Twenty years ago, Danny Boyle made an extraordinary film about 90’s youth and heroin addiction. While the characters glamorized their drug use, Trainspotting was a siren call, offering a sensible sobering commentary on a rising epidemic. It also built one hell of a cult following.

When an interview with Boyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner presented itself this week – I understood it to be an “unparalleled opportunity.”

Members of the press had access to these gentlemen for nearly half an hour, below is a transcript of that discussion. The way these group press calls happen usually means not everyone will get the opportunity to ask their question. I was unable to ask my question, but as you’ll discover, the few questions allowed offered insight into the revisiting of this cult phenom.

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Chris

I was wondering if you could just start by talking about what prompted you to want to revisit Trainspotting after 20 years.

Danny Boyle: We tried ten years ago when there was an obvious prompt because Irvine Welsh published a book, “Porno,” which was a ten years later sequel to his original novel, and so we had a go at it, and it was not very good. I’m sure it was fine because it was John Hodge, the same screenwriter and me and we were working on it, but when you read it you thought, I didn’t even bother sending it to the actors because it didn’t feel there was a real reason to do it. Because obviously there’s an onus on you when you return to something with the impact that the first film had, if you’re going to update it you’ve got to have a reason. And it didn’t feel like there was a reason. It was just a caper again. And also the actors didn’t really feel any different, they didn’t look any different. I’m sure they would have felt different, but they didn’t look any different ten years ago, not really. They’re all smirking at me now. But actually we did used to joke at the time that they looked after themselves so well that basically they still looked in their early 20s. Anyway, so we met in Edinburgh two years ago, again, John Hodge, the screenwriter, Irvine Welsh the writer, the two producers and me, and we sat down. And I think when we sat down we thought this won’t work, we’ll have to do due diligence because there is a big anniversary coming up, there will be a lot of interest in whether it will happen or not. And what emerged was much more personal and gave us a reason to make the film really, I think, is that it becomes not just a sequel, it is obviously a sequel, you can’t deny that, but it has its own right to exist really, raison d’être really, the reason to be, which is obviously the passage of time, and especially masculine behavior over time. The other film is obviously a great celebration of a certain period of your life through the most extreme prism you can imagine, these junkies in Edinburgh, and then obviously the update is when they’re 46 and they’re f**ked, as Renton says.

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Chris

It’s obviously a film that both embraces and takes the piss out of nostalgia. I’m wondering as performers, we can talk about the surrealism of revisiting a character all these years later, and if you can talk about just how it felt on set to make sure that you weren’t just making a sequel you were also making a reflection upon sequels in general, about how you can’t go back to the past again but sometimes the past is the best time of your life.

Ewen Bremner: Age is cruel, and you don’t realize that until you get to this point in your life. In the first film we were full of exuberance and potency, and we thought we were invincible. And it took us 20 years to realize that we’re just running on the spot and time is flying by. So, when Danny asked us to come back together and find out who these guys were after 20 years, we had an opportunity that is unparalleled, that never comes along for actors, to think of a character 20 years later and to run with it, because Danny lets you really run with every idea and he feeds you full of fantastic ideas to play with. So, we just had a bagful of opportunities and the prospect of jumping on this film again.

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Chris

So what was it like coming together as people after all of these years, you’ve all gone on very different journeys in film and theatre and your personal lives, how did that affect your group dynamic this time around?

Ewan McGregor: I hadn’t seen Jonny for maybe 15 years. And I hadn’t seen Bobby, I can’t believe that’s true. It’s amazing, isn’t it, 15 years, I hadn’t seen Bobby since the premiere of Trainspotting in Scotland. Ewen and I, this was our fifth movie together, so we’ve worked with each other over the years. But, yes, coming back – So, we’re getting back together again and our relationships were founded working on Trainspotting, and I think this idea that we were all f**ked up all the time and it was a party all the time, but it wasn’t. We had a short space of time to make that movie, I think we shot it in seven weeks, six weeks, and we worked really hard on it, and we were also all aware that we were doing something really special and important, and so we were giving it our all. And so to come back together and find each other again under the same conditions, if you like, and with the same responsibility for this film was just fantastic, and it just felt like coming home. And it wasn’t until the very end, and quite late on in the shooting, where the four of us were actually on set at the same time, and that was extra special really.

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Chris

Gentlemen, thinking about how the first film ends and the second one begins, the words “friendship” and “betrayal” came to mind. And I read this quote about friendship and betrayal and it’s simply stated: “Apology accepted; trust denied.” But thinking about Spud and Simon, I think they felt just the opposite perhaps and felt apology denied; but trust accepted. So, my question is, do you think that’s right, and do you think that’s because they began their friendships as kids, so trust accepted is just inherently there?

Danny Boyle: Well, friendship’s a very powerful thing that none of us are really in control of, it takes over your life in a way that you can’t anticipate. And Irvine Welsh said something very interesting about this dynamic and about the first film in relation to the second film, and he said that the first film was a film about the power of friendship and how it’s intoxicating and overwhelming and is a real hit in the vein. But ultimately to be part of this friendship group it crushes your individuality, and so the individual, which is Renton in the first story, he has to break free of the crushing conformity of the group. But the second film has the individual coming back into the fold because to survive out in the wilderness is just as crushing as it is to survive in the group, so the individual comes back into the fold to try to find succor in this difficult part of his life.

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Articles by
Chris Giroux
Movie Reelist Contributor: Chris Giroux
Chris Giroux is founder and editor-in-charge at Movie Reelist, an entertainment news and review blog serving the most fanatic moviegoers. Chris started his publication in Detroit in 2010 and has since reviewed hundreds of films and interviewed numerous talent across the country. He is an avid film festival attendee and red carpet photographer, having shot the likes of Steven Spielberg, Bill Murray, Mark Hamill, and more. Chris grew up in New Mexico, where he studied mass media writing while working in post-production and multimedia authoring. It is also where he discovered Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York, resulting in an unhealthy Kurt Russell obsession.

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