Machine Gun Kelly stars in Taurus, a semi-autobiographical film about a musician “looking for inspiration to record one final song before delving further into his drug addiction,” according to IndieWire.
Born Colson Baker, Kelly reunites with Taurus director and writer Tim Sutton after the two worked together on 2021’s The Last Son. The cast includes Maddie Haason, Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory, Lil Tjay, Ruby Rose, Scoot McNairy, Naomi Wild, and Kelly’s fiancée Megan Fox, who plays his ex-girlfriend.
“We were almost shying away from it being autobiographical, it felt like, at first. And then, I think, it just became me,” MGK told People at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. “They stick me as a character all the time—which, maybe I presented myself to the world as—but I feel like maybe people will get to actually know me through this film.”
The movie appears to blur the lines between the experiences of the character Cole and Colson himself. The title is Kelly’s own zodiac sign, and footage of Cole walking through a crowd was taken from MGK’s surprise set at Lollapalooza last year, as reported by Rolling Stone. He hinted at the character hitting close to home during his acceptance speech after receiving the Spotlight award at the 2022 Newport Beach Film Festival.
“This movie is really close to me,” he said, per People. “It’s about the last week that a musician is alive and he’s…trying to find the good in himself. That’s kinda how I feel a lot of the time.”
MGK opened up in his Hulu documentary Life in Pink about going through a “really, really dark” moment in his life that culminated in him putting a shotgun in his mouth while on the phone with Fox, who was filming in Bulgaria. Baker said he grew incredibly paranoid that someone was going to enter his home and kill him.
“I was like, ‘You weren’t here for me,’” he recalled. “I’m in my room and I’m, like, freaking out on her. Dude, I put the shotgun in my mouth and I’m yelling on the phone and, like, the barrel’s in my mouth and I go to cock the shotgun and the bullet—as it comes back up—the shell just gets jammed. Megan’s, like, dead silent. That was kind of where I started realizing something’s not right.”
Taurus will be released in theaters and on demand Nov. 18.
