Eddie the Eagle tells the true story of Eddie Edwards, who, against all odds, completed the 90m ski jump in the ’88 Winter Olympics.
Eddie (Taron Egerton) has been shut down at every turn in his dream to be an Olympic athlete: by his father as a child, by the British Olympic committee as an adult, and even by fellow athletes who think he can do nothing but fail. With the help of a shunned formed ski jumper, Bronson Perry (Hugh Jackman), Eddie is on his way to achieving the impossible.
At a recent screening, director Dexter Fletcher and Eddie Edwards himself held an informal press conference where the discussed the film and Eddie’s journey to Calgary.
How much input did you (Eddie) have in the making of the movie? Were you on set? Tell us about your process.
Eddie Edwards: My bit was really in the beginning seventeen years ago when I was approached to sign a deal about making a movie about my life. And I sat down with a couple of scriptwriters and talked about my life, and they looked at this little book that I wrote in a bit of a rush after [the] Calgary [Olympic games], Eddie the Eagle: My Story, which just told the funny of how I got to the Olympic games. And that was it. I passed it on to them and they sort of went away with it, and after about four of five years I kind of almost lost interest because nothing was happening, but I was really just getting on with the rest of my life. And then all of a sudden about two years ago, Matthew Vaughn rang me and said, “I’ve just bought the right to your life. We start filming in two months.” And I’m like, “Oh, my God, great!” And then that was it. I spoke to Dex[ter Fletcher] just before they started filming just to brush up about a few things about my life story which they weren’t quite clear about. And then I went out on set back in March last year when they were filming in Garmisch. They were filming a few things there. I met Hugh [Jackman] there and stuff. And then I saw the whole thing for the very first time a couple months ago, about the beginning of January. Loved it. Was blown away by it. It was just incredible. Very surreal watching a film about me and about my life. The casting was great. Taron [Egerton] just does me beautifully. I sat down with him at Pinewood Studios before they went off filming. Sat down with him for a few hours. And from that he got my accent, my mannerisms, he’d seen a few other clips from TV shows that I’ve done over the years. And, uh… Yeah. He did a fantastic job. And he looked just the way I looked as well 28 years ago. I can’t believe how good looking he was!
Dexter Fletcher: I’ve gotta say, from our point of view, you know, two years ago, Matthew Vaughn, who’s a friend of mine … he came up to me about two years ago and told me, “We’ve got Eddie the Eagle’s story. We’ve got the script. We wanna make the film with Taron [Egerton]. We’ve been talking with Hugh Jackman.” And one of the first things I wanted to do was talk to Eddie of course. And I’d read earlier drafts of the script that were probably too broad in their approach. And I think that you [Eddie] maybe read them as well. What I said from the outset, from the beginning, was we needed to do the story justice. You know, everybody uses the time to overlook the achievements that Eddie made and what he sacrificed in order to get to the Olympics. So I was very keen that we made a film that held up some responsibility to the man who’s still here. You know, he’s got to see it with his family and watch this film. And it was never in our interest to make a film that undermined him or maligned what he achieved. It was always pretty much about the inspirational story behind it. And that’s a huge leap of faith for Eddie I think. You know, because what does he know? In theory, Matthew Vaughn buys the rights to his life, and that’s it! And he’s bought them! And it’s “thanks very much.” That’s it! And that can only be slightly nerve-wracking for Eddie. You know, someone’s going to take your life, and we were always very mindful of that. So I wanted to make that clear to you, [Eddie], in the very beginning and talk to you about that. And you were very generous. You were like, “Oh. Well. We’ll see.” Because you knew it was in the lap of the gods.
