While Ewan McGregor and Danny Boyle solidified their respective careers together with the beloved movie Trainspotting, the lesser-known movie The Beach resulted in a feud that lasted many years. McGregor and Boyle’s collaborations began before Trainspotting as Boyle made his directorial debut in the thriller Shallow Grave, which also served as one of the first on-screen roles for McGregor. Their careers changed with McGregor taking the lead in the cast of Trainspotting while Boyle directed the acclaimed take on Irving Welsh’s book.
The popularity of that movie helped to launch McGregor and Boyle to another level of success. It also led to a third collaboration with the less successful A Life Less Ordinary, also starring Cameron Diaz. However, despite their close working relationship across three projects, that 1997 movie ended up being the last time they worked together for 20 years. In fact, it was their planned fourth movie together that ended up being the cause of their long-standing feud.
Why Danny Boyle & Ewan McGregor Fell Out Over The Beach
Leonardo DiCaprio Was Cast In A Role Promised To McGregor
The Beach could have been the fourth movie for Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor, continuing their successful creative partnership, but then Boyle decided to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role. The Beach stars DiCaprio as Richard, a young tourist in Thailand who goes in search of a hidden beach that is said to be its own paradise, only to discover something much more complex. While Boyle had initially vaguely promised that he would cast McGregor in the lead role, his decision to go with DiCaprio was what caused the friction between the two friends.
Both Boyle and McGregor seem to have nothing by regret for letting the feud grow into what it did.
Both McGregor and Boyle openly talked about the feud on The Graham Norton Show, with both men taking responsibility for the falling out. For McGregor, he admits that it wasn’t really about missing out on the role that he thought was his, or being passed over in favor of the more famous DiCaprio, but rather that he felt odd not being included in Boyle’s new movie after starring in his first three:
“It was over a film, a misunderstanding. It’s a big regret of mine that it went on for so long, and a real shame we didn’t work together all those years. Not because of any particular film, and it didn’t really matter about ‘The Beach,’ it was never about ‘The Beach.’ It was about our friendship… And then I wasn’t in the fourth, and it made me a bit rudderless. I didn’t quite get it, and we didn’t speak for a long time, which is such a waste.”
Boyle explains that he felt he had not handled the situation in the right way and blames himself for the bitterness that followed, saying:
“I handled it very badly and I’ve apologized to [Ewan]. And I kind of feel ashamed about it.”
Both Boyle and McGregor seem to have nothing by regret for letting the feud grow into what it did, preventing them from carrying on the friendship they had grown over the years. While it did take a long time, the two old friends did eventually reconcile.
Danny Boyle & Ewan McGregor Made Up In Time For Trainspotting’s Long-Awaited Sequel
The Sequel Arrived More Than 20 Years After The Original
One of the recurring questions surrounding Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor’s feud was how it would affect the planned sequel to Trainspotting. While Trainspotting adapted Irving Welsh’s novel of the same name, the author went on to write a sequel never, titled Porno, in 2002. From the time it was released, there had been talk of a movie sequel happening as well. Boyle continued to discuss an openness to the idea, but wanted to wait until the actors aged enough to play the same characters years later. However, it was unclear if he and McGregor were ready to reunite.
While The Beach was the movie that ended their relationship for a time, it is fitting that Trainspotting helped bring them back together.
The feud was thankfully ended in 2009 when Boyle was being honored for his Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, and McGregor gave a speech presenting an award to him. That opened up the possibility of the two old friends working together, which finally happened with T2: Trainspotting. The long-awaited sequel found McGregor and the rest of the original cast reprising their roles as the friends who, decades earlier, were consumed by drug addiction.
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While the story for the sequel was already established before Boyle and McGregor’s feud was resolved, Boyle found aspects of the sequel reflecting the real relationship between him and McGregor. He explained that the movie is very much about getting older and trying to express emotions, which he wishes he had done with McGregor much earlier. In the end, while The Beach was the movie that ended their relationship for a time, it is fitting that Trainspotting helped bring them back together.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
