Fuelled by a visiting horde of Hollywood A-listers, the promotional mouse-wheels of the annual Toronto International Film Festival could keep us all in free electricity, if only we had the sense to plug them in.
But this year’s festival – known to locals as TIFF – brought a different kind of energy to Hollywood’s often-superficial marketing machine. Some people laughed. Some people cried. And everybody suddenly got honest – including British singer-songwriter and pianist Elton John.
Elton John waves from a purple golf cart which delivered him to the red carpet in Toronto.Credit: AP
“Fame is a dangerous thing if you don’t have something else ... and if you don’t have honesty to go with fame, then you’re going to be in real, real trouble, like I was before I got sober in 1990,” John said, taking a typically promotional question-and-answer session down a more candid path.
“It took me so long to tell the truth [about my sexuality], and it made me so unhappy,” John added. “It was so stupid, the amount of years that I lost by not telling the truth and by fooling myself. And when I stopped fooling myself, my life turned around.”
Elton John: Never Too Late, directed by R.J. Cutler and John’s husband David Furnish, mixes a trove of footage from John’s early career, between 1970 and 1975, with footage of the lead-up to his retirement, and his final US concert at Dodger Stadium in 2022. The film will be released in Australia on the streaming platform Disney+.
Joined by Elton and David on stage, Cutler let loose another surprise, revealing the couple will appear as themselves in the upcoming Spinal Tap sequel, in cinemas in 2025. When Cutler mentioned it, there was an awkward silence. “Is it not announced?” Cutler asked. “It is now,” replied Furnish. “The f---king idiot,” John added, laughing.
Pamela Anderson arrives at the premiere of The Last Showgirl in Toronto.Credit: AP
Meanwhile, across town, a former Baywatch actress was earning rave reviews and rapturous applause for her work on one of the surprise hits of the festival, The Last Showgirl. Directed by Gia Coppola, it is about a Las Vegas dancer who, in her 50s, is dealing with the closure of her show, and coming to terms with the rest of her life.
Speaking after the screening, Pamela Anderson said she had spent her life preparing for the role. “It’s the first time I’ve ever read a good script,” Anderson said. “I never felt something so strongly about something. It was, do it, just be it, and I did it.”