Boyle: my spat with Ewan

Danny Boyle: Not rejecting Hollywood

10 April 2012

His latest work is the biggest-grossing film in London but Britain's most successful young director is determined not to rest on his laurels. And with a new-found sense of urgency fuelling his ambitions, he's ready to heal some fractious relationships, too. For film director Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later represents a real return to form and has given him the confidence to make peace with the man who helped him achieve his remarkable success in the first place - Ewan McGregor.

Boyle is about to film Irvine Welsh's Porno, a follow-up to Trainspotting, the 1996 film that cemented the careers of all three men, while McGregor is in line to resurrect his role as Mark "Rent-Boy" Renton.

The well-publicised falling-out of the long-time friends began three years ago when McGregor, who had been as good as promised the lead role in The Beach by Boyle, was suddenly replaced by Leonardo DiCaprio in order to appease the film's financiers in the United States.

McGregor was furious, and publicly expressed his anger at this lack of loyalty. He told Vanity Fair at the time: "I was gutted. It's been a kind of love affair between Danny and me for years. But now it is as if he is seeing somebody else."

Perched on a sofa in the Sanderson Hotel this week, Boyle is full of regret: "I think Ewan has a right to be angry. We did treat him very badly. We misled him. It was a purely economic decision to do with the cost of the film. But that doesn't excuse the way we handled it."

McGregor remains tight-lipped about anything to do with The Beach, but rumour has it he only discovered he had been ousted by DiCaprio when he read about it in the paper. Boyle is elusive about exactly how the affair was "badly handled", stuttering: "Just ... just ... I think he [McGregor] is right. Actors should be treated with respect."

So - has the unfortunate episode been forgiven and forgotten now?

"You'd have to ask Ewan that," he shrugs. Although McGregor refuses to comment on his involvement with Boyle's new project, when they bumped into each other last month, the former friends stopped and, says Boyle, "had a very nice chat".

McGregor has good reason to feel magnanimous. The knock-back probably ended up being a blessing in disguise, leaving him free to be cast in the three mega-bucks Star Wars prequels and the hugely successful Moulin Rouge.

Boyle has not fared so well. The Beach proved a stormy ride. After a controversy-dogged shoot in Thailand, accusations (which he hotly denies) of ecological negligence, alleged creative meddling from the studio suits and disappointing critical response to the final product, Boyle told the press - rather like a disgraced politician - that he was looking forward to spending more time with his family.

The two and a half years since have been relatively quiet. In that time, he completed a 26-minute short film, Alien Love Triangle, which stars Kenneth Branagh, Courteney Cox and Heather Graham. Then, last year, he returned to his former employer, the BBC, with two low-budget films - Strumpet and Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise - shot on bargain digital video. To the casual observer, it may have looked like something of a come-down for the erstwhile "saviour of British film-making".

But now he's back with a vengeance. Based on an original screenplay by Alex Garland, Boyle's new film, 28 Days Later, is a stunning vision of post-apocalyptic horror.

Although he has adopted London as his home, the famously down-to-earth Boyle hails from just outside Manchester. He grew up in Radcliffe near Bolton, is a passionate Bury supporter, and even after living in the East End for 20 years (his three children were all born within the sound of the Bow Bells), he can still occasionally sound like one of the posher characters from the TV comedy series Phoenix Nights.

For the most part, his personal life has remained exactly that. He lives alone in Mile End, in the same street as Gail Stevens, his former partner and the mother of his children. They still get on well, he says - a claim borne out by the fact that she's also the casting director on 28 Days Later.

"It's great working with her," he says, "because she doesn't listen to any of my nonsense. The problem with having a bit of a reputation is that people just want to please you. That's a nightmare. You need people to stand up to you and tell you if you're talking bollocks."

Finally, I put it to him that making a film such as 28 Days Later - shot on digital video (still considered a poor relation to celluloid), with a modest budget and largely unknown cast - smacks of a director who was stung by his encounter with Hollywood and is attempting to get "back to basics".

"I agree it looks that way," he says, without a trace of irritation, "and there is an element of truth in it. But things are always more complex than that. I'd definitely do another Hollywood film. I just think you have to be a bit more cunning than we were in the way we set up The Beach. We were rather naive."

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