Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards admits his biopic was "twisted a lot".
The 53-year-old retired athlete – who achieved worldwide fame in 1988 when he became the first competitor to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping – was very impressed with the ‘Eddie the Eagle’ movie as it retained the "heart and feel" of the story, though it wasn’t completely an accurate portrayal of his life.
He said: "They did twist it a lot. They had to use a certain amount of artistic licence to make a film and to make a good film. They needed to make the best film possible but they still kept the heart and feel of the story and kept the most important bits and I thought they did a really good job."
And Eddie thought Taron Egerton’s portrayal of him was very accurate – though he admitted none of his real-life skiing coaches "looked as good" as Hugh Jackman, who features in the movie.
He added to BANG Showbiz: "Taron played me really well. He looked like me, he had my jaw, my glasses, my hair style, he acted like me and sounded like me – he did a wonderful job. And having Hugh as my trainer in the film was brilliant. I had about 20/25 coaches and none of them looked as good as Hugh Jackman."
And since the movie was released earlier this year, Eddie has seen his own popularity soar.
He said: "The movie has been great. My work has increased like 500 per cent. I’m doing speeches almost every day now – sometimes two or three times a day."
Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards impressed with biopic
