Elton John SLAMS Leftist Critics Who Have a Problem With a Straight Man Playing Him

Actor Taron Egerton, known by many for his role in the 2014 action/comedy The Kingsman, plays rock legend Elton John in the upcoming movie Rocketman. Many have complained that since John is gay, the role should have been played by someone from the LGBT community instead of a straight man, but John is having none of that.

“That’s all bulls***, I’m sorry,” John told The Sun in a recent interview. “If people don’t like it, review-wise, or it doesn’t make one dollar, it’s the movie I wanted to make and that’s all that counts.”

“I can look back and say, ‘You know what, I love it. I can live with it,” John said.

John took the position that the film needed to please him, personally, regardless of whether LGBT groups or any other political agendas were served. Much of that satisfaction comes from the good job Egerton has done in portraying the piano rocker. John had a lot of praise for Egerton:

“I was very emotional just now as well. The movie floored me. But I’m very high. Taron is beyond belief. It’s like watching me. It’s quite extraordinary, he’s so me-like. He’s a megastar.”

“He was schooled by George Martin’s son Giles and he’s done the most amazing job,” John noted. “I wanted it to be a movie where the actor sang — and he sings.”

Bucking the PC crowd is nothing new for John. In 2010, he played Rush Limbaugh’s wedding and the conservative talk host and rock legend have had a friendship for a number of years. “(Rush) sends me the loveliest e-mails,” John said in 2012.

The movie reportedly pulls no punches in delving into the rock legend’s battles with drugs, sex, and alcohol.

John talked with Variety in a separate interview about the self-doubt those times created that affected him as an artist.

“I think every artist does (have moments of self-doubt),” John said. “Every creative artist does have doubt and has moments of, ‘Am I doing the right thing? Am I good enough?’”

“And that’s what turns us into monsters as well because I think you become unreasonable and of course the chemical substances and the alcohol doesn’t help anything, and you lose touch with reality,” John admitted.

Rocketman opens in the U.S. on May 31.