How the Rocketman Cast Compares to the Real-Life People They're Based On

After making a splash at Cannes this May, Rocketman is coming to a screen near you. The Elton John biopic dramatizes the musician's rise, from his childhood straight through to his big break. Audiences meet many characters from John's life along the way-but how do they compare to their counterparts in the real world? Below, how the Rocketman cast members stack up to the people they're playing, from Taron Egerton's take on Elton John to Richard Madden's portrayal of John Reid.

Elton John is, well, Elton John. (Or really, Reginald Kenneth Dwight, if you're going with his given name.) Taron Egerton (Kingsman) took on the challenge of playing one of the 20th century's biggest icons-but he sees Rocketman as a somewhat loose interpretation of John's life. "We set out to be creative within a movie that is a tribute to someone," Egerton told Billboard. "It’s a biographical film, but it’s not a biopic."

For his part, John wrote in a Guardian essay that the movie is "obviously not all true, but it’s the truth."

Jamie Bell's career came full circle when he landed a role in Rocketman (that of Bernie Taupin, John's longtime friend and collaborator). Although most wouldn't recognize him for it today, Bell's best-known role is still that of Billy in 2000's Billy Elliot. It was at the Cannes screening of that film that the then-young Bell met John Elton. "That was the first time I’d ever met anyone that famous, and that was quite overwhelming for me," Bell told Deadline. "He was so lovely and so supportive of that film, and obviously since that, he was involved in the musical... we’ve been somehow cosmically tethered together in a way."

Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard) portrays John Reid, John's manager and sometimes-boyfriend. "As an actor, your instinct is always to try to make something beautiful and to be liked," Madden told Elton John himself in an Interview piece. "There’s lots about John Reid that’s not very likable. It was really fun to play with that."

"When I first read the script, I was kind of shocked," Dallas Howard told Vanity Fair. She doubted that Sheila Dwight, John's mother, was actually as cruel as she was written in the script. She did her own research, though, and came to the same conclusion. "In honestly every single conversation, it was confirmed to me that, yeah-this was a very dysfunctional relationship, and she was a broken woman."

After Sheila and John's father, Stanley, divorced, local painter Fred Farebrother would become John's stepdad. In Rocketman, Tom Bennett portrays the father figure. Bennett has been acting since 2004, but largely on television-he's best known for his work on PhoneShop and EastEnders.

In real life, Dick James was behind the record label that gave Elton John his big break. In Rocketman, Stephen Graham (Snatch, Gangs of New York) plays him. The pair would eventually fall out, thanks in part to a legal battle over royalties.

A bit of Dick James-related controversy arose recently, after James's son spoke out against the film's depiction of his late father. "They have turned him into this stereotype with a big fat cigar, swearing every other word," he told the Daily Express. "He just wasn't like that. He never got aggressive. He never lost his temper. He never swore. But that's how they have made him in the film."

Steven Mackintosh (Underworld: Evolution, Wanderlust) portrays Stanley Dwight, John's stern father.