28 YEARS LATER with Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, & Danny Boyle

It hasn't quite been 28 years but it's been a long time since 28 DAYS LATER. Now at long last director Danny Boyle is back. He joins Josh along with his 28 YEARS LATER stars Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for this sneak peek at the long-awaited sequel to the horror classic. Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y. Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. With unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot designed to keep you connected. Powered by Verizon's 5G network. And no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month. Or get the premium Visible Plus Pro Plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code "HACK". Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details.

• 0:57Speaker 02

  We're getting traced.

• 0:59Speaker 03

  Right in feel.

• 1:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01Speaker 03

  Quite thick feels.

• 1:02Speaker 02

  Through nettles.

• 1:04Speaker 03

  Without any clothes on.

• 1:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, there was definitely some moments where you're like, what, you know, yeah.

• 1:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:13Josh Horowitz?

  Like it's a movie, guys. You don't have to go full speed. They'll speed it up in post.

• 1:18Speaker 02

  I can't remember the last time I ran this much.

• 1:20Speaker 05

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

• 1:28Josh Horowitz?

  Hey guys, it's Josh and welcome to another edition of Happy Sad Confused. Are you ready to talk 28 years later? I always am ready to talk about this movie, this franchise, a really exciting event recorded for your eyes and ears with Danny Boyle, with Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor Johnson. That's the main event on Happy Sad Confused today. Okay, before we get to this conversation, and this is a really cool one. Reminder, check out our Patreon. That's where you get the early access, the discount codes. We always have a lot of events. We've been doing a lot of them lately. You get priority seating and all that kind of fun stuff. Check it out. Patreon.com/happyssadconfused. I thank you in advance for even checking it out and seeing if that makes sense for you.

• 2:09Josh Horowitz?

  Because if you do support us over there, honestly, it makes us, it helps us make more stuff over here. All right. I've talked about in the past, my love of 28 days later. I'm pretty sure. Um, I don't know if I've talked about my love of 28 weeks later, but that's an underrated sequel. By the way, finally now, though, we are ready to talk about 28 years later. Um, Danny Boyle is back. It's been many years, I think 23 years since he made this iconic first film in this now trilogy. That film revolutionized filmmaking, the way it was shot, the way it launched Killian Murphy, the way it kind of reinterpreted the quote, quote zombie genre.

• 2:50Josh Horowitz?

  And I am pleased to say, I am pleased to report 28 years later is fantastic. I love this movie. I'm in love with this movie. Um, it is scary. It is emotional. Uh, it features some of my favorite actors. And when Danny Boyle is cooking, there are few filmmakers that can compare, and I think he's really cooking with this one. Uh, this is an event we did at the ninth second street while I went to my live events there. Uh, we shot this actually a couple of weeks back. It was pretty early on. Nobody, nobody had really seen the movie yet. Um, I was very lucky enough that they screened it for me quite early, so I felt like I had this like secret weighing on me. Um, but the nature of this conversation is such that it's kind of the Danny Boyle show.

• 3:34Josh Horowitz?

  And that's fine by me because Danny, not only a great filmmaker, a great, he's like Quentin Tarantino level of talking about filmmaking. Unbelievable. Um, and Jody and Aaron, who I love, I think we're like a little bit like, how much can we say, what can we say? Um, but they are delightful. They've been on the pod before. Of course, I always love catching up with them. Um, but I don't know, sit back and enjoy because this is a fun one, especially for, for Danny and his enthusiasm and his insight into filmmaking and returning to this franchise now. So, um, check out the conversation. See the movie, most importantly, see the movie because I need to see, they're, they're trying to make three of these. They've already made two.

• 4:17Josh Horowitz?

