Elton John Could Have Been in Spy Spoof ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’

Actor Colin Firth is earning rave reviews for his performance in the ultra-violent new spy caper Kingsman: The Secret Service. But if director Matthew Vaughn had gotten his way, Firth also might have shared some screen time with Elton John.

Vaughn explained his foiled plans for an Elton cameo in the film during a recent interview with ABC News Radio, saying he'd written a handful of scenes for John, but was ultimately forced to cut them from the script because they just didn't work.

"I was umming and ahhing 'cause it had a whole fun subplot about celebrities being kidnapped. And I had an idea of, who's the worst celebrity you'd want to have locked in a cell? And I came up with Elton John," said Vaughn. "Having Elton John throwing these huge tantrums. And then I wanted to do an action scene of Elton John kicking the living daylights out of people."

It sounds like a comedy goldmine (and the kind of thing Elton knows how to do pretty well in real life, too), but Vaughn ran into too many problems along the way. "First of all, the celebrities said no," he pointed out. "And then I just got uncomfortable with, how do you have celebrities playing themselves, opposite famous actors playing another role? The suspension of disbelief suddenly becomes harder to pull off."

Perhaps if he gets around to making a sequel, Vaughn can get advice on the subject from Ricky Gervais, who based his entire 'Extras' series around celebrities portraying unflattering versions of themselves. In the meantime, we still have Elton's performance in 'Tommy' to tide us over.

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