Hugh Jackman Eddie the Eagle

Cast: Christopher Walken, Hugh Jackman, Taron Egerton
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Genre: Drama
Rated: PG
Running Time: 106 minutes

Synopsis: Inspired by true events, Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good story about Michael 'Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton), an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself – even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach (played by Hugh Jackman), Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. From producers of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Eddie the Eagle stars Taron Egerton as Eddie, the loveable underdog with a never say die attitude. Eddie's story is inspirational. Although he was never athletically gifted, from an early age he dedicated his life to achieving one goal: to become an Olympian. Eddie tried his hand at various sports and disciplines, before settling on downhill skiing. Having narrowly failed to make the British team at the Winter Olympics in 1984, he recalibrated and switched to ski jumping.

There were several problems here: Britain had never had a ski jumping representative at a Winter Olympics. And Eddie had never even attempted a ski jump before. He was heavier than most ski jumpers, all of whom started at a very early age, he had no funding, very little training and his terrible eyesight meant that he had to attempt jumps while wearing glasses that would dangerously mist up mid-jump.

Yet his indefatigable spirit prevailed. Begging and borrowing equipment, Eddie was the sole British entrant at the 1987 World Championships, where placing 55th was enough to see him through to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. Calgary was where Eddie really took off, literally and figuratively. Although he placed last in both his events - the 70 meter jump and 90 meter jump - he became a media darling (he was quickly dubbed 'The Eagle" by the tabloids) and something of a folk hero, famous for his unorthodox style, appearance and will to compete. It was only a matter of time, surely, before someone made a movie about this unassuming hero's life.

Eddie the Eagle
Release Date: April 21st, 2016

About The Production

The Eagle Is Aloft

It actually took almost thirty years. One night, towards the end of 2014, Matthew Vaughn - director of Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class and Layer Cake - sat down to watch a film with his children. The film was Cool Runnings, the comedy about a Jamaican bobsled team that defied all the odds to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. 'My kids were loving the film," says Matthew Vaughn, 'and I started thinking, -Why does nobody make movies like this anymore?' I wanted to make a movie that you could watch and just come out feeling inspired. And I wanted to do a film I could show my kids!"

Perhaps spurred on by the remarkable coincidence that the Jamaican bobsledders and Eddie Edwards competed at the same Olympics, Vaughn turned his thoughts towards The Eagle. Fifteen years or so earlier, Matthew Vaughn and his then directing partner, Guy Ritchie, had been sent an Eddie The Eagle screenplay with a view to turning it into a movie. That deal hadn't worked out, but something about it resonated with him. 'I thought it was charming, and worth making. Loads of people had bought it since, but nothing had happened," Matthew Vaughn explains. 'I tracked down the script, said I wanted to buy it, and three months later we were filming."

Matthew Vaughn quickly assembled his dream team both in front of and behind the camera. Deciding immediately that he didn't want to direct ('This is a whole new experience for me, making a family-friendly feel-good film!"), he turned to his old friend, Dexter Fletcher. Fletcher had starred in the first movie produced by Matthew Vaughn, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and the two had remained in touch ever since, during which both had become directors. Fletcher's helming debut, Wild Bill, in particular, caught Matthew Vaughn's eye.

'I loved Wild Bill," says Matthew Vaughn. 'Dexter's good at heart, and he's good at looking after people."

Unlike Matthew Vaughn, who was glued to Eddie's exploits in Calgary, Dexter Fletcher has little memory of the time. 'I was in my 20s, he wasn't cool, and everything had to be cool when you were in your 20s," laughs Dexter Fletcher. But he had been impressed when Edwards showed up in, and won, the British high-diving reality show, Splash!, 'I thought, Eddie has the right attitude. He was 45 years old, but he had an Olympic approach to it, a real singlemindedness. He had no fear."

So, when he got the call from Matthew Vaughn, Dexter Fletcher was more than ready to make the Eagle soar. 'It was a great opportunity to work with Matthew Vaughn as a producer, but there's something really interesting about this story. It's not just what we think we know," he explains. 'And then Matthew Vaughn started talking to me like I was doing it! The train had left the station. I just happened to be on it!"