  They've made the sequel already, the sequel to the sequel to the sequel. Um, but then Danny intends to come back and direct a third. Part of this new trilogy and I need that movie in my, in my life. So, um, I have a vested interest in you guys going out and seeing this movie. Uh, it's got the coveted horror with seal of approval. So I take you now to the 92nd Street Y, a conversation live on stage with, uh, Aaron Taylor Johnson, with Jodie Comer, and with one of my favorite filmmakers, the great Danny Boyle. Enjoy. Hi, everybody. Hi. How's it going? Uh, I'm Josh Horowitz and, um, welcome to

• 4:58Josh Horowitz?

  a very special night at the 92nd Street Y, everybody. Um, this is a very special live taping of Happy Second Fuse, my podcast. And I am so excited to say that we're going to be talking about my most anticipated film of the year, which I have, I've seen. And it's amazing, guys. 28 years later does not disappoint. Um, but 23 years ago, 28 days later came out. Uh, and it, um, you know, it shocked, I think, the world. It was, it redefined horror. It introduced us, many of us, to Killian Murphy. It proved once again that Danny Boyle can do anything. Uh, and we've waited long and hard for Danny to come back to this and he's come back to it, not only as a director, but with Alex Garland

• 5:40Josh Horowitz?

  in tow as the writer once again. And, uh, you guys are in for a real treat. We're going to show this audience here in New York, uh, some exclusive footage that has not been shown virtually anywhere else. So you're in the right place. And we've also got the two leads of this film that are no slouches. They're pretty amazing actors. Um, I'm so thrilled to welcome to the 92nd Street Y, give it up, give a warm welcome to Aaron Taylor Johnson, to Jodie Comer. [CHEERS] Jodie Comer, come on out. And to director Danny Boyle, everybody, come on out. Hi.

• 6:28Josh Horowitz?

  Guys, this movie rocks. Congratulations. So Danny, I haven't told you this to your face yet, but this movie, yes, it scared me. I've told Jodie and Aaron this. This movie made me cry, Danny.

• 6:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 6:43Josh Horowitz?

  This is an emotional movie. This is gonna shock audiences. Does it please you to know that were those two of the operative rules for you to make an audience feel in both those directions?

• 6:55Speaker 06

  I think that's why they're not showing it generally, because I think they want to... They know there's a horror crowd that might feel compromised if they feel it's too emotional.

• 7:11Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry. You're not gonna cry.

• 7:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, no, but it's silly. It's wonderful that you're here. Thank you for coming. But you know, in the first film, there's a bit that people remember where Brendan Gleeson gets the blood in the eye and he tries to protect his daughter from this terror inside him. And he says, "Stay away." And it's very emotional. It's like, whoa. And you get that with this family. Well, you've seen it, so... And I think they want to... But they want the fans to keep thinking it's just horror and rather than some... But yes, we were very aware that it would be a very emotional experience that you go through as well as a horror film as well in many ways. And why shouldn't the two exist so...

• 7:55Speaker 06

  I mean, it is amazing horror as a genre, isn't it, since... Well, I mean, since time immemorial, really, since movies, it's a genre that keeps reinventing itself and keeps adding... And apparently, I don't know whether this is true, but I was told that one of the reasons it's getting a resurgence now is because more and more women are going to it. Whereas it used to be, certainly when we made the first film, it was all about, you know, women will ever come and see this film. You know, it's a boys' medium.

• 8:22Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 8:23Speaker 06

  But now, apparently, and certainly we did some test screenings, and the women in the audience at the test screenings, in the focus group, they hold back at the end, were really articulate about its place, you know, how they saw it, how it fitted in and things like that.

• 8:37Josh Horowitz?

  Jodie, would you like to speak on behalf of all women? Do you like...

• 8:41Josh Horowitz?

  Always.

• 8:42Speaker 02

  It's not like that pressure.

• 8:44Josh Horowitz?

  No, talk to me a little bit about, you both have seen the film now. And it's one thing to shoot a film, you never know how it's gonna turn out. Just give me emotionally, intellectually, what was it like? Aaron, what did it feel like to watch this finished product for the first time?

• 8:58Speaker 03

  I really don't want to be the one spoiling anything. And so it might be a bit cryptic. Cryptic? Cryptic. Cryptic.

• 9:08Speaker 03

  It's a good job I'm not talking about it then.

• 9:11Speaker 03

  Cryptic, yeah.