Edwards: It was out of my control. Matthew bought the rights, and he could do with it what he likes. But I had to put my trust in Dexter and in Matthew to do a good film and do it justice. I didn’t want to be made into a superhero, but at the same time I didn’t want to be made into a laughingstock, a joke, or anything like that. But when I saw the film— the trailer! When I saw the trailer! I was … doing some skiing, and I got a load of phone calls from the media saying, “Oh, your trailer’s up on YouTube!” So we were in a mountain restaurant and one of the waiters had a phone. So we quickly look at the trailer and, oh! My God! Tears were running down my face. “Oh, my God, this is fantastic!” And then when I saw the film for the first time, I needed a box of Kleenex. And my little daughter was sitting next to me, and I said, “No no, just a bit of dust in me eye.” But, yeah. They’ve really done the film well, and I’m hoping that— well, I’m hoping that first of all that people are entertained for an hour and a half. Also be inspired by the film. But also realize just what it took for me to get to those Olympic games. I come from a country with no snow, no mountains. And now I was competing in these games. I was this tiny little David of a country against these Goliath nations of jumping, and I just hoped that they would do the story and tell my story and do it justice, and I think they’ve done that in spades.
Fletcher: Yeah, and we had to have some changes in there, because we have an hour and a half to tell what is in face a much bigger story with a lot more details in it. And of course in order to do that, we have to blend and mix fact and create characters that help relate and tell the story of what Eddie really achieved and what he went through. And again he’s really generous saying, “I understand the storytelling involved.” You know. What I’ve said is just a fictionalized account of a true story. We have to play with the reality, sometimes a lot and sometimes a little in order to be able to really give an overview. But there’s so so much more that people should know, but it’s just part of that. We have to give it to you in an hour and a half, let people see it, then the next lot of people come in and see it. You’d get a four hour epic otherwise.
Can you speak a little bit to your music choices?
Fletcher: Well, we knew there were great tracks we could pull out and probably, you know… Like the Frankie Goes to Hollywood stuff — very expensive. And when you assemble the film you put what your dream track would be on. And you don’t know if you can afford it yet or not, but you put it on. And Van Halen was always on at the end of the jump when he lands at the end. You know, this is the moment! Electrify the whole thing! And then we found out how much it cost and we’re like, “Oh, my God!” No more music in the film anywhere then, but one great track. Sometimes you get sort of attached to those songs really quickly when they work so well. So that was the challenge. But what I did was I spoke with the composer about, “Hey look, this was the ‘80s, this is when synthesizers, electronic drums, and all this strange, wonderful new equipment was coming out in the music industry, and we should only use that kind of instrument.” If we were doing a restoration piece, there would be lots of harpsichords and violins, because it invokes the period, and this is a period film — it’s 30 years ago. And so it sort of encapsulates— music is very good at sort of transporting us back to a memory or a time or a period, isn’t it? You know, you hear a tune and it’s like, “Oh, I listened to that when I was in college, I love that track!” And so some of it is we know a lot of money is being spent there, but what other interesting stuff’s around? For me, film always started with— there were images and there was a guy off to the side playing piano. So music and images play a big part of the cinematic experience. So it’s just a matter of digging deep and finding those things when you think you’ve reached a dead end [and] you suddenly find a little gem, and you put music over some images and it just transforms it. It’s amazing. It’s really one of the magic parts of the process that you can’t quantify … And I got a great composer, Matthew Margeson, who does loads of great stuff, but he loves the period. And then there’s a great guy called Gary Barlow from the UK from the great band — in the ‘90s, really — Take That. But he was a massive fan of the ‘80s, so he put this sort of ‘80s supergroup together … All these people who had sort of retired, in effect. And they all came together and made this supergroup. And all those people making that kind of music around that period really gives it that kind of authenticity and sort of magic that all film needs.
Can you talk about how Hugh Jackman got involved in the film?
Edwards: Well, Hugh, the part he played, was kind of an amalgamation of all the coaches. Because I was a one man band, and a poor one man band, I couldn’t afford to have a regular coach. But being on my own, I could just join whatever team was around jumping on the hill at the same time. It could have been a school team, it could have been a regional team, it could have been a national team. It could have been anybody. So one minute, my coach could have been a 12 year old boy who was a half-decent jumper, and then the next day it could have been an 85 year old guy who used to be a good jumper. And they could have been American, Canadian, Swiss, Swedish, Norwegian, German, East German, Austrian, Polish. I was getting even Japanese, they were jumping as well … But yeah, he was kind of an amalgamation of all my coaches, because some of them had such a lovely dry sense of humor. There was one guy, a Swiss coach, and he came to me … I had only been jumping about five months, and he came up to me and said, “Eddie, there’s only one thing wrong with your ski jumping.” I thought, Gosh. I said, “What is it?” He said, “You land too close to the takeoff.” And there were some other coaches who were really stern, really almost aggressive. But I would try and impress them. It would really make me focus, really make me buckle down and concentrate on doing exactly what they said. And even if I got just a slight raised eyebrow, as if to say, “Actually that was not a bad jump.” And then I thought, Yes! And so, I used all kinds of different people and got from them inspiration and good advice as well. So he was an amalgamation of all those coaches that I ever used over the three year period I was training for Canada.
