When it came to piano lessons, Taron Egerton practiced for three months (via Billboard). While he doesn't play the instrument in the film, the work he did got him "familiar enough with the piano to be able to convincingly make it look like" he was playing, as he explained to Billboard. As his piano teacher, Michael L. Roberts told Forbes, Egerton hadn't "played a lick before we started working together."
In addition to reshaping his musical talents, Egerton had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Elton John and his family when the cameras weren't rolling, including John's children. Writing in the Guardian, John said that he invited the actor to his house to have a flick through his old diaries. "We had a takeaway curry and chatted, and I let him see them," the musician said. For Egerton, reading John's journals helped him get into the musician's headspace. "It's sort of like being transported back in time," the actor told People. "To see the ink that he wrote these songs in ... was just incredible."
Having spent so much time with the rock star, Egerton could see who John is — and was — as a person. "He has a real duality to him," the actor said. "He had this wicked sense of humor and he's very irreverent, but then he can be so, so sweet and vulnerable and kind. I think that's something we share."
