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Eddie the Eagle: How much of the feel-good biopic is true?
Sporting comedy based on British Olympic skiing star doesn't let the facts get in the way of a jolly good story
Eddie the Eagle, a new feel-good film to be released in the UK at Easter, is based on the life of Michael "Eddie" Edwards, an unlikely British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself, even when almost everyone else had lost faith. But how close to the real events is it?
Edwards, better known by his nickname of "Eddie the Eagle", became Britain's first ever Olympic ski-jumper when he appeared at the 1988 Calgary games.
Stocky and short-sighted, he seemed an unlikely competitor but became famous as an underdog and a "heroic failure", who pursued his dream with almost no support.
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The real Eddie the Eagle attends a show-jumping event in Germany in 2013
The film, directed by Dexter Fletcher, sees Kingsman star Taron Egerton step into Edwards's skis, with Hugh Jackman by his side as coach Bronson Peary.
It follows Edwards's childhood sporting failures and his early unsuccessful attempts at being a ski jumper. After a fall, he attracts the attention of alcoholic former ski-champ Peary, who initially encourages Edwards to give up before being won over by the plucky outsider.
The real Edwards, who now lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, told the BBC that Egerton is "uncannily" like him. But he also said "only about five per cent" of the biopic is true. So what has it changed?
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Edwards was a great skier
The real Eddie the Eagle comes across as a bit of British comedy act, but he "was and is an exceptionally good skier", says Simon Skelton in the Daily Telegraph. Though Edwards tried and failed at a lot of sports as a child, when he started skiing in 1976, aged 13, "he never looked back". In 1982, he was unofficially ranked ninth in the world for amateur speed skiing, having clocked 108.6mph, while in 1995, he set an unofficial world record for stunt ski-jumping after launching himself successfully over ten cars.
Bronson Peary isn't real
In the movie, Edwards is coached by moody outsider Bronson Peary but in real life, he learnt how to jump with the help of two Americans, John Viscome and Chuck Berghorn. Though there were rumours that Jackman's character was based on Berghorn, film-makers insist Peary is entirely fictional and doesn't represent one specific person.
Edwards isn't an only child
He actually has a sister called Liz, who is two years younger. In 2007, the Daily Express reported that Edwards helped save her life by donating his bone marrow when she was battling non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He was the only family member who was a perfect match for the transplant.
He wasn't told he would never walk again
In the film, the young Edwards is told this but it's not true. As a ten-year-old, the real Edwards was a "kamikaze-style" football goalie, who dived into oncoming boots, damaged the cartilage in his left knee and spent the next three years in plaster casts, reports Sports Illustrated. But he bounced back, learnt to ski at 13 on a school trip to Italy and within four years, was racing with the British national team.
Warren Sharp doesn't exist neither
Just as Peary is a fictional character, so is Christopher Walken's character Warren Sharp, says the Hollywood Reporter. Sharp is Peary's old coach, who kicked him out of the US ski team for being "a rule-breaking hotshot".
It's still good fun
"The film isn't even trying to pretend to be true to life, or even to teach us a lesson," says Bilge Ebiri at Vulture. Fletcher keeps the tone light and has fun with the cliches, but while the tone is simple, maybe even simplistic, it's not stupid, he adds. It refuses to burden us with too many facts or complicated characters and instead, channels the spirit of a young child who dreams of sporting glory. "It won't win any medals," he concludes, "but it earns its place."