Fletcher: And in the context of the film, his character is very important, because Eddie, like he said, was a one man journey. He was a one man band really, in lots of respects. But, for the purposes of the film, I felt we needed someone to push Eddie. So, he gave us answers. You know, we as the audience have someone we can ask the questions that we need to ask. Because otherwise we have one lone man wandering around the mountain with skis on his shoulder going on. But when you’ve got someone for him to interact with, it suddenly opens up so much more of what’s going on internally and what the drives are. And so the audience wants to know that. As the audience, we want to hear that. And also then it’s another opportunity to send [Hugh’s] character on a journey as well. You see the thing about Eddie and [Hugh’s character] is that together, they help make each other better. And [Hugh’s] is more of an emotional journey … whereas Eddie just needs help pushing forward. And with the help of each other they achieve something greater, and that’s also a nice message to be espousing. … And Hugh was just really engaged with the story. He’s in a position where he can do what he wants for the reasons that he wants, without saying, “How much is they paycheck.” Because we didn’t have a lot of money to give him.
Edwards: And none of my trainers were as good looking as Hugh.
Fletcher: If you put them all together they would be.
What was it like to see your parents portrayed?
Fletcher: Well that’s— that’s part of the storytelling.
Edwards: That is part of the storytelling.
Fletcher: In fairness, that is part of the storytelling.
Edwards: Yeah. They played my mum, actually, really well. She was always very supportive, as mums are. And my dad too. My dad was always really supportive too, just in a different way. My dad was a builder, my mum worked in an office, we weren’t rich. And they supported me as much as they possibly could. And my dad was the financial support. So he would go out, do some extra hours on the building site, and would pay a little bit of that money to me so I could spend an extra month out in Europe sleeping in the car. But it meant I could do an extra month’s ski jumping. So yeah, he was very supportive. So, I was slightly worried at first. We had a private screening back in January for family and friends. Because my sister had seen the trailer and said, “Oh! What are they doing about my dad? He was not like that at all.” And I thought, Oh my God. I warned my father to say, “Look. They portray maybe slightly differently.” And then when he came out he had tears in his eyes and said, “Oh, that was fantastic.” But he knows it’s a part of storytelling as well. But from my point of view, he was always supportive.
Fletcher: Yeah, and we weren’t ever unclear about that. We knew this was a huge liberty we were taking in terms of storytelling. Because his mum and his dad were there when he jumped. And his sister, and… Yeah, you’re grandma … We were very clear about that, and we knew we were taking a huge dramatic liberty with the facts, and Eddie was going to have to go to his dad and say, “Well, they’ve portrayed you as a bit of an idiot.” But in terms of dramatic purposes in the film, there’s a fantastic moment at then end where he opens his jumper and it says “I’m Eddie’s Dad” [on his shirt]. And that really personifies who his dad is. He’s of course extremely proud of Eddie. He did everything he could to help him. But we needed Eddie to have obstacles. We needed the audience to be rooting for him. It’s just a storytelling, structural thing, really. It’s no more complicated than that. But, in terms of how it affects people in the real world, that’s another debate. I’m just waiting for the day when I meet Eddie’s dad and he knocks me out.
Edwards: He used to drive me in all my early days, 12, 14, 15, when I was racing around the UK. He would drive me there to the races. He bought me the camper van so I could drive into Europe and do my ski jumping. It was a bit difficult to try and sleep in a camper van at -25, but I tried to do it, and he bought me a sleeping bag so I could sleep in the cold. So yeah, they supported me as much as they possibly could. I didn’t have any money, didn’t have a sponsorship, anything like that.
Fletcher: You had them
Edwards: That’s right. I had them.
[Some parts of the conference were edited for length and clarity.]
