STACK #138 Apr 2016

CINEMA NEWS

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WHO'S THE BOSS?

WHERE EAGLE DARES Taron Egerton embraces his inner nerd to play Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards, the real-life underdog sporting hero who captivated the world at the 1988Winter Olympics. By Gill Pringle

A s a fledgling improv

comedy performer, Melissa McCarthy created a

red-haired, overly made-up character named Michelle Darnell whom she described as a “megalomaniac narcissist”. Unable to shake off her creation, 15 years later, Darnell takes centre stage in McCarthy’s latest comedy, The Boss . A colourful financial guru who fills

"T hat’s what being chubby with glasses will do for you!” laughs Welsh actor Taron Egerton, brushing off the fact he’s practically unrecognisable in his latest film, Eddie the Eagle . As a slick novice spy in the 2014 box office hit Kingsman: The Secret Service , Egerton achieved overnight fame and millions of adoring fans. Uncomfortable with his pin-up status, he happily adopted a jutting chin, bottle-glass specs and geeky persona for his role as Britain’s unlikely ski jumper Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards, who captivated the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics. “Nerdy people are likeable,” Egerton, 26, insists when STACK meets with him in Los Angeles. “It was always going to be a tightrope walk, making Eddie relatable and human and three-dimensional.” But the ice quickly melted after meeting with the real Edwards, “I just tried to imbibe and absorb a little bit of who he is. He’s a very different guy now. He looks nowhere near as

“Hugh is such an incredibly life-affirming, positive, enthusiastic person. He’s addictive to be around because he’s so wholly positive,” he says. “Hugh is a sickeningly good skier! How irritating is it, how good Hugh Jackman is at everything!? Absolutely everything!” Prior to shooting Eddie the Eagle on location in Germany, Egerton had never skied in his life. “I came out a couple of weeks earlier and tried to learn to ski and fell over an awful lot,” he admits. “It was really fun and then I ended up on a red slope, which was a source of pride for me. But when we started shooting, an email came through saying how nobody’s allowed to ski – at all – for fear we might injure ourselves. “For sure, I won’t be doing the 90 meter jump in this lifetime. You have to do it every day from the age of four just for it to be safe. It’s why Eddie kept hurting himself.” Eddie the Eagle is in cinemas on April 21

CINEMA

stadiums with her admirers, The Boss

sees Darnell shamed and sent to prison for

insider trading, and forced to rebuild her image with the help of her one-time assistant, Kristen Bell. As mistress of her own comedy empire, McCarthy squirms at female stereotypes, “I think a confident woman who knows what she wants and asks for it is labeled as pushy or aggressive, but when a man does it, he’s considered to be really good at his job,” she argues. If her Darnell alter-ego is easy to laugh at, then McCarthy turns serious when STACK meets with her. “I think it’s good to know that, at the end of the day, you’re in charge of your own behaviour. Do you excel? Do you try hard? Do you work as hard as you can? I like the concept that you can adjust your ‘You’re in charge of your destiny’, attitude.” Gill Pringle

characterful as he did back in the late '80s. But it was lovely to hear him talk about ski jumping because his passion for it is totally infectious and that was the whole key.” As much as Egerton wanted to please

Edwards, his real mentor – both on and off screen – was Hugh Jackman, portraying a fictitious, hard- drinking former ski jumper who reluctantly takes Eddie under his wing.

The Boss is in cinemas on April 14

APRIL 2016

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