Choose Life ...Again

Director Danny Boyle on the challenges and joys of making T2 Trainspotting 20 years after the original movie.

Director Danny Boyle was also lauded for his efforts, having already received acclaim for his earlier work, especially Shallow Grave. He then went on to direct hit movies such as The Beach, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and, most recently, Steve Jobs. Now, he’s back with the original main cast, for T2 Trainspotting, and many people around the world can breath a sigh of relief now, having waited for it for 20 years.

Here, Boyle talks about getting the cast together again, making an emotional film and facing the challenges of making a follow-up 20 years after the first movie.

Do you consider T2 a sequel?

I think of it as more of a follow-up. With a sequel, you either move away so entirely from the original that you never revisit any element or you concentrate on some crucial points from the original. We have done neither. We do keep the ‘Choose Life’ mantra though. It’s a big part of Renton’s personality. In many ways, T2 is about Renton finding his voice again.

Was it different approaching T2 all these years after the original Trainspotting?

We kind of careered into the first one, really. We’d made Shallow Grave, which had done quite well. So obviously people wanted us to make another one fairly quickly. We came across this extraordinary book and John Hodge the screenwriter just started working on it straightaway. We had all the usual preparation, but compared to T2, there was nothing.