Interview [Written]: Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”)
Today’s interview is with Danny Boyle who co-wrote and directed the movie 127 Hours. Some excerpts from the Deadline interview:
DEADLINE: Early in 127 Hours, Aron Ralston takes an exhilarating free-fall through a chasm and into a pool of blue water far below. Isn’t there a parallel to the creative leaps you take, the way you jump from one genre to another and take on improbable premises that could easily end up going splat?
BOYLE: There certainly is that possibility of going splat. One of the things I believe in is to be extreme. I don’t mean do things for shock value, but to tell a story as extremely as possible. People go to the cinema to see the whole screen stretched and pushed to the sides, up and down and across. I love when you can get that image to pulsate. When you get those moments, or watch them, that’s what I love most in cinema. You do transport people in that moment. Beyond persistence, the only advice I ever give to young filmmakers is, don’t be shy in the way you tell a story. Be bold. There is that great quote, boldness has genius in it. People forgive you many things, if you remember that.
DEADLINE: When you have a hard-sell premise like 127 Hours or Slumdog Millionaire, is part of the appeal proving you can pull it off?
BOYLE: You learn things about yourself over time. I learned that I am at my best when my project is under $20 million and I’m trying to make it look like $100 million. Chris Nolan can take $160 million and make it feel like $320 million and I love and admire him for it, but I’m not that guy. Give me the $20 million. But that’s only the arithmetic. The truth for me is in the story, the trip you’re going on. It has to capture you. My interest in this story predated Slumdog Millionaire, and it survived everything that happened on Slumdog. I knew we had something because of the way Christian Colson was immediately very interested when I introduced him to it. It was tricky. What do you follow Slumdog with? Scorsese said the genius is in the choices. Even if nobody saw it, I knew at least we were sure in ourselves when we chose it. The other thing was how the story did flower when we told it. Sometimes you work on films and they don’t flower in your hands. You can just feel it. They don’t get more profound, richer or more rewarding as you go into telling them. There’s nothing you can do at that stage, you have to keep going and compensate. But you know when they open up. I could feel Slumdog open up, I just got lost in it because it was so wonderful. This one did, as well. You could just feel the story ripen.
DEADLINE: How long from your magical Slumdog Oscar night you decide to invest that currency in 127 Hours?
BOYLE: It wasn’t instantaneous. Slumdog was so overwhelming, it was hard to think clearly. We spent a lot of time setting up charity trusts in India. You become a bit of public property in the wake of something like that, especially in Britain, where people wanted to celebrate what they saw as a big home win. You can avoid that, but I felt it was right to go along with it, and raise some money for charities. All that takes up space in your brain. I flirted a bit, talked to Duncan Kenworthy about a musical, stuff like that. But it was this story, really, that we settled on. It really fell into place as a lovely film we could use the trajectory Slumdog had given us to tell it the way we wanted to.
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