In a word? Pleasure. Like my pleasure in other people's leisure.

June 23, 2022 10:45 AM

At first Ewan Bremner initially had no interest in playing a supporting role in Trainspotting and told his agent to turn it down. He was the only one of the cast from Edinburgh and played Renton in the play. He realized Ewan McGregor was perfect as Renton, so Bremner played Daniel Murphy, better know as Spud. So why is he called Spud anyway?

“I don’t know. I guess it’s a childhood nickname that stuck. Probably Potato Head or something like that. Irvine would know the answer… speaking of potato heads.” He laughs and includes himself in the disparagement, “well I’m one too. Some random vegetable head anyway.”

...

Speaking to Radio X's Gordon Smart, Bremner revealed: "I usually get asked what the stuff was made from in the breakfast scene that I spray the family with..."

"That's probably the most common question," added the Wonder Woman star. "People are fascinated with that like, 'what is it made of? Was it real sh...?'

"Which is quite amazing that people thought it might have been. We had to do that scene so many times, and to spray three actors with real excrement would be a bit out of bounds".

posted by kirkaracha (6 comments total)

Ewan Bremner is also Buttons in Our Flag Means Death!!
posted by Tesseractive at 10:48 AM on June 23, 2022 [6 favorites]

Ewen is fantastic as Buttons, along with his summer teeth.
posted by tclark at 11:29 AM on June 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

Aww, Spud was the absolute tender heart of Trainspotting, and in Ewan Bremner’s hands he was just perfect.

I think Ewan McGregor was maybe actually my least favourite casting of the film - even skinnied down to try and make him a more convincing heroin user, he was just too handsome for Renton. Robert Carlyle just IS Begbie, Johnny Lee Miller was a decent Sick Boy, and Bremner was just heaven. The job interview on speed is a brilliant scene.
posted by penguin pie at 2:00 PM on June 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

A lot of the quirky charm of Renton in the novel, e.g. his opinions on what makes for good music to get high to (it’s how I learned that The Proclaimers were more than those shouty guys) and why he’s a vegetarian, washes off the smooth exterior of Ewan McGregor, so it took me a long time to accept his performance for what it was, because for what it was, it was quite good.

Every other performer was perfect, and to this day I get excited when I see Carlyle, Bremner, Miller, Kelly McDonald or Kevin McKidd (poor, poor Tommy) in a film.
posted by Kattullus at 2:32 PM on June 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

THAT'S why Buttons seemed so damn familiar.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 7:52 PM on June 23, 2022

Heh - by sheer coincidence I re-stumbled across this just now - an excerpt from Trainspotting, of Spud getting upset when Renton wants to hurt a wee grey squirrel on The Meadows, performed by Brian Duffy in British Sign Language, produced by the National Theatre of Scotland. Filmed for some reason in Seoul, it was part of NTS's Scenes for Survival series created during lockdown. Only up until 1 July, so get it watched!

"Squirrel's botherin' nae cunt, likesay..."

(Subtitles on CC for the non-BSL users.)
posted by penguin pie at 4:31 PM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]