Taron Egerton has dubbed claims that Paramount cut a gay sex scene out of ‘Rocketman’ as "nonsense".
The 29-year-old actor – who plays Sir Elton John in the highly-anticipated musical biopic – has rubbished reports that director Dexter Fletcher axed a 40-second scene from the film in which Elton and John Reid (Richard Madden) are lying together naked on a bed so it can achieve the American rating PG 13 – equivalent to a British 12A.
The ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ star insisted that it’s been "blown out of proportion" how "extreme" the scene is and says he’s proud of the moment which is a "beautiful bit of male intimacy".
Speaking to Variety, he said: "It’s nonsense. There is a love scene in the film. It’s been slightly blown out of proportion how extreme it is.
"It’s a scene I’m very proud of I think it’s very a beautiful bit of male intimacy but it’s one moment in a film that I believe is full of great moments."
Fletcher addressed the claims at CinemaCon on Thursday (04.04.19) and admitted that whatever scene’s end up in the film is whatever "works best" to tell Elton’s story in the film and it still "remains to be seen" what will be in the film.
He said: "The real story is that I shot the love scene and like any scene, we go through the edit of the scene and we look at how it works best for what we’re trying to communicate.
"That’s down to me, that’s how I need to tell the story at that particular moment. You might see a little bit of butt, you might not. That remains to be seen."
Taron Egerton brands Rocketman sex scene controversy ‘nonsense’
