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32 dga quarterly Q: During your time at the BBC, you also got the opportunity to watch directors at work. I'm thinking specifically of a masterpiece you produced called El- ephant, about sectarian killings in Northern Ireland, directed by Alan Clarke. It was a film that clearly in- fluenced Gus Van Sant's Elephant. A: Elephant was an upsetting film to make in many ways, but Alan attacked its moral purpose with just phenomenal focus. And he brought everything to it: technique, acting, editing, everything. He did every- thing within that focus. It was a kind of beautiful, pure thing. And on the other hand, he was so easy and equa- ble with everyone; it was a wonderful combination. Terrifying concentration and obsession with an idea, and yet at the same time garrulous. He was obsessed with the rushes. I would try and get him to go out for a meal, but he'd say, 'No, I'm eating in my room watch- ing the rushes.' I learned that from him. Watch the rushes. Watch the rushes. Watch the rushes. Watch what you've done. It's boring, but you learn all the time from it. It was a huge thing for me. Q: At the time, did you feel like you were getting ready to direct a feature? A: I made a couple of Inspector Morses, very high-end television at the time. They had a feature film-length, and were hugely successful, which meant you had a budget that gave you a bit of money. Plus they had a crew that would work on them for six months and the other six months they were off working on Raiders or some other Spielberg movie. So you were working with crew who had a fantastic attitude to visual storytelling. Then a lovely producer called John Chapman intro- duced me to a cinematographer, Brian Tufano, and to an editor, Masahiro Hirakubo. And they were both people that I went on to other things with. This is what I mean about learning from other people. Brian's sensibil- ity as a visual storyteller was much richer than anyone I'd worked with so far, especially in terms of lighting. And so you suddenly feel it all filling you up with ideas. Q: How did you come to make Shallow Grave? A: I got this script, Shallow Grave. [Producer] Andrew Macdonald and [writer] John Hodge were literally look- ing for a director. I went into the interview with them and John said to me, 'Did you produce Elephant?' And I said, yeah. It was one of his favorite films. So that was a huge help. And I said to him, 'Did you steal a lot of this from the Coen brothers?' So we bonded! Q: So was your first feature a good experience? A: I loved the script, it was funny, and sharp, and so it was all about bringing it out in the best way possible. I was totally dedicated to the script, and fortunately John was totally dedicated to the idea of never being a director. He really thought: When I can write, why would I ever want to deal with all that shit! We all thought of each other as creative; we arrived at key decisions with consulta- tion. Partly it was the discipline of not having very much money, but feeling very ambitious about how we were going to do it. They were very sensible and knew that when you got somebody to direct a film, whether you liked them or not, you just had to let them get on with it. Q: Trainspotting marked a real leap forward in your filmmaking, particularly in the development of your visual style. How did you approach it? A: You have to acknowledge the book [by Irvine Welsh], really. Everything John [Hodge] did, every- thing I did, and everything the actors did came out of the feeling for the book. If you look at it now, some of the performances are huge, over the top, to the extent they would be unacceptable on a regular film. But it PHOTOS: (TOP) FOX SEARCHLIGHT/EVERETT; (BOTTOM) SUSIE ALLNUTT/FOX SEARCHLIGHT/EVERETT SMALL THINGS: Ever chang- ing, Boyle shot the charming Millions (above) and the neo- noir Trance in the U.K.; (oppo- site) Slumdog Millionaire was filmed in Mumbai with mostly local actors and crew.