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Boyle gets his actors 'in the zone'
21st August 2007, 6:23 WST
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx ... ame=410946
If British director Danny Boyle had the option, he would have built a space ship and sent Australian actress Rose Byrne and the rest of the cast of his science fiction film, Sunshine, into space to prepare them for their roles.
"I'm a realist," Boyle told AAP during a recent interview in Los Angeles.
The 50-year-old Manchester-born Boyle, who broke through on the world film scene with 1996's Trainspotting and redefined the zombie genre with 2002's 28 Days Later, goes to extreme lengths to prepare his actors.
The release of Sunshine on DVD provides a window into Boyle's film-making process.
"I want actors to feel it for real," Boyle said.
"I hate actors having to fake it."
Sunshine, set 50 years into the future, follows an international team of astronauts sent on a mission to detonate a massive bomb on the sun.
The sun is dying and the bomb, it is hoped, will re-energise it.
Boyle wanted Byrne and the other cast members, including Chris Evans and Cillian Murphy, to experience what it would be like to be confined in a space ship for 16 months.
"I was clear to them this was a realistic film," Boyle said.
The film was made in London so the director thought an oil rig in the treacherous North Sea would provide "a cut off from the world-type boot camp" for the actors.
However, no oil rig would allow a visit.
Boyle also thought about locking the cast inside the East London sound stage where the film was shot.
"I couldn't do it for insurance reasons," a disappointed Boyle said.
Boyle settled on two other options.
He insisted the cast live together for two weeks in sparse student dormitories outside of London.
Boyle also persuaded the British navy to allow his cast on one of its nuclear submarines.
"It was easier for us to get on a nuclear submarine than what it was for an oil rig," Boyle laughed.
The submarine crew told the actors about life on the sub, which involved secret six-month missions on which they were unable to contact family or friends.
One tidbit shocked the actors, Boyle said.
Messages could be relayed to the sub during the long missions, but crew members were unable to reply because it would reveal the location of the sub.
Before each mission, each crew member on the sub had to decide whether they wanted to receive messages from their family, knowing they could not reply.
No matter how bad the news, the crew knew it would not alter the six-month mission and they would have to deal with the news enclosed inside the sub.
"God forbid, if their child dies, do they want to know?" Boyle said.
"Do you want to live with the possibility that you were on a mission for six months and when you get home you get told your wife or kid died five months ago?
"Psychologically, the actors loved it.
"It put them in the zone."
The DVD includes 11 deleted scenes, production diaries, two short films, a theatrical teaser and commentary from Boyle and the film's science consultant, British physicist Brian Cox.
The DVD goes on sale in Australia on August 29.
21st August 2007, 6:23 WST
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx ... ame=410946
If British director Danny Boyle had the option, he would have built a space ship and sent Australian actress Rose Byrne and the rest of the cast of his science fiction film, Sunshine, into space to prepare them for their roles.
"I'm a realist," Boyle told AAP during a recent interview in Los Angeles.
The 50-year-old Manchester-born Boyle, who broke through on the world film scene with 1996's Trainspotting and redefined the zombie genre with 2002's 28 Days Later, goes to extreme lengths to prepare his actors.
The release of Sunshine on DVD provides a window into Boyle's film-making process.
"I want actors to feel it for real," Boyle said.
"I hate actors having to fake it."
Sunshine, set 50 years into the future, follows an international team of astronauts sent on a mission to detonate a massive bomb on the sun.
The sun is dying and the bomb, it is hoped, will re-energise it.
Boyle wanted Byrne and the other cast members, including Chris Evans and Cillian Murphy, to experience what it would be like to be confined in a space ship for 16 months.
"I was clear to them this was a realistic film," Boyle said.
The film was made in London so the director thought an oil rig in the treacherous North Sea would provide "a cut off from the world-type boot camp" for the actors.
However, no oil rig would allow a visit.
Boyle also thought about locking the cast inside the East London sound stage where the film was shot.
"I couldn't do it for insurance reasons," a disappointed Boyle said.
Boyle settled on two other options.
He insisted the cast live together for two weeks in sparse student dormitories outside of London.
Boyle also persuaded the British navy to allow his cast on one of its nuclear submarines.
"It was easier for us to get on a nuclear submarine than what it was for an oil rig," Boyle laughed.
The submarine crew told the actors about life on the sub, which involved secret six-month missions on which they were unable to contact family or friends.
One tidbit shocked the actors, Boyle said.
Messages could be relayed to the sub during the long missions, but crew members were unable to reply because it would reveal the location of the sub.
Before each mission, each crew member on the sub had to decide whether they wanted to receive messages from their family, knowing they could not reply.
No matter how bad the news, the crew knew it would not alter the six-month mission and they would have to deal with the news enclosed inside the sub.
"God forbid, if their child dies, do they want to know?" Boyle said.
"Do you want to live with the possibility that you were on a mission for six months and when you get home you get told your wife or kid died five months ago?
"Psychologically, the actors loved it.
"It put them in the zone."
The DVD includes 11 deleted scenes, production diaries, two short films, a theatrical teaser and commentary from Boyle and the film's science consultant, British physicist Brian Cox.
The DVD goes on sale in Australia on August 29.