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Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards was concerned that a version of this movie, starring Steve Coogan playing him, might be "too broad and mocking". He said: "These scripts I would read just emphasized the slapstick. It was like they were imagining this Alan Partridge sitcom. I said this isn't right, and so it all died a death."
Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards said to the British public broadcaster the BBC that the filmmakers had "done a very, very good job" on making this movie. Edwards also noted Taron Egerton performance playing him as "uncanny" stating Egerton "got my mannerisms and everything else just right."
In the film, Eddie trains in Garmisch (a.k.a. Garmisch-Partenkirchen), Germany. In reality, Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards learned how to ski jump in Lake Placid, NY, U.S.A.
On June 6, 2015, the real-life Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards told BBC news that the movie will be 90 percent made up. Edwards said, "I've been warned only ten to 15 percent of it is based on my life."
In reality, the training and preparation time that Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards spent before the 1988 Winter Olympics was excruciatingly painful and difficult. Edwards has said: "I was sleeping in the car, in cow sheds, in a mental hospital. I was scraping food out of bins, and the whole time I'm thinking the next jump could very well by my last. I could kill myself. In some ways, the movie doesn't show how bad it really was."
In 1992, after declaring bankruptcy, Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards took a degree in law at De Monfort University in Leicester, and became a sports agent.