Taron Egerton on Living His Fantasy Mafia Life in ‘Black Bird’ and Hanging Out With Britney Spears

variety.com:

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorTaron Egerton knows about fame — especially after the attention he received for his award-winning work as Elton John in 2019’s “Rocketman.” But Egerton never felt as popular as he did on July 23 when Britney Spears posted videos on her Instagram of them together in London.“I felt very, very, very famous for a second,” Egerton tells me on this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast, crediting her “passionate fans” for all the love and attention.The video — which Spears captioned, “Coolest guy ever!!!

Such a freaking fan!” — was taken at a mutual friend’s dinner party. “She was very, very, very lovely,” the actor reports, explaining he’s been a fan of the pop star since her early days. “I was exactly the right age to have been swept up in all that mania,” he says, adding, “She’s a force.” I spoke with Egerton on Zoom from Greece, where he was vacationing with his family.

He didn’t mind taking a break from holiday to promote his latest project, Apple TV+’s “Black Bird.” Inspired by true events, the series stars Egerton as Jimmy Keene, a drug dealer who is sent to prison for 10 years.

However, prosecutors offer to commute his sentence if he is willing to be transferred to a maximum-security lockup to get a serial killer (Paul Walter Hauser) to reveal the location of the bodies of women he allegedly killed.