Taron Egerton makes confidence persuasive even when the man displaying it should not be believed. We rate him most when that leading-man assurance becomes unsettling, though Smoke shows how much he still needs from the writing.
Fi1m perspective
In Smoke (2025), Taron Egerton’s Dave Gudsen explains himself with a confidence that makes us want to question every word. Egerton keeps him interesting without asking us to take his account on trust. We were unnerved by how thoroughly Dave seemed to believe his own explanations; there was no reassuring suggestion that he might be talked round. Egerton lets us spend time with him without making him comfortable company.
His breakthrough as Eggsy in Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) depended on affability and athleticism. It was an effective introduction to a leading man, but the action-hero ease could become a limitation. Playing Eddie Edwards in Eddie the Eagle (2016) gave him physical comedy and an underdog’s appeal. As Elton John in Rocketman (2019), he had the singing to do as well. Both were useful departures from the action-comedy lead.
Black Bird (2022) brought him into true-crime television as Jimmy Keene. Returning to work with writer Dennis Lehane on Smoke kept him occupied with psychologically difficult material. We prefer this direction to another demonstration that he can handle an action lead. It gives his charm something difficult to do: hold our attention when the character offers little reassurance.
The limits are clear in Smoke, too. Egerton sustains Dave’s self-belief through writing that returns to the same point, but we still notice that we have heard it before. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, playing Freddy Fasano, gives the series the more troubling performance because Freddy’s distress is difficult to reduce to a clue in the investigation. Egerton is strong here, though Mwine gives us the stronger reason to stay when the pursuit becomes tiresome.
Across nine episodes, the arson investigation asks too much of its cast’s ability to keep people interesting. Egerton manages that task; he cannot repair the repetition. We would follow him further into these uncomfortable roles, provided the scripts have somewhere to take them. Try Smoke for the acting, with patience for a case that takes longer than it should.
Biography
Taron Egerton is a Welsh actor. He was born on 10 November 1989 in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2012.
He first gained recognition for his role as Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its 2017 sequel. Other notable film roles include Eddie Edwards in Eddie the Eagle (2016), Johnny in the Sing films (2016 and 2021), and Elton John in Rocketman (2019), for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
On television, he starred as Jimmy Keene in the miniseries Black Bird (2022), earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, as Henk Rogers in Tetris (2023), and as Dave Gudsen in the series Smoke (2025).
