Guests attend as Vanity Fair and St. Regis celebrate “Little Gold Men” Live.Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Vanity Fair.
Danny Boyle has an incredible cheerfulness that is so disarming when you’re going, “I really think that the character should say this, or I really think I should jump off this building right now.” And he’s like, “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He never stops being engaged and being present, but at the same time, you realize he’s never going to do it.
What did you find hardest about directing?
Everything. The thing I thought I would have an easier time with is communicating with the actors, because I’ve been doing it for 30 years. And I’ve also been in the position as an actor, where the director clearly needs something else, and they don’t know how to get that from you. They don’t know how to put it into words.
And then, within two hours of directing my first movie, I realized what directors feel like. This is why they get frustrated. What you think is so clear is just in your imagination. It’s so fully formed in your mind. So every step of the way is about communication, communication, communication. And what I learned, as an actor over 30 years, is that the problems start to pile up when the director isn’t able to communicate, either because they can’t express the problem or they don’t have an answer.
So I made a rule that if I’m asked a question, I need to give an answer. If I don’t have an answer, we treat that as a problem, and we try and find an answer together and collaborate because otherwise people can’t work.
Were you a fan of rap growing up? What kind of music did you listen to?
Do you know what? I am not. I’d never have. I mean, I don’t dislike it. I was an Eminem fan, but I wasn’t really a music fan. Isn’t that weird? I don’t really play music that much. I don’t dislike music; I just never think to play it. And when people have this sort of encyclopedic knowledge of music, I’m like, where do you find the time for that?
