•
Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2017
News
Page 9
WELSH, from page 8
there was a bit of trepidation,” Welsh said. “We
had to find something that wasn’t going to
make people think we were in search of a quick
buck.”
They certainly could not be accused of
rushing it. In the intervening two decades,
three of Welsh s other books hit the big screen:
“The Acid House” (1998), ^Ecstasy” (2011) and
“Filth” (2013). Finally, all the pieces fell into
place for “T2.”
“I thought all the ingredients are there, we
can t fuck this up. But I was blown away by how
good it was. It’s much, much stronger than the
f a t film. It’s got all that energy of the first
film, but it’s also got much more depth. It’s a
film student’s wet dream. There’s so much
subtext to it, so much going on, they’ll be
looking at it, talking about it and debating it for-
years.
“The way it references the f a t film, we
don’t make films of that scale, with that epic
ambition, in Britain anymore. It feels like a
European Godfather.”
PH 'QTO
Where Trainspotting was set in Edinburgh’s
Ewan McGregor plays M ark Renton and Jonny Lee Miller plays Simon in “T2 Trainspotting.
mid-1980s heroin culture, “T2” finds Renton,
Begbie, Sick Boy (Miller) and Spud (Bremner)
can capture all of this. But it does. And it
days after Donald Trump was sworn in as the
older and grayer. The Cool Britannia hedonism
captures it all on an incredible emotional level.” 45 th president of Welsh’s adopted homeland.
and chaos that underpinned Trainspotting
Welsh had first-hand experience of the
“It’s strange,” he said. “If there’s one guy
makes way for a theme we can all relate to:
poverty and drug addiction that his hovels
who was never equipped to be president, it was
aging.
depict. Today, his life is unrecognizable from
him. They’ve probably elected the very last guy
“Trainspotting was fundamental to so many
those days. He lives in Chicago with his wife,
you want to be president, particularly in this
people’s culture growing up,” Welsh said. •
Beth Quinn, dividing his time between the
day and age. From the point of view of people
“When people see ‘T2,’ they’ll think about what Windy City and Miami, with the odd trip back
living here, it’s going to get quite horrible for
they were doing when they saw the first movie,
to Edinburgh.
some, hut from my own point of view as a
how their lives have gone. They will identify
Politically motivated throughout his career -
writer and artist, you want as many pricks -
and th e b ig g e st fucking pricks - in pow er to
he has spoken candidly about the deterioration
with the characters as they are also engaged in
kick against. Brexit and-Trump aré ^cloud,but
of his Once-treasured Labour Party and was
that quest. *
there’s a silver lining if you’re an artist. It
strongly in favor of Scottish independence in
“We’ve lived in. such a narcissistic,
becomes more interesting and galvanizing, and
individualistic culture for 30 years. I don’t think 2014 - Welsh keeps a close eye on politics. He
acknowledges that living overseas offers a
for me, it’s going to be fascinating.
that'people get old in the same way now. We
“These things never exist in a vacuum. I can
rebel and fight against it. You go to a rave these different viewpoint to the circus back home.
“You see the good things, and you see the
see a lot of resistance and opposition to Trump.
days, and there’s three generations of the one
lunacies,” he said. “Everything is up in the air.
I can-see Trump falling out with the Republican
family jumping around. But we do age. There s
We’re aware that we’re transitioning, but we’ve
Party and all softs of weird stuff going on,” he
a reality of the looming mortality.
said. “It’s definitely not going to be dull.”
“We’re also doing this within a disintegrating no idea what kind of society we’re transitioning
towards. We listen too much to opportunistic
“T2” will be released in the United States on
society, a society that’s falling apart, that can’t
loudmouths who don’t have a fucking clue, but
March 17.
afford to pay people wages. It’s facing up to
because they make most noise, we fall in line
these big existential crises. It’s such an
Courtesy o fIN S P .n g o / th e B ig Issue UK
with them.”
interesting and vibrant place for all of this to
bigissue.com @BigIssue
“T2”
premiered
in
Welsh’s
birthplace
two
play out. It’s very hard to say that one movie
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