00:00How are you?
00:01Hi, I'm good.
00:02Good.
00:03So, can I just say...
00:04We're in the same circuit.
00:05I know.
00:06We're best friends now.
00:07It's spectacular.
00:08Thank you very much.
00:09As a fan of Elton, a big fan, you've really done an amazing job.
00:12The pressure.
00:13I mean, you know him pretty well.
00:14Was it hard?
00:15Making this?
00:16No.
00:17I mean, you know, when you have faith in your subject, and I knew that we were sitting on
00:22an absolute treasure trove of material that's never been shared before, the challenge for
00:26us as filmmakers was to break new ground, because Elton's life story is so well known.
00:32But the minute we started, you know, digging our noses in, it was amazing the things that
00:36we were able to uncover.
00:38The greatest compliment for me was when Elton watched the film, and he said, I haven't seen
00:42most of this stuff.
00:43Most of this footage is completely new to me.
00:46And that, to me, says to me, we did our job well.
00:49Did he say, guys, there's one bit, can you just not include that?
00:53No.
00:54No.
00:55And he said, we've pretty much done, which was great, and then said, maybe I'll never
00:58look at it again.
00:59He's not very good at looking at himself.
01:02It's very, you know, and then the only other time he did watch it, he was deeply moved.
01:08At the world premiere, he was, you know, afterwards, he was shaking.
01:14It was a very powerful thing to witness.
01:17Did you have a great crying hug at the end?
01:20Yeah, it's very emotional.
01:21I mean, it's difficult.
01:23You know, you have a professional obligation as a filmmaker to do your job, but when it
01:28hits so close to home, you know, I found moments of it where I just thought, I don't know if
01:33I can do many more things like this, because I've spent the last decade as Elton's manager,
01:38you know, celebrating him.
01:40But it's all about coming to the end of something, the end of a tour, the end of touring.
01:44But I keep my energies and my passions focused on the fact that this is an exciting new chapter
01:50for us.
01:51You know, a time to be together, and a time to be together as a family, and I don't want
01:55to look back now.
01:56I just want to work on new things and exciting things, and I'm so happy that we've- It was
02:01important to me when I met RJ, Elton coming off the road.
02:05He's toured his entire life.
02:07It's a big cultural, historical moment, so it was important that we mark that with a
02:11landmark piece of film, and I hope we've achieved that.
02:14Does it mean you might get a holiday or something, or, you know, get to chill?
02:16Yeah, that would be nice.
02:18And what do you want people to kind of learn about Elton from this?
02:21What would you love people to come away from the cinema and be thinking?
02:25Well, you know, life comes at you very quickly.
02:30It goes very quickly, and how you're going to live it is up to you, and we see in this
02:37movie that Elton has made key choices about how he wishes to live his life, not how he
02:43wishes to satisfy others, and as a man who has so much to risk in making those choices,
02:52you know, we want people to see him as a role model, you know, as an inspiration.
02:59Yeah, and he is that.
03:01Did you find it tough watching back some bits and pieces?
03:03He's very, very vulnerable in this.
03:04Yeah.
03:05Yeah, I did.
03:06I mean, I'm loving my life.
03:08It's hard to, you know, see people completely vulnerable and then think of the responsibility
03:12you have putting that up on a screen.
03:14Yeah, you did an amazing thing.
03:15Thank you so much.
03:16Great seeing you again David.
03:17Thank you so much.
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