• 9:15Speaker 03

  Yes, it's Danny Boyle doing, you know, filmmaking at its finest. It's a really, it's an extraordinary experience. And I don't want to share too much, but I think you're gonna be so surprised. You're gonna walk in with one feeling and be completely, you're not expecting to walk out feeling the way you do. And I think it's more than, yeah, it's interesting to be, and it's so unique to be a part of something like this. When you've got a movie like 28 days later that came out over 20 years ago. And to then, and to have lived through that when that came out. And that was such a shocking, iconic movie of its time. And then to like play in this world. And then for Jodie and I, we, you know, we're a family.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  We have our young son, who we're trying to help navigate through this post-apocalyptic world. And so, yeah, it's a lot about dark and light and where's to find the hope in the darkness. And I thought there's so much that you can relate to in that and there's empathy in that. And I think that's why it's so, this world that Danny and Alex Garland created. I mean, Alex Garland is such a genius. I mean, the material that we worked from was exceptional. I mean, you read the script and you was like, you just, these characters, you know, came off the page. And then to be in Danny's hands was amazing. So, yeah, it's special, but yeah.

• 10:37Josh Horowitz?

  It's a special one.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  Come see the movie.

• 10:39Speaker 02

  Just to add to that as well, I think from like a, I mean, I know very little about filmmaking. But like even, you know, to realize actually how much filmmaking has advanced within the past 23 years and how.

• 10:53Speaker 02

  The film Twenty Eight Days Later is still stayed so true to its form, but has like broken even more molds and even more barriers. Do you know what I mean? Like it's so cinematic and yet incredibly intimate and still so singular and original and surprising. You really get to see how Danny and Alex and everyone have kind of...

• 11:21Josh Horowitz?

  Same DP as the first time?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Of course, Anthony Delmantle. Yeah, like it's exquisite.

• 11:34Speaker 00

  As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. With unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot designed to keep you connected. Powered by Verizon's 5G network. And no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month. Or get the premium Visible Plus Pro Plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code HACK. Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details.

• 12:35Josh Horowitz?

  What are the lessons learned from, you know, I'm sure folks here remember how how groundbreaking that that film was? You chose to shoot Twenty Eight Days Later on DV cameras and it had a Verite style that was very unusual for for the time. Like what were the, how did, what were the lessons learned that you applied here? Because you can't imitate, you can't do exactly what you did then. You want to utilize the technologies now in a different way. How did that experience inform? Filmically, how you were going to approach this one?

• 13:05Speaker 06

  So one of the tensions that always exists is that cinematographers and the industry generally want the story to look perfect. There's this feeling of perfection that's being chased and everybody's contributing to it. And in a way, it's trying with stories like this, that for me, that feels inappropriate, that you feel like this shouldn't be perfect. There should be, if you're lucky, they should be extraordinary looking, but you're looking at a post-apocalyptic world. It's not perfect and it's got much damage in it. There's damage and danger in it and fracture in it. And it's that that you're trying to get at.

• 13:50Speaker 06

  And that's, I think, the real reason that we don't use conventional cameras, because they do give you perfection these days. What they can achieve is extraordinary. And you're trying to find an edge in it somewhere that will take it away from that, but still be exhilarating to watch on a big screen if you can. And we got away with it on the first film because somehow, because like in some of the shots, the wide shots of Killian walking around London, he's basically two pixels, two green pixels when you look at it. And we just managed to cut away from it in time before people started demanding their money back, you know. And now, of course, technology's moved on so much, so the phones in your pockets will shoot 4K, which is what films are shot at anyway.

• 14:33Speaker 06

  They don't tend to record at 4K because your cloud storage would be enormous, but you can set them to record at 4K and they will do, you know. So the technology is extraordinary. And it did draw up interesting questions, which is like, if technology, if our path, we generally think we're improving, don't we? Give or take, obviously, certain things that we may think are not improving.

• 14:55Josh Horowitz?

  Society is perfect, Dan. I don't know what you're talking about.

