No, no, no, seriously, if you made a really shit version of this
people would say "That is it, shoot him.
Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later,
Steve Jobs, The Beach, Sunshine.
Danny Boyle makes punchy, rhythmic movies
that just burst out of the screen.
Which makes total sense when you meet the guy.
The energetic Brit was also the man put in charge
of the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games
which did involve pushing the queen out of a helicopter.
Kind of.
And now Boyle is back with Trainspotting 2, about what happens
when four, barely legible Scottish heroin junkies
defy all medical science and actually make it to their 40s.
Thanks so much for talking to us.
- Really appreciate your time. - It's a pleasure.
So, of all the different projects you've worked on over the years,
which one has changed you the most?
Oh god, and I'm not just saying that cos we're promoting this one now,
- but this was extraordinary. - Really, why?
So when you start off on a project you kind of have a passion for it,
it's partly a role, certainly the way I do it anyway, directing,
is to convince everyone about what it is you're doing
and why you're doing it and what it's for and what it's about
and to try and get them to glimpse a vision of it.
With this it's kind of different because you've done it once,
they've seen that, they know what your vision is,
and you're kind of like trying to say
why you all want to do a different one, why go back to it,
why risk disappointing people.
Cos everybody loved that one.
Surely this is like a highwire act
of potential terrifying, career-ending disappointment.
I don't think you're in danger of ending you career.
No, no, no, seriously, if you made a really shit version of this
people would say "That is it, shoot him.
"Finish him now, stop him, put him down."
And so what you're doing, you're not evangelicising like that,
you're actually finding out why it is you're doing it.
- So what did you find out? - We edited the film
and then after about 2, 3 weeks of the edit
I looked at it in a cinema with the editor
and just the rough cut, and it's about male behaviour.
Now we never talked about this on the set, not once.
The film is absolutely about masculine behaviour
in the movement from boyhood,
that time when you're completely indestructible,
or you think you are,
and you just behave completely recklessly, carelessly,
about everyone and everything apart from your own pleasure, right?
It's about the movement from that to manhood.
And it is the 20-year cycle is a pretty perfect time to do it over
because it's the point at which you arrive
where you can no longer ignore time
and you realise time doesn't care about you.
Now you think "Ah!" And it accelerates.
"What have I done? What did that amount to?
"And who is that child? I'm its father?
What?
So that's what you're finding out,
it's a kind of life-changing experience, really.
So I hope people enjoy it, because...
but I don't care if they don't,
because unlike most of the films you make, we made this one
sort of for ourselves,
and I know it's OK to stand beside the other one.
And they can talk to each other as well.
- And I like that... - Will you do another one in 20 years' time?
Well, I don't know...
You reckon these characters still be alive in 20 years' time?
Who knows, I don't whether I will be.
Can I get you to track back
to the making of Trainspotting 1 for a second...
Ewan McGregor talks about an idea he had
when he was getting ready for the film,
that he actually wanted to try heroin.
You and he were going to do it together.
Do you remember him pitching you on that approach?
Yeah, it's like method acting, actors want to...
You hold them responsible for being convincing.
So yeah, why wouldn't you research heroin?
I think we had a long chat about it.
And we thought it would be disrespectful
to the people who had suffered from it.
Cos one of the things that's extraordinary about it,
some people touch it once and their life is changed forever
and they never can escape it.
Doesn't mean they're addicted to it but it's always there hovering in the background.
Other people can take it like other people take ecstasy.
Just once in a lifetime or a few times in a lifetime.
And we always felt it would be disrespectful
to those people who were damaged by it to dabble with it.
And we had this group with us, the Drug Recovery Group,
who were there to tell us all you needed to know.
What I learned was that if you die in hospital
you'll be self-administering morphine
and basically heroin's the same thing.
It's cut with other shit but basically it's the same thing.
And street users use it to eradicate pain.
That's really what it's for.
It's not for the increase of pleasure necessarily.
I think it's to take away an emotional burden.
You have one of the unusual distinctions
of being one of the very few people in the world
that has directed Her Majesty the Queen.
- You guys are obsessed with this. - Yeah...
- I thought you were moving on. - No, we're still obsessed with it.
Good evening, Mr Bond.
My understanding was that she'd been to the dentist that day
- you were going to film her. - That's right.
What does that do to the mood of Her Majesty?
She was not in a good mood, she said. She claimed.
Maybe that was just an act to say don't be too rough with me.
- What was she expecting you to do? - I dunno, but...
If you invite the director of Trainspotting into the palace...
I know, it was weird, wasn't it, that they...
The story was, we had this idea that we would fake the queen,
obviously, for this scenario, the James Bond scenario,
so we sent it to the palace assuming, out of courtesy,
to say this is what we were doing and I remember writing a letter
saying I would make sure I pick a double who's very respectful,
doesn't look silly and then we got a message back saying,
we're not bothered about the double, the queen would like to be in it herself.
She would like to play herself.
We were like... I thought it was like someone was lining us up,
thought that's a wind-up right there.
Anyway, it turned out it was true. And yes, so I went in to meet her
on the day of filming, and she was in her private quarters...
- Which I assume looks just like this room. - No!
- It was a bit of tip... - Really?
It was like a human person's place.
The room you meet her in is like this, it's prepared and manicured
but her room was full of tea trays and cups of tea
and papers strewn about and everything like that.
And then we got on the set and I said...
She said "Shouldn't I say something?" I said...
- You hadn't given her lines. - No, there was no line. It was a kind of silent.
She said "I should say something, shouldn't I?"
I said "What are you imagining?"
- Did you improv with the queen? - So she improvised, yeah.
Cos she'd just done her Jubilee at that point
so she'd done something very formal,
so do you think she was in the mood to do something fun?
I think that was her measurement, yeah, of why she did it.
She also wanted... She has a team of people around her
who are very close, I think, they've been with her a long time
and they all wanted a picture of Daniel Craig.
- They wanted a selfie with... - That's how this started, right?
They wanted a selfie with Daniel Craig.
If you could go back and do any project again,
knowing what you know now, what would you do?
Is there anything you wish you could tackle slightly differently?
Yeah, so we made a film that I really love, called Millions,
which is a kids' film, well, it's not a kids' film,
but it's about two kids, two brothers.
In the conceptual stage, we talked about it being a musical
and that the kids would sing.
- That'd be great. - Yeah. And I should've done that.
It would be beautiful because
that moment where your characters sing
is the most difficult moment for any film to turn into a musical.
Your justification for your characters singing.
With children it doesn't apply, children just sing.
You should definitely do a musical.
Oh, I'd love to do a musical. Yeah, we have got an idea for a musical
which involves one of the other people
we've been talking about in this interview but...
Please be Daniel Craig.
Danny Boyle, absolute pleasure talking to you.
Nice to talk to you as well.