“The lines are blurred all the time,” admits David Furnish, husband of Elton John, when asked what it’s like to make a film with your partner, about your partner.
Furnish spoke to The Hollywood Reporter with co-director R.J. Cutler about making the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, which screened at the BFI London Film Festival.
Premiering on the platform on Dec. 13, the movie boasts a wealth of archival footage about the Brit’s rise to stratospheric levels of fame in the 1970s and ’80s, spotlighting pivotal career moments such as his coming out interview with Rolling Stone and performing alongside John Lennon shortly before the star’s death.
The movie spans decades, documenting John’s rocky relationships and drug addiction, as well as the more tender moments of family life with his and Furnish’s two sons, Zachary and Elijah. The documentary was made in the build-up to John’s retirement from touring with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which culminated at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in July 2023.
Below, Furnish and Cutler speak about finding the career-changing Rolling Stone interview “buried in the archives of the New York Public Library,” why this was the right time to make this film, and what side of his husband Furnish would have liked to have shown if given more time: “I filmed so much stuff, and there weren’t any tantrums. … He’s just a great daddy, and he loves those boys so much.”
Congratulations on a wonderful film. A really broad question to start with, which is: Why did you want to make this film?
Furnish: The whole process started with Elton and I having a conversation about the historical and emotional significance of his touring life coming to an end, something he’s done his entire life. He’s been doing 90 to 100 shows a year, and by choice that was coming to an end to spend more time with our family. That was the starting point. But I also knew, with all the other responsibilities that I have and the experience that I had up until now as a filmmaker, that I wanted to collaborate with someone that I could learn from and someone that could bring so much support and so much insight and resource to the whole process. And R.J. and I were introduced, and we had a lunch together in Los Angeles just before lockdown, and R.J. brought his own vision.
R.J. Cutler, Elton John, David Furnish attend the premiere of Elton John: Never Too Late in Toronto.
Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic
Cutler: Well, we had the L.A. Dodgers tent pole. I’m often asked, if you could make any film, what would it be? And for many years, the answer was a film about Elton John that focused on the first five years of his career. Because what an incredible moment that was, not just in pop music history but in Elton John’s life — 13 albums in five years, seven of which went to number one. Music that defined, really, what pop music would be in the post-Beatles era. There’s so many things, and [it was] also a period of great challenge for Elton personally, that culminates in his coming out to Rolling Stone at great risk to his career. I had long thought what a fascinating movie this would make.
So when David and I met, he spoke to the excitement about the idea of filming during the final months of Elton’s touring life, another period of time where he’s made this monumental decision, and I spoke to the idea of doing something around those first five years, and the concept for the film was born in that meeting.
There’s so many elements that are structurally and narratively vital to this film. The Rolling Stone interview, the concert with John Lennon. Elton’s had such a vast career, I wonder why you chose to spotlight these moments in particular?
Cutler: They both lead to huge decisions on Elton’s part.
Furnish: And Lennon’s, too.
Cutler: Yes, and the Lennon [part] is a wonderful way to resonate with all the themes of the movie. There’s mortality, there’s family, there’s friendship, there’s drugs, there’s humor, there’s rock, there’s connection to the past and a definition of the future. There’s everything. And it’s a great yarn.
Furnish: It’s also important for us to cinematically break new ground. So the Cliff Jahr interview with Rolling Stone had never been heard before, other than Cliff Jahr. … R.J. and his team found it buried in the archives of the New York Public Library. Along with unprocessed photographs, we had snippets of grainy film in our archive of the Dodgers [concert], of Madison Square Garden. We had the full audio track [of the Lennon concert], and together with all the photographs we could get, and with a very talented editor, managed to recreate one of the most important nights in music history that had never been seen before.
The fact that R.J. was actually at that [Lennon] concert when he was 13 years of age, which he revealed to me when we had lunch the first time… I’m like, ‘Okay, God, I’m gonna take this signal you’re sending us.’ Because Elton talks about it so apocryphally — how larger than life it was, and how he’s never heard applause like it, and how the entire room just completely shook for 5-10 minutes. The opportunity to bring that into culture and give it the credence and the significance that it deserves, was exciting for us as filmmakers.
Cutler: We’re exploring a fundamental thing about Elton’s character, which is that the life he has is the byproduct of the choices that he’s made, often at great risk, but they’re all pointing towards being his truest self.
Furnish: What I love about the Lennon-Elton juxtaposition is a family ultimately healed. Lennon got sober, got back together with Yoko. Together, they had Sean, and sadly, it ended tragically, but I think he found the truest happiness he ever had in his life for that period of time, and Elton has found happiness coming off the road and being with his family. So it’s a lovely parallel there, too.
I want to touch on that, of course, because David, you’re one of the filmmakers here, but you’re also Elton’s husband. What’s the dynamic there?
Furnish: The lines are blurred all the time. I’d like to say we have rules about not talking about work or music or anything [but] the fact is, we’re so passionate about so many of the same things in life — I don’t quite lean into sports as much as Elton does. But in terms of music and culture and film and photography and our work with the AIDS Foundation, we’re cross pollinating all the time. It works in the sense that Elton is not a micromanager. He trusts his collaborators. He wants to know the team he’s working with, wants to understand the vision, and then he lets you get on with it, which is great, so he doesn’t micromanage. And that’s very, very healthy, because I think if he was looking over my shoulder all the time, and the team’s shoulders, it would have been another layer that I don’t think would have helped us at all.
Also, to be perfectly honest with you, I found, for me, it almost got too emotionally upsetting at times, because the film has a lot to do with mortality and the end and the finality of things in life. Hearing Elton talk about his mortality and the significance of him coming off the road. … I’ve only ever known Elton to be on the road, you know? I’ve had lovely snippets of him on holidays and time between shows. But touring, as much as he has done, it’s a huge definer of the essence of him. And so bringing that to a close is exactly what we want. You can look at it objectively, but nothing prepares you for the emotional impact that that’s going to have for you. It signifies the end of something very special.
Elton John: Never Too Late
Courtesy of TIFF
I’m sure. And I know that Elton said himself, the main thing he wants to be remembered for is being a great parent and a loving family man above everything else. And that really comes through in this, with the FaceTimes with your two sons, for example. Is there any side of Elton that you didn’t get to show in this film, that you would have liked to if given the time?
Furnish: Because of the documentary I did in 1995 called Tantrums and Tiaras, a few people said: “There aren’t any tantrums.” And I’m like, I filmed so much stuff, there weren’t any tantrums. Because at this moment in Elton’s life and being on the road, he was very happy and very joyful. Every show was such a validation of his life’s work, and he got so much love back from the audiences. It was also during the COVID lockdown. So he was kind of in a bubble, living a bit of a monastic life, and he didn’t even see the band… So there’s a lot of footage of film just hanging around on his own, watching football, which didn’t serve the purposes for the narrative of this film but [shows] it’s tantrum-free.
That’s great to know. I hope the Elton John fans love this film.
Furnish: Thank you. It’s really nice to hear how it touched you emotionally. And great to hear your perspective on his enjoyment of being a father. Because there was a line we had to come up to — our kids are not in the public eye. They had to be in the story, it’s the whole reason where he found happiness and why he’s coming off the road, and that FaceTime call was not planned. It just happened to be that we were filming at the time, because he was in the studio. He’s just a great daddy, and he loves those boys so much, and that just comes singing through.
