Trainspotting – Ewen Bremmer – Interview

Trainspotting

An interview with Ewen Bremmer
by Kieran Cullen

Lollipop caught up with Trainspotter Ewen Bremmer (Spud) in Boston just hours before he was due on Conan O’Brien. Talk about Influence!

Given the film’s previous incarnations as novel and play, how do you think Trainspotting: The Movie turned out?
The movie is a really excellent interpretation of the novel – and a lot of people said it couldn’t be turned into a film. [Director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald and screenwriter John Hodge] really captured the energy and the essence of the characters.

Were you surprised by the controversy engendered by the film in some quarters in the U.K?
No, not at all. I’m more surprised that the controversy was so contained, it was really mild, I thought. There were no real outcries about the film, nothing major. It wasn’t condemned anywhere.

Do you expect anything different in the U.S?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it does get some backlash ‘cos all the journalists are anticipating some controversy. The biggest controversy in Trainspotting is in the style of the filmmaking. It’s such a fresh, original-lookin’ film and the style of it is really brand new. [Boyle] is chopping and changing lots of different kinds of humor, styles of filmmaking, references from all over the place. Over here, Trainspotting has been taken seriously, which is surprising because there is a cultural barrier to overcome which Americans are poor at coping with.

Having played Mark Renton onstage in Trainspotting: The Play, how did you find the contrast in portraying Spud onscreen?
They’re very different characters. Spud is a real easy-going, positive young guy who doesn’t expect anything, he just encourages peace and love. Renton is full of contradictions. He wants more out of life and is more intelligent, more aware. He sees things more clearly than Spud. The book makes a big impact on everyone who reads it. The material is so explosive and dynamic that you can’t ignore it. Onstage, the stuff turned out to work really well and was immediate and accessible. On the other hand, in the play, we didn’t have to concentrate on appealing to a mass audience the way you do with a film. The film is low-budget, but we did want to make a piece of entertainment, not an exclusive film. [Boyle et al] wanted to make a film that would sell seats and that people would go and see. But there’s a lot of seats in this country.

What about the role played by drugs in the film?
In cinema, drugs and druggies are generally seen as people who are depressed, people leading mundane lifestyles and you can’t identify with them at all. This film shows these characters who you do quite like and you feel like maybe you shouldn’t like them because “drug addicts are bad people.” You’re taught that. People get into drugs because they’ve got something missing in themselves, they’re not satisfied with what they’ve got. All through growing up and living everyday life, you’re being sold stuff, through advertising, through the media, you’re being sold. What you haven’t got is better than what you have got. It’s also through education. School isn’t there to encourage you to follow your nature but to follow the nature of the market. Heroin appeals to many of these people because it’s an intensely satisfying and gratifying experience as a drug. Unless you acknowledge that, you won’t be able to deal with the escalating social crisis associated with heroin addiction right now. You have to acknowledge the positive power of heroin.

Is the talk of a New Wave of U.K. filmmaking a load of crap?
In Britain just now, film has become terribly fashionable. There are a lot of young people going into film. A lot of very talented and determined people among them, and a lot of brainless fuckers as well. But that determination will pay off. And if Hollywood is smart, they’ll snap up people like Ewan McGregor. But as long as good actors and good films go together, who cares where they came from? That goes for the slang in Trainspotting too. It connects. You get the gist. It’s just as enjoyable to hear Scottish slang words as it is for British audiences to hear Scorcese characters. The ultimate star here is Danny Boyle. If this had been a regular film, that language barrier would never have been crossed. Without Boyle, the film would not have the power to entertain people whether or not they knew what was being said.

What’s your take on the ending?
It’s realistic. The American ending would be that either Renton dies of an overdose or AIDS or, more likely, Renton cleans up and gets a starter home and a massive TV. But the film offers people the opportunity to think for themselves instead of having everything spelled out for them. If it was a movie that told you what to do, told you to Just Say No, people would see the movie once, or not at all. But people go to see this movie three or four times because it doesn’t limit itself to: “It’s Black And White, Drugs Are Bad.” That’s why people keep coming back.