By David N. Butterworth

Ewen Bremner, who plays the hapless, dimwitted Spud in Trainspotting, the film that has taken the U.K. by storm, took time out recently to chat with Street. Bremner, mild-mannered and softly-spoken, comes across not unlike the character he plays in the film: quiet and shy, but like an old mate you've known for years.

Trainspotting is the second highest-grossing British film of all time and, although it's clear that fame hasn't gone to Ewen Bremner's head, after a taxing schedule of interviews and promotional work, he's not exactly sure what has.

"I'm nowhere," he admits. "I'm all mixed up–head's a bit jellied. Gosh!"

Bremner says "Gosh!" a lot with the faintest of Scottish accents and it's very endearing. Was he surprised by the film's runaway success? "Not really. The film appeals to people's lust for life, to those who have been hungry for something so stylish and new and fresh. The film works across the board."

Ah yes, but will it play in Peoria? "That's the 64 million dollar question, as they say. It might do a bit of business in the metropolises, like New York and Los Angeles. I hope it's successful, of course. If it fails to find a market it's because it's a different culture, a different accent."

As an actor who has performed Trainspotting on both the Edinburgh and London stages, Bremner is especially intimate with this particular work. "The stage play and the film are quite different interpretations of the original material," explains Bremner. "Irvine Welsh's novel is really quite groundbreaking and exciting and one of the most interesting pieces of work to have come out of Britain in a long time. A lot of people said it couldn't be made into a film because of its structure. It didn't really have a story; it's more a series of short stories all told from different characters' points of view, so it had to be recollected and cleverly adapted."

The character of Spud appeals to Bremner's sense of humor and, although he claims not to be anything like him, he certainly enjoys his company. Having read the book many times in preparation for the stage play, Bremner says that Spud was always the one that made him laugh, regardless. What was most challenging about playing him? "Getting the balance right so that he's not just a geek or a fool. I wanted to give him an emotional life."

Bremner has nothing but praise for the film's director, Danny Boyle. "He had a real original way of working, involving all of us in the conception. Once we started filming he encouraged us to absorb a lot of different kinds of material. He had books and books of images that he had collected–fashion magazines, photo-reportage journals, lots of interesting stuff–to encourage our creative thinking and to think beyond the confines of the screenplay. There's a degree of improvisation in all of the scenes but the key improviser was Danny Boyle–he's really the star of the movie. He was marvelous."

"Making the film was demanding but such enjoyable company that it didn't feel like hard work. In the U.K. you only make a film like Trainspotting on a small budget. If it was made in the States with American money they would have demanded so many cuts prior to shooting that so much of the subject matter wouldn't have made it. So you'd have a really half-assed movie. It's shocking to everybody and takes a lot of people by surprise but it does have a comic side and the balance is well handled. It's such rich filmmaking."

But perhaps Bremner's most ardent opinions came in response to the film's pro-drug vs. anti-drug debate. "The film is a real valuable antidote to the temptation to get involved in drugs," Bremner goes on to say, as if he's been asked this more than once before. "It forces you to think about it yourself. It doesn't tell you what to do, just provides you with valuable information and for the first time it's a film that shows you that people take drugs because it can be incredibly enjoyable and that hasn't been admitted before in the media. You're only presented with the notion that people who take drugs are stupid or that they've got something wrong with them. Well, here's a group of people that you can identify with and actually like and that's what the contradiction is. Because the audience finds themselves liking these characters but they shouldn't be liking them because they take drugs. It makes people reassess their thinking which is always a good sign. It's kind of pro-discussive. The film isn't selling drugs, or the drug lifestyle at all. It's kind of like a ride in a fairground that you want to take again and again."

Where's La Boeuf?

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Last modified: August 04, 2006