'Complete frankness and honesty': Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher on working with Elton John

A new film called Rocketman weaves Elton John's music and lyrics into his life story, including all of the darkest moments that came with fame.

The R-rated film is full of hit songs, but it also shows how sex, addiction, loneliness and death veered the music icon into self-destruction. In response to the film's R-rating, John rebutted in an essay for the Guardian that he hasn't led a "PG-13 rated life."

The film's director, Dexter Fletcher, is familiar with the kind of self-destruction John faced in his life. Although he admits he was never as famous as John, Fletcher grew up as a child star, appearing in films like Bugsy Malone and The Elephant Man. By the time he was in his 30s, he was bankrupt, addicted to drugs and homeless.

Fletcher joined q's Tom Power to tell us more about the frank conversations he had with John and how those stories made him consider his own dark past.

"I was never as famous as Elton was, or as rich maybe," said Fletcher, "but I can speak to my own experience around certain elements of it — what the impact of fame at an early age is. There are parallels that he and I can connect on ... and that, of course, informs the film and how that story is told. The advantage that it gives me is that I can tell [his story] in an empathetic way ... not in a sentimental way."

Rocketman is in theatres now.

Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.

— Produced by ​Ben Edwards