Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle were guests on The Graham Norton Show and addressed their infamous falling out in 2000.
In a few weeks time, the world will get another dose of cinema skag, when Trainspotting 2 hits theaters worldwide. It’s the sequel to the iconic Trainspotting, a film that officially launched the careers of Ewan McGregor, Danny Boyle and all others involved.
But Trainspottting was the second time that Boyle and McGregor had gotten together on a project. The duo worked together on their domestic breakout Shallow Grave before going international with Trainspotting. They would work together one more time before their relationship went from the next ‘Scorsese-Di Niro’ to a giant ‘what-if’ hole in the space time continuum. Rumors swirled for years that it was Boyle’s film The Beach and the choice to skip over McGregor as the film’s lead, was ground zero for the rift.
The two have since made up in the years between, and both addressed the feud and fallout on The Graham Norton Show this week.
“It was just over a film,” McGregor said while sitting next to Boyle, moments later confirming that The Beach was indeed the project.
The story has grown from lore to legend over the years, and it remains a sour spot in the history of cinema. After three hit collaborations in the 90s, Boyle and McGregor fell out over the fact that there wasn’t going to be a fourth before the decade was over.
It wasn’t that they were running out of time, it was that Boyle infamously didn’t cast McGregor in the 2000 film The Beach, electing for box office star Leonardo DiCaprio instead.
“It’s a big regret of mine that [the feud] went on for so very long,” McGregor said. “It’s a shame we didn’t get to work together all those years.”
They will forever be remembered as lost years; what could have been. Boyle went on to be an Oscar-winning filmmaker, with roles in his movies that McGregor easily could have filled. From Millions to Sunshine, there was room for McGregor’s skills.
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McGregor went on to portray Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, but never again working with Boyle until recently. With the hatchet buried, hopefully the lost years will be made up in those years to come.