When you look at the work of director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Millions, and Sunshine), the recurrent theme that emerges is their focus on characters seeking
redemption. That they’re granted a second chance is in keeping with the filmmaker’s optimistic way of thinking. His latest, Slumdog Millionaire, continues to focus on this theme as it follows the trials of a young man
trying to escape the slums of India. If positive reviews and early awards are
any indication, Boyle himself is in line to take home the top prize at this
year’s Oscars, as he’s favored to win the award for Best Director.
In Chicago recently, where Slumdog Millionaire was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival, Boyle took a few
minutes out of his busy schedule for me. We had a sit-down to discuss his
experiences filming in India, as well as his hopes for the film.
Chuck Koplinski: If your films are any indication, you seem to me a very optimistic person. The
characters in your movies are really run through the ringer but by the end
there’s some sort of redemption or chance at a better life.
Danny Boyle: You have to be very careful when you make a film because you don’t think about them in terms of other things you’ve made. Occasionally, you’ll do a scene and you’ll say ‘This is exactly the same scene we did in the other film.’ But when you go out to do publicity that’s when it becomes more obvious, when people ask you questions, especially the
last couple years.
C.K.: I guess that’s our urge to apply the auteur theory, as flawed as that may be.
Danny Boyle: Well, when I read a piece in which that theory is applied to other directors, I
think ‘That’s interesting.’ But I tend not to think about making those connections between films.
Obviously, the thing that attracted me to Slumdog was that the main character was an underdog and that there were great odds
against him. I like that very much. I like to be able to tell a big story with
small people and that’s what this script has.
C.K.: I know this was the first time you worked in India and that you also used
non-traditional actors. How did that change the way you approached making Slumdog?
Danny Boyle: I quickly learned that you can’t control India in any way, shape or form. There’s a billion people there, a good-sized population for a planet let alone the relatively small place they
are in. If you do nothing but think of all of the difficulties you’re going to encounter, you’re dead, so you just have to embrace the environment and see what it can teach
you. My main goal was that people who see the film would have a sense of what
it was like to be there.
C.K.: The child actors in the film come off so naturally. Did you take a similar
approach working with them as you did in capturing Mumbai?
Danny Boyle: They’re great actors. The kids there, even as young as seven years old, have already
been to loads of movies; they know movie quotes, and they’ll do the dances from their movies there. As a result, the kids we worked with
were natural performers. Two of the little ones were from the slums and we sent
them to school. To get into school in India you have to have a birthday and
they didn’t even know what day they were born on. We set it up so that there is a sum of
money for them that’s been put aside that they will get if they stay in school until they are 16 and
in Mumbai, it will be a lot of money.
C.K.: There’s scuttlebutt on the Web that you might be returning to the 28 Days Later series. Any truth to that?
Danny Boyle: Well, we have an idea. The thing about a franchise is that you have to work it
out economically and see if they think it can make back the money that is spent
on the film. To do this new one, it will have a scale larger than the previous
two and it will be a challenge to pull off. It’s set in a remote area that will be hard to access. What I like about coming
here is that these films have a following in the states that they don’t have in England, which makes me want to work harder to do a good film.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2008.
