released in cinemas from May 22, 2019.
