'Rocket Man' Star Taron Egerton Opens Up about Playing Gay and Not Playing Bond

British actor Taron Egerton – star of the Elton John biopic "Rocketman" and stage partner with Jonathan Bailey for the play "Cock" – gave his two pence about straight actors in gay roles.

Egerton also touched on why he wouldn't be a good prospect to play the next James Bond despite his starring role in another spy franchise, the comic book-based "Kingsman" movies, The Hollywood Reporter relayed.

Egerton opened up to UK newspaper The Telegraph while discussing his new movie "Tetris," in which he plays Henk Rogers, a brash American entrepreneur who ventured into Soviet Russia to seek out the rights to what would eventually become a smash-hit video game.

The Telegraph surveyed a handful of Egerton's early roles, and touched on his star turn in last year's Apple TV+ miniseries "Blackbird," based on the true story of an inmate who earned his freedom by working to coax a confession out of a suspected serial killer. But, the newspaper added, it was "his remarkable performance in 'Rocketman' that truly established his credentials as an actor and singer."

"The film turned heads with its willingness to take on aspects of Elton John's life that other biopics wouldn't dare touch – drug addiction and gay sex."

That film didn't do nearly as well at the box office as the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody," which soft-pedaled Mercury's queerness, the Telegraph noted.

"I don't know if the fact that we did elect to explore those places more was the reason that it didn't make the same money," Egerton told the outlet, adding that either way, "I wouldn't change the movie."

Egerton also took to the stage to play a gay role in "Cock," a job that was beset by various difficulties, including his needing to leave early due to his mother suffering from cancer. A straight man himself, Egerton opined, "I don't particularly feel that there should be a blanket rule about whether straight actors should play gay roles," and said that since "a couple of my close friends are gay" he has "an affinity with that community."

"That's very easy for me to say as a straight man," Egerton added with regard to the question of whether only LGBTQ+ actors should play LGBTQ+ roles, "but I think that's possibly a precedent not worth setting."

Another precedent not worth setting is the idea of him being cast as super-spy James Bond now that the role has been vacated by Daniel Craig. Egerton dismissed the notion even though he's starred in the "Kingsman" films, playing a similarly dapper spy.

"I don't think I'm the right choice for" the role of 007, Egerton said. "You have to be consistently statuesque to be that guy. And that's something that I am still striving for. I've always struggled with my weight."

Moreover, taking on the cinematic License to Kill "is a bit like being a brand ambassador as well as being an actor," Egerton told the Telegraph. "And that could be really fun in microcosm, but I'm sure I read that Barbara Broccoli said that it's a 15-year commitment."

After a beat, Egerton dropped the punchline: "It's sort of irrelevant how I feel about it, anyway, because I can tell you there have been zero phone calls."