'Eddie the Eagle' flies anew with Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman
PARK CITY, Utah — Rough day? Try Eddie the Eagle.
Hugh Jackman and Taron Egerton’s feel-good underdog story will do the trick, thanks to their joyful rendering of how a hapless Olympic hopeful earned a spot at the 1988 Games.
Here’s the tale’s Rudy-like roots: A bumbling athlete, Michael “Eddie” Edwards, narrowly missed making Britain's downhill skiing Olympics team in 1984, so he switched to ski jumping — a sport that most competitors start training for "from the age of five," Egerton says. Edwards managed to qualify for the 1988 Games by a hair, as the sole British entrant. Despite placing dead last in Calgary, Eddie's indomitable spirit transfixed the world watching him live.
“In Australia, we were absolutely enamored by Eddie,” says Jackman, 47, who plays Eddie's brash, reluctant coach. He remembers watching those epic ski jumps in real time. “Because he’s like an honorary Australian — just have a go, don’t take yourself too seriously.”
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The key to depicting a folk hero like Eddie, saddled with terrible eyesight and extra pounds, was making him relatable, says Egerton, 26.
“He was such striking looking chap and such an interesting, different sort of personality," says Egerton. "So it was a real challenge in how I was going to bring that to the table — and it not just be a case of putting a pair of funny glasses on and fall over every five minutes."
Producer Matthew Vaughn — who had directed the young British actor in Kingsman: The Secret Service and produced Eddie the Eagle — suggested Egerton for the role, but director Dexter Fletcher wasn't sold. “He’s just too good-looking! That was my flat answer straight out,” says Fletcher.
Egerton’s fix: He ditched the fairly new six-pack he’d gained for Kingsman to get a bit, say, lumpier.
“I am far nearer to Eddie than I am to Hugh Jackman,” he laughs. “If you catch me with a six-pack, photograph it then, because it’s going soon. So for Eddie I got a free pass and I enjoyed it. But Kingsman 2, that is not going to happen.”
Speaking of such, Jackman is munching on a spinach salad that his personal chef just handed him. As the start date for the next Wolverine looms, he says his workouts are more intense than ever.
“Because I’m getting older, it’s getting harder,” he says. “And also, for this Wolverine I want to finish on a high.”
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One day on the Eddie set, Jackman suggested he strap on skis and get in on the action. (After all, the real Eddie visited during shooting and jumped 188 meters on a film break.)
“Before we started shooting, he goes, 'Let me do a ski jump,' ” Fletcher recalls. “I’m like, 'Hugh, you cannot do a ski jump.' ” Jackman insisted, but when the actor found himself standing at the mouth of a towering 90-meter ramp, “you realize, absolutely not. If there’s anything in your life worth living for, no.”
Like his family, of course.
"Even a meal," Jackman deadpans. "If you have something in your life you’re looking forward to, you'll never go down that ramp."