Line #58 Creator/TaronEgerton


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/taron_egerton_2019_85.jpg]]
2
3	->''"I don't want to look back at my career and see a string of incredibly commercial projects that don't have much heart. I'm looking for things that have soul."''
4
5	Taron David Egerton (born 10 November 1989 in Birkenhead, England) is a [[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]] actor.
6
7	He's known primarily for his role as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', a live action adaptation of the Creator/MarkMillar [[ComicBook/TheSecretService comic series]] it shares a name with. He reprised the role in ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' in 2017.
8
9	He's since starred as a love interest in ''Film/{{Legend\|2015}}'', as the title role in ''Film/{{Robin Hood\|2018}}'' and as Music/EltonJohn in ''Film/{{Rocketman\|2019}}''.
10
11	Despite the increasing clamour of fans and press, Egerton has kept a strikingly muted presence outside his acting work, by mainstream Hollywood standards.
12
13	He's extremely [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff popular in East Asia, especially South Korea]]. South Koreans have bestowed the FanNickname "Kim Taron" upon him; "Kim" being the most common surname in SK, indicating the citizens see him as an honorary Korean. Sometimes written as a fake Romanization of a Korean name, i.e. "Kim Tae Ron."
14	----
15
16	!! Selected filmography:
17	* ''{{Series/Lewis}}'' (2013) as Liam Jay
18	* ''Series/TheSmoke'' (2014) as Dennis "Asbo" Severs
19	* ''Film/TestamentOfYouth'' (2014) as Edward Brittain
20	* ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'' (2015 -- present) as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin:
21	** ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' (2015)
22	** ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' (2017)
23	** ''Kingsman: The Blue Blood'' (TBD)
24	* ''Film/{{Legend\|2015}}'' (2015) as Edward "Mad Teddy" Smith
25	* ''Film/EddieTheEagle'' (2016) as Michael "Eddie the Eagle" Edwards
26	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sing}}'' (2016) as Johnny (voice)
27	** ''WesternAnimation/Sing2'' (2021)
28	* ''Film/BillionaireBoysClub'' (2018) as Dean Karny
29	* ''Film/{{Robin Hood\|2018}}'' (2018) as Myth/RobinHood
30	* ''Literature/WatershipDown'' (2018) as El-Ahrairah (voice)
31	* ''Film/{{Rocketman\|2019}}'' (2019) as Music/EltonJohn
32	* ''[[Literature/TheMoomins Moominvalley]]'' (2019) as Moomintroll (voice)
33	* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'' (2019) as Rian (voice)
34	* ''AudioPlay/TheSandman2020'' as John Constantine
35	* ''Series/{{Blackbird}}'' (2022) as James "Jimmy" Keene
36	* ''Film/{{Tetris\|2023}}'' (2023) as Henk Rogers
37	----
38	!! He provides examples of:
39	* AuthorAppeal: He's expressed a desire to defy {{Typecasting}}, but has said that he's drawn to character roles as opposed to the typical generic one-dimensional eye candy archetype. Indeed, his roles tend to be wildly different from each other and heavy on characterisation, but what most of them have in common is that they are usually heroic, [[ActorInspiredElement from a]] working-class background, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs or]] [[WorkingClassHero Working-Class Heroes]].
40	* AwesomeDearBoy: ''The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance'' is reportedly the first and sole project he's ever signed on to without having taken so much as a singular look at the script.
41	* BrutalHonesty: A trademark of his, as a public figure. He's a very NiceGuy with a pronounced sense of humour, but is also known for being extremely candid in interviews (and in general). According to Egerton himself; as a student, he once bluntly told his teacher in school that some notes he'd been passing around with a girl he had a crush on were "none of your business."[[note]]"...sir."[[/note]]
42	* ButNotTooForeign: He has yet to play a Welshman onscreen. He's [[FakeNationality normally cast as a more "accessible" kind of British, i.e. English]]. That said, he makes no secret of the fact that he's Welsh.
43	* TheCastShowOff: He's an excellent singer, having been part of his training in drama school. This lends itself to musical roles like in ''Sing'' and ''Rocketman,'' though even non-musical roles like Rian in ''Dark Crystal'' call for him to sing sometimes as well.
44	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: He sings the CoverVersion of the track "Rocketman," which you can guess is the theme tune of a movie called....
45	* EnforcedMethodActing: Rather common in his projects, particularly ones in which he works with Creator/MatthewVaughn. For example, he was truly submerged in both underwater scenes of ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'' and ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle''.
