morning the only person around to see me is the postman and he always looks shell-shocked anyway.
The extras assemble in a bar opposite The Volcano nightclub which has been thinly disguised for the day's shooting. After breakfast everyone takes a trip to the wardrobe trailer. M y oflice-girl-on-the-pull look is okayed immediately (hal). but the girl in front of me is instructed to swap her black tights for bare legs. Others have favoured the tarted-up hairdresser look or the Pink and Pretty Barbie image. For the guys. it's baggy slacks. short-sleeved shirts and skinny ties. Yum.
Roxy Music‘s Avalon'. Whigiield's ‘Saturday Night‘ and assorted handbag house atrocities are playing in the pub to set the ambience while we wait impatiently for our call. A young man looking remarkably like Robbie from Take That appears — it‘s Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor. shorn of his Shallow Grave locks. There‘s another Famous Person Alert when Robert Carlyle turns tip with slicked-back hair and an offensive moustache. Double yum.
Director Danny Boyle gives us a brief sketch of the scene to be filmed. It’s based on the chapter ‘The First Shag ln Ages’ in which Rents gets paranoid in a cattlernarket disco. while all round him horny couples embark on a snog frenzy. Boyle is looking for real-life couples who fit the bill; the rest of us get to dance ourselves dizzy (or disabled. given the altitude of my stilettos).
The girls are herded on to the dancefloor and arranged into groups. i get in the mood by casting my shoulder bag on the floor. The guys are encouraged to line the margins in predatory fashion and are handed half-empty pint glasses and cigarettes. For the purposes of the first shots. the girl next to me becomes my ‘best friend‘ (never met her in my puff). We are assigned the exacting task of abandoning the dancefloor mid-boogie for a trip to the bar. I throw myself into the role with relish. right down to the tottering walk. Six takes later. it‘s in the can.
And so it goes. beyond lunch and for the rest ofthe day. A pulsating mass of girls in buttock- hugging. cleavage-displaying dresses go radge to the same two-minute burst of Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’. Two days later. said track is played on the radio and l have a nightmarish flashback to a world of bouncing bosoms and
salivating lads. then feel compelled to dance in the stilted fashion l adopted for the entire day's filming.
The stars enact various scenarios round the fringes of the club. Sickboy (Johnny Lee Miller) flirts with his floozies. Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and bimbo perform amazing feats with
For the rest of the day, a pulsating mass of girls in buttock-hugging, cleavage-displaying dresses go radge to the same two-minute burst of Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’.
an ice cube (hope they keep that shot in). The extras continue to frug wildly. Either we’re all very bad dancers or we’re so far into our roles that we're improvising beyond the call ofduty.
Likewise with our attire. Ewan Bremner — Rents in the original Citizens‘ Theatre production — who plays Spud in the film. gets to wear a cool patterned shirt. Even Ewan
TRAINSPOTTING FEATURE
McGregor. whose unsalubrious character is firmly rebuffed by all who come into contact with him. exudes a certain wasted cool. Clearly it is only the extras who are required to dress like utter twats. so as not It, upstage the stars. No’ that there’s any danger 0’ that happenin’, likesay.
By evening. make-up is sliding. feet are throbbing. and the props man is substituting half-full glasses with quarter-full ones. One last bid for stardom awaits. Even Hugh Reed of infamous local combo Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants. playing the spurned suitor of Dianne (Rents’ eventual lumber). cannot overshadow my sterling performance immediately in front of the camera. My second moment of glory is captured — I am now Girl Gyrating Frenetieally With Back To The Camera. Please. autographs later.
By 9.15pm. it’s a wrap. Nearly fourteen hours on set for two and a half minutes of film, but ah huv tae say. it wiz barry. ken? Cl Trainspotting finishes shooting in July and will be released next year:
A trainspotter’s notebook
‘They actually did it, y’know?’ This hoary film-set myth is usually an attempt by publicists trying to save a turkey - and their bacon - from a total box- ottice basting, rather than evidence at the director’s uncompromising pursuit of authenticity. Betore the release of The lover, it was hinted that ‘Sinner from Pinner’ Jane March had done more than act when she played an over-sexed tourteen-year-old.
Given the tilm industry’s penchant tor manipulating budding sexuality you have to wonder how the Trainspotting producers were received during their trawl ot the Edinburgh rave scene for temale leads. It you were an adolescent girl who was approached with the opening gambit ‘wanna be in a movie?’ you might wonder just what kind of perlormance was required.
They might as well have handed out invitations to a private view at etchings.
in tact lrvine Walsh’s book contains more drugs than sex, . so it seems more likely the actors in Trainspotting will be asked it their portrayal oi heroin abuse was, urn, based on, er, personal experience. Ever since Robert De lliro mainlined ice cream to pile on the pounds tor Raging Bull, nobody believes actors lust act.
Already a rumour is circulating that director Danny Boyle suggested the production team should try smack at least once betore shooting started - no doubt by the time the film is released the story will be told as gospel. (Mind you, did you hear the one about the Shallow Grave crew dismembering a corpse to get a feel tor metal on bone?)
Although the actors haven't
been tying all each other’s arms to get In character, Boyle did arrange a spot of smack tact- tindlng - a tive-a-side football game against a group of recovering addicts. The Glasgow drug rehabilitation group Caiton Athletic provided the opposition and a touchllne observer reported the cast looked more wasted than the ex-addlcts. Perhaps they just weren’t match tit.
By the end of shooting the movie they should be, however. Apparently the number one time- waster tor actors and crew waiting tor their next call is roller-blading around the top liner of the disused Wills clggie factory, where most of the film’s interiors are being shot. Twisted ankles must surely he an occupational hazard, so check tor stookies in the finished movie. (Eddie Gibb)
The List 16-29 Jun 199513