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I try to put an energy in my films that's life-affirming, that's redemptive. Sometimes what it's looking at is awful. Like Trainspotting—what's going on there is awful. But there's an energy level that's running through it, life pulsing away, in ways that are unacceptable and unpalatable. But it's pulsing. And that in itself is a victory, I think.

Tell me about the boys you chose for the roles.

Boyle: I chose Alex because he walked through the door, and I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and I went, "I'll be, that's him." When you do that, you have to be really tough with them because you want to make sure you're not casting them just because they look right. So you have to audition them quite tough. Alex auditioned and he was really interesting. He wasn't very good, and that put off a lot of people. And a lot of people wanted this other guy who was a much better actor. But you don't want an actor—you want a presence who's actually going to live in this world.

You're such a creative, versatile artist. When you look at the top ten at the box office, does it discourage you to see such derivative, disposable work like Boogeyman or Are We There Yet? at No. 1 when there are better films showing?

Boyle: Imagine what it's like if you work in a garage, or you work in a superstore, all week, and then Friday night comes along, and you've spent all week dealing with whatever you're dealing with, and you get one chance to take a girl or to go with your mates for a good laugh. That is part of our job. Entertainment.

The power of those people with their money will always make sure that the industry delivers to them certain kinds of entertainment. But you have to be very careful that we don't turn the movies into opera, which is like, "They're good for you, they're a bit specialized, and they'll be a bit beyond some of you." Within that, you've got to be, like Scorsese says, "cunning." You've got to smuggle good ideas into something that attracts that person to the Friday or Saturday night film. That way they get a bigger kick out of it than they do from those films you're talking about. That's the job. It's not like you've got to ban the bad films. You've just got to make better films more entertaining.

(A longer version of this interview is posted at Looking Closer.)

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