• 14:57Speaker 06

  Generally speaking, you feel like there's basically a move forward. But if it gets interrupted. What happens to you? And is that just linked to technology? Because that's the biggest difference, isn't it? Between the society that existed before this 28 thing and after it, which is there's no technology, the electricity's gone and they can't use any. That was really interesting, that. And there is a scene in it late on where you're slightly confronted with that, where the kid who is an analog native, he sees, he asks this guy, "What's that?" And you kind of realise he just doesn't have...

• 15:32Josh Horowitz?

  Didn't grow up with, yeah.

• 15:33Speaker 06

  Yeah, he just doesn't have any experience of that anyways.

• 15:36Josh Horowitz?

  So I want to talk about the story in a second as much as we can, but I do want to talk a little bit more about the technology for you guys. Like, how does it affect your performance? Based on the kind of camera, where the camera is, the style this was shot? Does it affect performance? Or does it not matter where the camera is? Acting's acting, or what?

• 15:54Speaker 02

  I found it to be incredibly playful. There was something amazing about witnessing the communication with Danny and Anthony, our D P. And then both being very instinctive. You know, and Anthony would often be very, very close. And he'd also be like, "I'm gonna be here, but if you do something that I feel like I want to lean into, I'm gonna follow you." You know, so there's just like a constant awareness, it feels like, as a team, of like moving as one, which was amazing. And it kept it all very kind of, very alive and in the moment. It was a way then which I'd never ever worked before, which was so much fun. But yeah, or like, you know, the camera would be like swinging off a wire,

• 16:39Speaker 02

  or on someone's back, or you know, you'd just be like, "Wow, what's gonna happen next?"

• 16:45Josh Horowitz?

  Or probably sometimes even in your face. Like, right, like Aaron, for you, like when a camera is that close.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, informed quite a lot. And it definitely, at times, made you feel it was invasive. So it made you feel quite vulnerable. It's like the way someone would film you now with an iPhone or something like that makes you feel like you're like, you can't hide. There's a lot that's, and I think that's something like what Danny was saying. When you have a different camera, a different setup, there's a sense of you kind of know, you've been trained, I suppose, to sort of know your light and where your mark is and all that. And they sort of stripped all that away. So you felt like there was no safety net in that respect. So it was very raw. And like Jodie mentioned, like Anthony, our D P, was...

• 17:31Speaker 03

  Very much, it was instinctive, so, and it kept everything spontaneous, you know, because he can go from here to like there, to, you know, and it come from different angles. It just feels like, this thing was like a fly on a wall.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  It made me so excited to watch it, actually, because I was like, I actually don't have no idea how the shots are gonna look. You know, that's another reason why I couldn't wait to sit down and watch it, because I thought, wow, I really wanna see how this is.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There was something, there was, I've never really worked on anything where I was like, as excited to go, and I wanna see what we, what we did, and, and working with Danny, and, and what we were doing on this movie. Because it was very, it was bold, it was, like, Danny is a filmmaker, is so bold, and, and making, and, and, and it was, yeah, it was new and different and experimental, and it meant that we could explore, um, and you were trying all, all new things. And you even said, some things, I don't even know if they're gonna work, but we're gonna do it anyway, and I was like, that's so.

• 18:27Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 18:27Speaker 03

  So refreshing, it was so refreshing. Every day gonna work was like, the enthusiasm that you got from Danny, just, just lit up every day of like, being, back in like, your craft again, in a way that you're on your toes.

• 18:39Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, the cliche is, you expect a filmmaker to get more conservative, go to the tried and true. This is in your DNA, Danny, you are incapable of doing that, it seems.

• 18:47Speaker 06

  It's interesting, so Bertolucci, the great Italian filmmaker, said you should always leave a door open on your set, because the danger with sets is that you're sealed, and you kind of know what you're doing, or you think you know what you're doing, and, and everybody knows what they're doing, and you're locked, and, and he said you should always, I always remembered that, you should let, there should be a door open where things come in, that you've no idea how to handle necessarily. And they become part of it. And that can be a mental thing for the actors, that something happens to them, that changes them, that changes the way they see a scene, or it can be a technical thing, like an ingredient when there's a scene, like, there's a couple of scenes, there's one scene where Aaron is running at the end, you'll have seen it in the trailer, where he shouts at the end, "Spike!"

