Two years ago, Danny Boyle went into the Toronto Film Festival with an unheralded film called “Slumdog Millionaire,” and came out with momentum that would carry him all the way to a Best Picture win at the Oscars. He returned to Toronto two months ago with “127 Hours,” which has prompted rave reviews (plus scattered reports of audience members fainting) along the way to a limited opening on Friday.
Boyle’s film about Aron Ralston, the hiker who was trapped by a boulder in a remote Utah canyon for five days, is clearly a major player in the Oscar race, with James Franco’s performance as Ralston installing him as one of the Best Actor favorites.
Do you take a perverse pride in making a movie where you have such obstacles going in?
BOYLE: It feels like a challenge, yeah. And it’s always good to challenge yourself. When I was in Toronto with “Slumdog” I saw “The Wrestler,” and I remember thinking, I really must make a film like that. ‘Cause all my films are collective films, they’re group films. I really should just follow an actor. That’s an amazing thing to do in a film.
FRANCO: Can I ask Danny something? I’ve been taking directing at NYU, and Danny said to me, “One thing you should think about as a director is always challenging yourself – do something that will push you in a different direction, or ask you to figure out different kinds of problems.” I’m curious: Do you do that with all your films?
BOYLE: Yeah. It’s best when you don’t know what you’re doing. It sounds a bit wanky, but it’s true. On one level, obviously you know what you’re doing because you’re an experienced professional. But on another level it’s a wonderful feeling if you don’t quite know. If you knew how to do it, it would be just terrible to turn up to work every day
James, what drew you to a role where you were stuck in one spot for much of the film?
FRANCO: I looked at the role and thought, there are hardly any movies that really ask an actor to do something like this, or give them an opportunity to try this. So that was very attractive.
And soon after meeting Danny, I realized that kind of challenge was exactly what was driving him on the creative side. You can really feel that energy in the film, that feeling of discovery and figuring things out while we were filming.
You been quoted, Danny, saying that you wanted to film the movie in a way that was hot, not cool. What did you mean by that?
BOYLE: I wanted to make it an immersive experience for everyone. I thought the only way you’ll ever get through it is if you’re living it as well.
