Danny Boyle on 127 Hours, the Olympics and How to Deal with Nerves (Literally)

You work with a lot of actors like DiCaprio in The Beach, who are on that verge of superstardom. And Franco may or may not already be there...

DiCaprio was already a superstar on The Beach. He was in the biggest movie in the world, ever.

True. But with Titanic it was more heartthrob status than acting credibility. I don't think he was where he is now.

He's an amazing actor.

OK, DiCaprio aside, with actors like Dev Patel, Chris Evans and Ewan McGregor -- what is it that you see in the actors that you kind of know that they are destined for greater things?

I mean, I knew Leo's work from that amazing movie. What was it called? F*ck! When he plays the kid? The autistic kid?

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Ah! F*ck, I know. I mean, it's like if they gave Oscars for the performance of the last 10 years, that would win its 10-year category. It's just an extraordinary performance. Which I think they probably should, frankly. I think they should introduce that idea. Anyway, you meet them or you watch their work and you just feel a connection with them. Because acting is partly taste: There are some actors who are terrific actors, but they're not to your taste. And other actors are just right in there. It was completed for me with James. I've always admired him, but when I saw Pineapple Express, it was just like... Because when you can do comedy as well as the heavy, moody, serious stuff, you know you have a serious actor there. I remember seeing De Niro, it was that King of Comedy moment. You see him do this intense stuff, then you seem him do Rupert Pupkin and it's just like, There is one of God's great actors.

You tricked me with the arm scene. Because I thought the part that was going to get me was going to be the bone. What was that, a nerve or tendon?

It's a nerve.

A nerve, coupled with that music... That was tough to watch.

There's a big nerve in there between the two bones. And you read about it in the book; he writes in the book what that's like to touch that. And he writes it exactly as we shot it: He touches it a couple of times to test out how painful this is going to be. And it's unbelievably painful. He can't cut it; he has to pull it. He pulls it like a guitar string; it's like pulling a guitar string until it breaks. So we did it just like that.

There were some people more disturbed by the contact-lens scene than the arm.

Some people are! Yeah.

I wear contacts, so I didn't quite understand why.

I do, too, so I don't have any problem with that. I know some people are like, "AHHHH! He's putting his finger on his eye!" People are like that about it. It's weird, isn't it?

You seem pretty selective about what you choose to do. Is there anything you regret turning down over the years?

I don't tend to think like that. Sometimes I'll read stuff, then I'll go see it and think, Oh, he made a pretty good job of THAT. (Laughs) But, no, I don't. People say that about, "Can you imagine somebody else in the part?" I can't do that, either. Because sometimes you offer actors parts and they turn it down, so you have to move on to someone else and things like that. There's always a lot of things to regret, but if you dwell on them you won't get anywhere.

Have you decided what you're doing next?

Yes. I'm doing a play at the national theater in London-based on Frankenstein -- the Mary Shelley book -- a new adaptation of it which we've been working on for a number of years, which is very interesting doing it on the stage. And then I'm doing the opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympics, so I will be quite busy, sadly.

Movie-wise, any sequels in your future?

Ohhhh... No, I'd love to, but I'm going to be pretty busy on these commitments. And I was delighted to do both because I started in the theater. So I'm delighted to go back and hopefully give something back to the theater -- unless it's a complete disaster. And the Olympic Games are happening about a mile from my house. I'm very proud of that, actually, in a way that's difficult to explain. So when they asked me, I said yes. I didn't think about it, I didn't consult anyone, I just said yes.

Do you have free reign with the Olympic ceremony? I'm guessing you have to include that Olympic theme song in some way. Does that have to be in there somewhere?

"The Olympic Theme." It does, yeah. There are certain mandatory things that you have to include, specific things. There are some visual things that you have to include as well. But other than that, it's like an open book, really, depending on what you can afford and what you can engineer in a stadium as a live event and a TV event. Because it has got to be both, you know.

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