• 19:29Speaker 06

  And we gave him, this camera to run, see if he could run with it like that, and we'd no idea whether it would capture anything, but you get this moment of him unleashed, you know, and it's kind of, gets through a kind of barrier of prettiness, or perfection, or, and it's, it's kind of roarer, really, um, and there's a great bit of one of the, there's these characters called the alphas in it, and there's a great, we had a great guy called Chi Lewis-Perry, and he does it in this train sequence, and it's like, whoa, it's quite, it's quite scary.

• 19:59Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, I want to tease the audience a little bit as much as we can about the storyline. You've done it a little bit already, Danny, but folks like me have been asking you and Alex for over a decade, for 20 years, about a sequel. There was a sequel 28 weeks later, which was a fine movie, but you and Alex have not returned... No, I think, I legitimately liked that movie. But you and Alex have chosen, or maybe, I don't know if it was an active choice, or you couldn't crack the story. How did you crack this? Because there was talk it was going to be 28 months later. This is how long this has been going.

• 20:31Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 20:32Josh Horowitz?

  How did it arrive at 28 years later in this particular storyline?

• 20:34Speaker 06

  Well, it's, I mean, it's true. It's not, it's not vainglorious saying it. It's crowds that change it, because most of the films you make fade away. They're kind of like, even if they've been a hit, they're kind of like, you know, and if they've not been a hit, they really fade away and you're kind of like, you know, and you'd never hear of them again and they're kind of, and that's as it should be. And, but this one stuck around 28 days later. And there'd be odd screenings like this where people, and you'd be asked to go along and do a Q and A, and you realize there's a bunch of people who really enjoy the film and want it to... So, because of that, we talked about it occasionally, about whether we should return to it. And we did come up with this idea. It's a very

• 21:17Speaker 06

  good script that Alex wrote about weaponizing the virus. And it's what you'd expect, though. It's about a government, or a nefarious corporation, or a military entity weaponizes the virus. You know, and you go, "Yeah, I've seen that before. It's Alien, isn't it?" You go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." And we, it didn't get any traction between us. And then, he went away and he came back with a much bigger idea, where we withdrew from Europe, because in the 28 weeks later, you see the virus approaching Paris.

• 21:49Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 21:50Speaker 06

  And we decided to do away with that and to actually, that Europe, the UN, the EU, whoever you call them, had managed to contain it within the UK only, and had been left quarantined to die out, hopefully. And that was the key, I think, because it allowed Alex to write a much, ironically, in containing it like that, it allowed him to write a much bigger story, which arcs across three films, ultimately. That's the ambition. And we've shot two of them, and one of them was still looking for finance, so there'll be a QR code.

• 22:24Speaker 06

  Which will be... Not a one, not a one. Honestly, you'll all write to Tom Rothman at...

• 22:31Speaker 06

  And persuade him to give us the money. But, and it was to eventually, but each film stands alone. And it stands alone, you can watch it without knowing the first film as well. And, and they, they each, and it was a bigger idea, ironically. You'd think the palette is smaller, but it's actually bigger because of that.

• 22:49Josh Horowitz?

  It is, it is that simultaneously large canvas, and yet it is also an intimate story of family. It is about this family. The actor that's not with us that we should mention is this wonderful young actor Alfie, who plays Spike.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:01Josh Horowitz?

  Who plays your son in this. And it's truly his, his coming of age, it's a coming of age story. He goes through a rite of passage, essentially, where it's fair to say that, as he explores the, the outer world. I know we can't say too much about your characters, but this is, this is kind of a change of pace for you, Jodie. I've never seen you, you've, you've played a lot of like, you know, very, you know, self-possessed, together, strong characters, and this is a woman struggling. This is a woman mentally and physically struggling. What are the unique challenges of playing Isla for you here?

• 23:36Speaker 02

  The uniqueness about Isla was that she's got a lot going on inwardly, so she's, which in a way, kind of saves her from a lot of knowledge that everyone else has about the dangers of the outside world, yet she has a lot of inner turmoil.

