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junkies (Lee Miller’s Sick Boy and Robert
Carlyle’s Begbie the additional keys) and the
camaraderie and eventual betrayal that cloaks
their tightly held ranks. It’s an ode to the
misunderstood outsider – those miscreants
who steal and lie their way to a hit. Or in
Begbie’s case, a drink.
Still – are they not living? Are they not
embracing a sense of rebellion, however neatly
packaged? Are they not seeking more than
those running on a professional mouse wheel?
Such questioning was quickly answered.
Despite some silly backlash about the skag
– seriously, how does this film glamorise
drug use? – there was a stampede of support,
with critics and the public eagerly adopting
its message. Britons, already gorging on
a heady cultural period that was the mid-
1990s, cheered loudest.
It was 1996. It was pre-internet (as least as
we know it today) and the UK was basking in
a global spotlight illuminating it as the world’s
creative hub.
It was the end of Thatcherism and the rise
of the centre-left and New Labour; it was
Stan Smiths, Gazelles, bucket hats and
a dominant rave culture; it was the mainstream
repositioning of MDMA and ecstasy. It was
also about those walking the musical path laid
by 808 State, the Stone Roses, Inspiral
Carpets, the Happy Mondays and Madchester.
It was about Britpop and the Gallagher
brothers, Blur, Justine Frischmann, Jarvis
Cocker and Bobby Gillespie.
And it was about what all this incredible
social energy would next bring.
“I definitely remember it being a pretty
exciting time,” Lee Miller tells GQ. “And
I think there was a real expectation for
Trai n s pot t i ng to come. There was rave culture,
there were all these great bands such as Oasis
and Blur. The music was fucking exploding –
it was amazing, it was brilliant. And it really
was this thing about rebellion and, you know,
‘Fuck this, we’re going to do our own thing
and have a good time doing it.’ And I think
the movie commented on all that and it hit at
the right time.”
Speak to McGregor, and he’ll admit to
feeling that, as an actor, he was part of “the
new wave of something”. He’ll also state that
of all he’s done the past 21 years, Trai n s pot t i ng
remains the film most want to talk about.
And let’s not forget that he held a light saber in
Star Wars. Forgettable as that was.
“Truthfully, I don’t think that anyone could
have predicted just how successful
Trai n s pot t i ng would be today,” McGregor’s
said of the film that launched the protagonists’
careers. “I mean, it’s still the main thing
people ask about when they come up to me
in the street. I really get a sense that it’spossibly the biggest
film I’ve done, or
definitely the most
successful in terms of
being in the human
consciousness.”
Irvine Welsh – his
book already a hit –
readily sharpened his
response to the film
ahead of its release.
“To me, if you get a film made of your book,
it’s a complete win-win situation,” he said. “If
the film’s shit, you just disassociate yourself
from it and say, ‘They fucked up.’ I talk to
some writers who view it as their book being
desecrated, and it’s not that at all – your book’s
not being touched. Nobody is ripping out
pages or changing words. All they’re doing is
transferring your storytelling into a different
medium. I was asked if I wanted to be involved
[as a writer], but I think the most important
thing for me was not to fuck with the energy
that these two guys [Danny Boyle and
producer A ndrew Macdonald] had. I looked at
John Hodge’s screenplay for Shallow Grave
[the trio’s first major big-screen effort] and
thought, ‘There’s nothing I can teach this guy
about screenwriting. I needed to keep my
distance and let people get on with it.”
He did. And then he packed a private Soho
screening with music mates – eager to gauge
their opinion before the film’s debut.
“I brought along people who really loved
the book and would be very critical of the film
if it wasn’t any good. I brought along Bobby
Gillespie and Andrew Innes from Primal
Scream, Jeff Barrett from Heavenly Records,
people who were friends and were really intothe story, basically. People who would say it
was shit if it didn’t capture the spirit of the
book. I was watching them more than I was
the screen, to be honest, and there were a few
comments like, ‘Is that meant to be Begbie?
Is that meant to be Sick Boy?’ And then it
stopped. Once the characters were embedded
in their heads, it took over and they
were transfixed. They were all stunned
speechless at the end of the movie. When they
did find their voice in the bar afterwards,
it was fucking amazing – they were blown
away and thought it was fucking
brilliant. I knew then that it was going to be
absolutely massive.”
Cut to now – to 2017, 21 years since
the masses first got their hit of the original.
Anticipation is again palpable – though that
feeling of desire is largely fueled by a want for
the repeat outing, T2: Trainspotting, to not
fuck with the legacy of what went before.
“It’s going to be incredible. It’s a very
beautiful, brilliant script – and it needed to
be,” said McGregor. “I don’t think any of us
would have wanted to be involved in
something that wasn’t going to live up to the
first film. That’s the danger with any sequel,
but especially this one and after such a long
period of time.”