46	* FakeAmerican: Does a convincing portrayal of Henk Rogers in the ''Tetris'' movie.
47	* FunnyForeigner: For the first few years of his career as a movie star, interviewers would [[https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/ellen-degeneres-stunned-welsh-tongue-7300686 try to get him to say the name of a town he went to school in]] [[note]] Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch [[/note]] for laughs. He later said he's sick of it. This has since stopped.
48	* HistoricalBeautyUpgrade: Has pretty much become a speciality of his, being cast in quite a handful of PeriodPiece [[BasedOnATrueStory Based On a True Story]]/[[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory Very Loosely Based on a True Story]] roles, in all of which this is in effect. For instance, compare [[https://i2.wp.com/writingstudio.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Tom-May-Evan-Dicker-e-Dean-Karny-e1536735657331.jpg the real Dean Karny]] to [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzT44OOWQAA9EiC.jpg Egerton's]]. ''Billionaire Boys Club'' may have performed the worst of his films, commercially and critically, but the fact that he lent his traditionally handsome looks to Karny has given the character a cult following of [[SmittenTeenageGirl Smitten Teenage Girls]].
49	* InconsistentSpelling: His name was intended to be Taran, the Welsh word for thunder. His mother, not a native of Wales, misspelled it on his birth certificate, hence "Taron."
50	* ImportantHaircut: [[DyeingForYourArt He actually messed up his hairline to play Elton for]] ''Film/{{Rocketman\|2019}}'' and shortly shaved all of his hair off in an effort to repair it to some extent. But he'd also been going through a break-up at the time, and stated in an interview he was also very much trying to "shave that girl out of [his] hair." ([[BreakUpMakeUpScenario His status as a single dude lasted a mere]] ''[[BreakUpMakeUpScenario four months,]]'' [[BreakUpMakeUpScenario incidentally, before he got back together with his girlfriend.]])
51	* LanternJawOfJustice: It's one of his most defining physical characteristics, with publications and fellow celebrities alike commenting on how remarkably square and sharp his jawline is from day one. Take this quote by no less than Creator/JamieFoxx, with whom Egerton starred in ''Film/RobinHood2018'':
52	-->'''Foxx''': He looks so great as Robin Hood, that fucking jawline. Good-looking motherfucker.
53	* NiceGuy: An extraordinarily nice and extraordinarily humble young man, by many accounts.
54	* ProductionPosse: With directors Creator/MatthewVaughn and Dexter Fletcher.
55	* PromotedFanboy: He went from WesternAnimation/{{sing}}ing Music/EltonJohn, to [[Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle saving]] Elton John, to finally ''[[Film/{{Rocketman\|2019}} being]]'' Elton John - the first of which, according to Elton himself, was what got him the job on ''Rocketman''.
56	* RealPersonFic: Per an early-2019 interview for British GQ, he has actually seen some of the abundant RPF featuring him (or, well, a version of him constructed by said fans). Understandably, he doesn't like it. His phrases of choice in referring to this type of fanfiction: "some weird shit"; "so full-on and weird."
57	* ReclusiveArtist: Somewhat. He's more active on social media as of late, but still fits the trope by mainstream Hollywood standards. Also prone to posting nothing at all over a period of time, then sometimes suddenly posting many things at once... then disappearing again.
58	* SharpDressedMan: Was in British GQ's "best-dressed men" list for two years in a row. It helps that Giorgio and Roberta Armani themselves approve of him, with the media christening him a muse of the Armani fashion house from 2018 onward.
59	* StarMakingRole: His first-ever studio film (in order of shooting, not release), ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', was also this.
60	* WalkingShirtlessScene: He's been shirtless in a lot of his films, often for [[MrFanservice Fanservice]] reasons but not always. (In ''Eddie The Eagle,'' his shirtlessness is used to highlight how physically unfit Eddie [[invoked]][[HollywoodPudgy supposedly is.]])
61	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
62	** He was in the running to portray young [[Characters/StarWarsHanSoloCharacterSheet Han Solo]] in ''Film/{{Solo}}'', but was passed over because he's already the lead in multiple [[Film/KingsmanTheSecretService upcoming franchise]] [[Film/RobinHood2018 pictures]] and the ''Franchise/StarWars'' producers felt that he wouldn't be able to give the role the time and focus they wanted.

Context Creator / TaronEgerton