• 23:54Speaker 02

  But her north star is her son, and she kind of clings to him and, and that. And they have a really, really beautiful relationship. But again, it's a journey film and, and the characters go a long way, so it was, it was kind of mentally plotting that out with the condition that she's in and trying to figure that out. And there's an interesting dynamic between the two of them because of the position that she's in. So it was working with little Alfie and...

• 24:29Speaker 02

  Discovering that family dynamic, you know, we did like two weeks rehearsal in Newcastle before we started, didn't we? And we got to go through every scene and map it out and map out any beats that felt important. Or, you know, what Alfie felt he needed in each moment. And that was invaluable because it was like we could then get to set and feel like we had actually really created a family dynamic and a family history. Even though you very, you don't see any of that, you know, it was something that we could all kind of hold on to. And especially for Alfie to, to hold on to, yeah.

• 25:01Josh Horowitz?

  For you, Aaron, taking, you know, most of your scenes are with this young actor. And it's a complicated relationship. Talk to me a little bit about establishing that bond. Why was it important to connect or how was it important to connect with this young actor on this one?

• 25:18Speaker 03

  So, there's a lot of connection. Now Alfie was, you know, this is his kind of first, first movie, right? This is his first movie, he's the lead of this movie. And he is absolutely tremendous in this movie. He's sublime and, and I'm so proud of him, what his journey and his arc is in this movie. But he embodies it physically and also emotionally. He's, he's tremendous. But I felt like, not just me, I felt like we all felt this weird sort of duty to, I mean, I felt like I wanted to be, I had this paternal sort of connection to him anyway. And I wanted that to come across. But I felt like we also felt like we wanted to sort of mentor him through making a movie, making a movie on this scale.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  And the sort of, you know, the stamina you need to get through this sort of a movie. And then I have my moment with him. Jodie then, it's sort of, we pass the baton, you know, with him. And Jodie has her moment with him. And then there's a couple of other characters that appear in this movie. And, and so he has had, you know, had, had the gift of sort of being amongst us all. But, you know, Danny being, you know, sort of puppeteering him through everything has been extraordinary. And he's a special, special boy and he's absolutely amazing in this movie. And yeah, there was a lot of love. I wanted that, I wanted them to have a bond and have a lot of love and connection.

• 26:46Speaker 03

  Cause my character is putting a lot of pressure on him to be, be a bit of a man in a moment and, and, and, and, and maybe. Maybe I'm projecting too much onto him and he's still a child and you know and it's just so it's so beautiful to sort of see in this.

• 27:05Josh Horowitz?

  I know, I'm excited to see him come of age both as a character and as an actor because it's a rite of passage in both respects for this young man, right?

• 28:20Josh Horowitz?

  There's so much in there. That's everything I love about what Danny Boyle does for the record. It's the energy, it's the emotion, it's the music, it's all of it together. You do it like nobody else, sir. Can you talk to me a little bit about, like I see that clip, that opening, and there are like five images that will haunt me for a long time. Do you ever start with an image and kind of build out a sequence from that? How does it how does it evolve for you? How do you find like the iconic imagery that ends up in your film?

• 28:47Speaker 06

  So that it was it was Teletubbies, really.

• 28:53Speaker 06

  Because, exactly, yeah, you're just like, it's that connective tissue. Straight away, you go, Teletubbies, it's like, and I remember, so we, I was involved in the Olympic opening ceremony in London. And we did, we designed this set and the press got photographs of it. And they said it looks like, and we did these press conferences and the journalist said, it looks like a Teletubbies set. And it was, and they said it like it was a bad thing. And I remember saying to them, is that a bad thing? And they, they thought it was, they thought it was, we're gonna be described as, so I've always loved the Teletubbies. Yeah, no, and it's like, and, and when you brought up kids, you kind of get attachment, you know, some of you will know what it's like.

