Depiction of David Bowie in Stardust 'not an impersonation', says director
Gabriel Range, director of new David Bowie biopic Stardust, has told how Johnny Flynn's performance doesn't attempt to 'mimic' the legendary musician
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The director of the upcoming Sir David Bowie biopic has told how he was keen for the depiction of the star to "not be an impression."
Iconic musician David, who died in 2016, will be portrayed by Johnny Flynn in Stardust, which tells the story of his early touring days.
Having opened at the Raindance Film Festival in London this week, director Gabriel Range said: "It was really important to me to cast a musician to play David and also when I met Johnny and discovered he was a huge Bowie fan, it just felt really right.
"Johnny could really connect emotionally with that experience of setting out on your career as a musician and playing to those half empty rooms."
Gabriel added to PA News Agency that it was "important [Johnny's performance] not be an impersonation" of David.
Singing the praises of Johnny's nuanced performance, Gabriel explained: "It was more about creating a feeling rather than an impression of David."
And he remarked that one of the biggest film-making challenges for him was that David Bowie embodied so many different characters to different fans.
"For some people he's the Thin White Duke, for some people he's Ziggy Stardust, for some people it's David of the 80s, and our film is obviously set before all of that in 1971," Gabriel told.
"And so I think what is fun about this was to explore a chapter that's a less-known chapter of his life, before that first real flash of fame."
The film follows David on his first US tour "which didn't really work out commercially."
David died in 2016 after a cancer battle, at the age of 69.
Stardust will be the latest in a long line of recent musical biopics, which have included Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury) and Rocketman (Sir Elton John).
Cinema has been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, with a lengthy list of releases big and small pushed back.
These have included James Bond's latest outing in No Time To Die, and Marvel's Black Widow.
"It is a really interesting time to bring a film out for all the obvious reasons – socially distanced cinemas and so on," Gabriel continued.
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