Dexter Fletcher and Matthew Vaughn wanted to keep the focus firmly on Eddie's drive for glory. 'The story is all about when he's there and what he achieves," says Dexter Fletcher.

Edwards' exploits were solitary. Largely shunned by the ski jumping community, he would either train himself or go through a string of short-lived coaches. For the film however, Matthew Vaughn and Dexter Fletcher wanted to create a character to join Eddie through every step of his journey. 'We needed someone we can relate to, a participant we can imagine ourselves to be," says Dexter Fletcher. 'Our attitude towards Eddie would be that he's mad, but we're won over by his inspirational enthusiasm and approach."

Enter Bronson Peary, a hard-drinking, chain-smoking American and former ski jumper who takes Eddie, very reluctantly at first, under his wing. It was a role created for a movie star. And one of the benefits of being as successful as Matthew Vaughn is that you have movie stars on speed dial. Hugh Jackman, for one.

'I rang Hugh Jackman up and sent him the script," says Matthew Vaughn. 'He remembered Eddie The Eagle. He told me he used to jump off the roof of his house in Australia and pretend it was a ski jump! Hugh loved the idea of doing this. He's never done anything like this before."

Hugh Jackman says he was indeed a huge Eddie the Eagle fan growing up - just another reminder of the huge impact Eddie's exploits had on the world at large. 'Eddie was a legend who embodies that pure spirit of having a go. And he had a go at the most crazy, almost suicidal event in sport, the ski jump. I mean, I wanted to be in the Olympics as a kid; I just wasn't going to go this far!" Hugh Jackman was also drawn in by the chance to play Peary, a fictional character, who is a damaged, cynical soul who was kicked out of the U.S. Winter Olympics team at the peak of his powers. His friendship with Eddie enables a long-overdue healing process for Peary.

'Eddie's dogged determination intrigues Bronson," adds Hugh Jackman. 'He likes this kid. He thinks he's flat out crazy, but he relates to him. They're both outsiders, they've both been shunned by the world, and it's a redemption tale for both of them. Through that growing friendship, Bronson starts to believe in himself again."

A key part of Peary's arc is his relationship with his former coach, Warren Sharp, who kicked Bronson out of the U.S. team all those years ago. Sharp remains a huge presence in Peary's life, particularly in a climactic scene where the two meet for the first time in decades. But the character presented Matthew Vaughn and Dexter Fletcher with a casting challenge. 'It had to be someone on a par with Hugh Jackman," says Dexter Fletcher. 'That's Christopher Walken. When he came on set, it was just brilliant. What he does is so -Chrisopher Walken,' but it's powerful and moving, and means that Hugh Jackman's character is more three-dimensional as well."

Hugh Jackman loved working with the legendary actor. 'Honestly, no acting required!" he laughs. 'For one scene, the script says, -the godfather of the sport walks into the room and everyone goes still.' That's pretty much what happened. It's Christopher Walken! And he's the coolest, most relaxed guy from take one until the end of the shoot. It's all gold."

Matthew Vaughn and Dexter Fletcher had their Bronson Peary. And they had their Warren Sharp. Now they just needed the biggest piece of the puzzle: the Eagle himself.

Hunting The Eagle

As it happens, the hunt for Eddie didn't take very long, because Matthew Vaughn realised he had the perfect candidate right under his nose. He had just put the finishing touches on Kingsman: The Secret Service, starring Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Mark Strong, and as the film's hero Eggsy, Taron Egerton, a young Welsh newcomer in his first film role.
'I knew Eggsy was a performance," says Matthew Vaughn. 'Eggsy is so not Taron. I said to him, -It's important you do a character now which surprises people.' I didn't have a doubt that Taron was going to pull Eddie off."

Joel Egerton wasn't even born when Edwards was soaring through the Calgary air, but the young actor quickly jumped at the chance. A test with Jackman in New York swiftly followed, before Joel Egerton was officially offered the role just before Christmas 2014. But he took it on one proviso. 'I have absolutely no interest in sending Eddie up," says Joel Egerton. 'He can be funny, he can have mishaps, but he needs heart and soul and to be real and believable."

His initial fears were misplaced. 'I wanted to dial up the emotion," says Matthew Vaughn. 'That's what I'm most excited with this movie. Audiences will no longer think of Eddie the clown, but as Eddie the hero."

