Eddie the Eagle: film of my life 'only 10%' accurate

‘There’s always a certain amount of [poetic licence] but I’m kind of anxious’ Photograph: Steve Wood / Rex Features/Steve Wood / Rex Features

Celebrated British ski-jumper Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards says that the forthcoming film based on his life story will only be largely “made-up”.

In comments reported by the BBC, Edwards says that he has been told that “only 10 to 15%” of the film, entitled Eddie the Eagle and directed by Sunshine on Leith’s Dexter Fletcher, is “based on my life”.

Edwards became internationally renowned after becoming the first British competitor in an Olympic ski-jumping event, taking part in the 1988 Games in Calgary, Canada. Edwards finished in last place in both the 70m and 90m ski-jumps, but partly owing to his Coke-bottle glasses (required to correct far-sighted vision) and general aura of clumsiness, he achieved unlikely celebrity in both the US and UK.

Edwards said: “I’ve not really seen the script so I don’t know what they’ve picked out of the things that happened in my life and what is made up. There’s always a certain amount of [poetic licence] but I’m kind of anxious – what exactly have they put in about my life and how have they portrayed me?”

Eddie the Eagle, which features Kingsman’s Taron Egerton as Edwards and Hugh Jackman as his (fictional) coach Bronson Peary, is due out in 2016.