Kelly Macdonald: Making Trainspotting 2 was more sober than the original

8 October 2019, 19:57 | Updated: 26 July 2022, 16:21

Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, 1996
Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting, 1996. Picture: Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock

The star claims that the cast were a lot healthier on set for T2.

Kelly Macdonald: Trainspotting 2 was more sober than the original

Kelly Macdonald has claimed that the making of the Trainspotting sequel T2 was a lot healthier than the original.

“It was very different from filming the first one!” she claims, adding that the original film was a lot wilder. “Never mind hangovers on set, people were still drunk.”

Trainspotting was Macdonald’s debut film in 1996 and also starred Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle.

Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor at the T2 premiere, 2017
Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor at the T2 premiere, 2017. Picture: Deadline News/Shutterstock

Talking to Radio Times, the actress claimed that the experience of making the 2017 sequel was a more mature experience.

“Everybody was super fit and healthy.

“Jonny and Ewan were running up Arthur’s Seat [in Edinburgh] almost daily during filming.”

She added: “Seeing all those old faces again, and knowing all their journeys, as actors as well as characters, was really touching.”

Her comments came the week after author Irvine Welsh claimed he was interested in making a third instalment of the story, but warned it may take a few years.

"It took us long enough to work up the bottle to do number two,” he told the Anything Goes podcast. “They'll all be in the rest home by the time we had the bottle to do number three.”

Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting
Kelly Macdonald and Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting. Picture: Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock

"We'd have to get moving on it pretty quickly. But it's something that would be massively interesting to me."

However, Welsh did add: “The one I would like to do is a Begbie stand-alone. Just a short 90-minute film of Robert Carlyle going nuts."

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