Guardian contributor
ed pp asks:
Did you ever find Maggie?
Guardian contributor
Yeah, I found her. Susan Vidler did the original stage production of Trainspotting with me and played Sick Boy's partner in the movie. Fantastic actress.
as15633 asks:
If you had to cast 3 actors other than Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle to play the parts of Renton, Sick Boy and Begbie, who would they be?
Guardian contributor
Roberto Benigni as Renton, Meryl Streep as Sick Boy and Al Pacino as Begbie!
Rich Clough asks:
Do you think it is harder now for a working class actor to make it, and what advice would you give a young actor?
Guardian contributor
It's always hard for a young actor to "make it". My advice is go to the film schools and try to get work with those young directors because they are the filmmakers of tomorrow and they are always looking for people to help them make great films
I love Sean Connery's accent. Nobody in Scotland speaks like that, but he created something fantastic
PimpmasterFlex asks:
As an actor do you prefer Sean Connery’s Scottish accent in Highlander or The Hunt for Red October?
Guardian contributor
I haven't seen either of those films, but I love Sean Connery's accent. Nobody in Scotland speaks like that, but he created something fantastic.
Updated
vammyp asks:
Are you up for a spin-off with your character from Naked? Think Nuts in May with more use of the c-word.
Guardian contributor
jimble675 asks:
Which film have you seen the most times? I’m trying to flush out a guilty pleasure.
Guardian contributor
Gregory's Girl. I watched it again last week. John Gordon Sinclair rocks it!
ID9849698 asks:
Were you ever in a youth theatre group and if so where, when and how did you get into it?
Guardian contributor
I was in several youth theatres as a kid growing up in Edinburgh. Scotland at that time had great community arts programmes and I owe my career to the springboard that youth theatres gave me.
I am atrocious at sport and have zero understanding. I think football is a mental illness, but I wish them well
rustlebland asks:
Your old school (Portobello High) has produced a number of accomplished sportsmen including the great Ken Buchanan and footballer John Robertson. Were you good at games?
Guardian contributor
I am atrocious at sport. I have zero understanding, zero ability and I truly believe that football is a mental illness, but I wish them well.
PCMonkfish asks:
How about a TV comic spin-off for Spud as he negotiates the literary scene? Coffee with JK Rowling and pish up with Ian Rankin, gig at the fringe, etc
Guardian contributor
I would prefer to do a mash-up with Irvine Welsh's The Blade Artist, that would find Spud, Sick Boy and Renton orbiting Francis Begbie in Hollywood, and trying to survive that jungle as screenwriters and porn producers, etc
maidenover asks:
Are the big sunglasses yours or a prop? Who kept them safe for 20 years?
Guardian contributor
I kept them safe for 20 years! I never expected they would ever get used again. I was thinking that I would probably offer them to some charity auction at some point. The sunglasses are now in a top secret facility guarded by 24-hour surveillance!
Region O’Dreams asks:
How did you prepare for the role of Julien Donkey-Boy? I heard you got a job cleaning toilets in a New York psychiatric hospital?
Guardian contributor
My character Julien is based on Harmony's Uncle Eddie and Harmony took me to spend some time with Eddie in the psychiatric hospital in New York. At that point in time Harmony decided the film was going to be set in a psychiatric hospital, and the company managed to get me a work placement at Ward's Island, which is a forensic prison for people who have committed pretty bad stuff as a result of their mental illness. I worked there for five weeks as a classroom assistant before we shot the movie, at which point Harmony told me that he decided that my character actually worked in an institute for the blind! But my time there was a really incredible experience.
Mondragon asks:
How meta did it feel delivering the line in T2 that took Trainspotting full circle, delivering the immortal opening: “The sweat was lashing oafy Sick Boy”? Wish I had seen you in the dramatised version at the Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, in the 90s before the film.
Guardian contributor
It felt delicious!
I didn't do a production at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen! I did the original stage production at the Citizens, the Traverse and the Bush Theatre, London. After that there were suddenly hundreds of productions touring all over the place.
scubadoc asks:
Did Bill Nighy get you back in to MI5 at the end of Salting the Battlefield? Worricker and David Hare abused you monstrously, not least by having you look like Spud-in-a-suit, and drive a battered Mondeo.
Guardian contributor
I would do anything for Bill Nighy!
I totally agree about the battered Mondeo. I fought David Hare mercilessly over that choice but he defeated me. That's his sense of humour!
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