To prepare for the role, Joel Egerton did meet with the real-life Eddie, which helped inform his performance. 'Eddie is a very reasonable and pleasant, affable chap," he says. 'He has optimism, and he's focused. There are things about Eddie that are heroic."

Joel Egerton transformed himself for the role with the addition of a subtle wig, the trademark thick glasses, a little extra weight, a Cheltenham accent and, towards the movie's end, Eddie's iconic moustache. 'But I also need to be really innocent," he says. 'Hugh Jackman's bringing all the movie star pecs, and he's given me the room to be a bit eccentric."

The young actor also learned how to ski for the role, in order to replicate the positions required for ski jumping, from the Inrun position (the first position a ski jumper adopts as they come down the slope) to the take-off move and the 'Telemark," which allows the jumper to land with one foot in front of the other. 'Well, I did about fifteen hours!" he laughs. 'I was quite nervous doing it. It's hardcore. You realise how dangerous it is when you're doing it."

Be under no illusions - ski jumping is an incredibly dangerous sport. 'I won't be doing the 90 meter jump," laughs Joel Egerton. '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." Hugh Jackman, no stranger to doing his own stunts, was also daunted by the sheer difficulty of a 90 meter jump, which requires total focus and mastery of the human body just to take off, let alone land safely.

'I had to do a scene where I sat on top of the jump, and I had a wire on to stop me from killing myself if I fell," recalls Hugh Jackman. 'And even then I was pretty freaked out! When you think that Eddie did that in the Olympics after doing hardly any jumps in his life, he had some serious courage."

Perhaps Matthew Vaughn sums it up best. 'Whoever invented ski jumping was insane," he remarks. 'There's no logical reason for doing it."

To accurately depict Edwards' training routine, and the big jumps he undertook at the Calgary Olympics, Fletcher and his director of photography George Richmond had to find a way of doing it safely, and repeatedly. 'There are thirteen or more jumps in the film, and it's always the same action - a guy goes up somewhere steep, he jumps off and then he lands," notes Dexter Fletcher. 'We had to find a lot of new ways to do that. And as soon as you get on a screen, everything becomes flat, and the height of something is reduced by 50 percent, at least."

Other problems encountered by the production while on location in Germany and Austria, was amazingly, a lack of snow. 'We were filming in spring and at the tail-end of a mild winter," says Dexter Fletcher. 'There was one shot where Taron goes to the top of the 70 meter jump and looks down, and there was no snow! We had to bring some in from higher up the mountain in a truck, and spread it out around the slope."

Other solutions involved judicious use of CG, helmet-cams to increase the feeling of speed as the skier speeds down the slope, and the construction of complex platforms in and around the 70 meter and 90 meter jumps. The latter allowed Dexter Fletcher, Richmond and second unit director, the legendary Vic Armstrong, to devise shots where the camera would swoop and fly and be able to depict the sheer speeds of a ski jumper as they leap into the unknown. 'George and I got very creative," adds Dexter Fletcher. 'We found ways of coming up with fun angles, and ways to communicate how high and dangerous this is. It's about choosing the right people to help you bring it to the next level."

The Eagle Has Landed

Sadly, it now seems almost impossible for someone to replicate Eddie's achievements. As detailed in the film, the standards required to qualify for the ski jump were almost immediately increased by the International Olympic Committee. Eddie never qualified for the event again, although he was selected as a torchbearer for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Yet the film was devised by Dexter Fletcher and Matthew Vaughn as a testament to the unshakeable faith that Edwards possessed. 'He's a hero," says Matthew Vaughn. 'Eddie literally risked his life with every jump. He was being bloody brave. The word -no' is not in my vocabulary, and it wasn't in his, either. That's for sure. I admired Eddie."

The film ends with a famous quote from Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. -The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering, but fighting well'. It sums up why Matthew Vaughn and Dexter Fletcher wanted to tell this story, and why they wanted to celebrate the fighting spirit of an unlikely hero. Eddie the Eagle Edwards may not have won an Olympic medal, but his example is an inspirational one. Says Vaughn: 'This film shows that no matter how big a problem you may have, you can solve it. Having heart and determination and tenacity does work."

Eddie the Eagle
Release Date: April 21st, 2016