Sir Elton John almost landed a tough guy role in Matthew Vaughn's new action movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, opposite Oscar winner Colin Firth.

The director admits he wrote a cameo for the rocker and then abandoned the idea because he didn't think it would work in the film.

He tells ABC News Radio, "I was umming and ahhing 'cause it had a whole fun subplot about celebrities being kidnapped. And I had an idea of, who's the worst celebrity you'd want to have locked in a cell? And I came up with Elton John.

"(I thought about) having Elton John throwing these huge tantrums, and then I wanted to do an action scene of Elton John kicking the living daylights out of people.

"I just got uncomfortable with, 'How do you have celebrities playing themselves? Opposite famous actors playing another role?' The suspension of disbelief suddenly becomes harder to pull off."