• 29:33Speaker 06

  You get attachment to different parts of kids entertainment, whether it's Power Rangers or Teletubbies or whatever. And they do come back, you'll be glad to know. And, and there is something happens in the mind of that kid that's just mind blowing in it. Alex's writing, what is happening to that kid's mind as he quotes this religious, you know, because we know that's Christ's last words on the cross. And there's something going on there that you see a bit later and then certainly in the second film, which has already been shot with Nia DeCosta. So it, it, it's kind of in the, it's in the writing, but it was also in the innocence. Yeah. Of, of what it suggests and then the girls, and that was very difficult to cast, those girls.

• 30:16Speaker 06

  And they're very difficult to direct kids, to direct fear in them. Because that's when you get very close to being, it's a bit, you've got to be very careful as a director. Because you're trying, obviously you want them to look frightened. And yet you're introducing and some of them don't know fear. They, and why should they? They're seven. You know, you want, you think that's wonderful, they don't know fear, but I've got to introduce them to it.

• 30:43Speaker 06

  And it's, and it's, and there was a little, and there was a little girl who covers her eyes at the front. And she was like, she seemed confident at first. And we kept saying, you know, these guys are gonna come in and it's kind of, it's all pretend and make believe and their, their parents or their minors were there and everything was like that. And I was, but I had one of the cameras behind the television and she, they all. We're fine, we're fine, we want to do it and everything like that, so it was all. And you just think, well, am I doing the right thing and everything like that and then. And what she did, and you can't, you can see the beginning of it there very, very quickly. It's just as they hit the door. She, she knew to get out of the way and she literally jumped like this. Over the television, in, into my lap, like this.

• 31:27Speaker 06

  And said, I kid you not, no, I kid you not. Danny saved me.

• 31:34Speaker 06

  And I felt I was crushed for the rest of the day, because you realise. And anyway, they were all fine and we talked and talked and talked and. And they'll come to the, we're doing a little premiere in Newcastle. Which is where we shot a lot of the film and they'll come, but um. Sorry about that, Josh.

• 31:51Josh Horowitz?

  No, I'm, I have my own, my own kind of trauma I'm dealing with now.

• 31:55Speaker 06

  But it, but it's innocence and you, and it, and it, and you wanted to. Because of course, we, we knew going into it, the studio would want us to do a recap of the first film.

• 32:05Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 32:05Speaker 06

  Or the first two films, and we didn't want to do that, so we thought, how can we write a sequence that. Kind of gives you, gives you a reminder of what it was, of what it was and. And also introduces this idea of innocence and introduces this character. Who comes back as a man later on in the film. Um, so that was the idea of it, yeah.

• 32:23Josh Horowitz?

  So we know it's, it's tough for kids to portray fear, what about adult actors? Is, of all the emotions, is it tough to like portray sustained? Fear throughout a film, among other emotions?

• 32:35Speaker 02

  I think it is. I remember you saying that you enjoyed it the most because it's, it's an emotion that you can't fake. Like you have to go there in order for it to be believable and the audience to be with you. Um, I feel like, you, you feel like you spend a lot of time hyperventilating or. You know, in these, you know, and you will kind of come down from a take and you'll. You know, there might be a reset and you luckily have a little bit of time to reconfigure. But um, there is, there's one shot where like, I feel like I, something wasn't visibly there that I could see. So I had to pretend it was and I'm like, oh boy, I really overhammed the, like, I'm like. It's not the fear too far.

• 33:18Speaker 02

  I don't know if there's a danger of that sometimes, but um, it's intense, it's, it's um, really high energy.

• 33:26Speaker 02

  I find.

• 33:27Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 33:27Speaker 06

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 33:28Josh Horowitz?

  For you, I mean, like, you've done, obviously, physically intense roles. Is it slightly different, though? Like, this is more emotional. It is physical, but it's also just emotional intensity for you as an actor, I would imagine.

• 33:41Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think, yeah, I think, you know, it goes back to Danny creating an environment that is, just feels authentic and, and I think it's about the stakes. I think about the character, you know, what have they really got to lose in the stakes? That they've, you know, and the situation they've put themselves in. So it's more about that.

• 33:59Speaker 02

  These stakes feel so high from the get-go as well.

• 34:01Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 02

  From that, from that, those moments with you and Alfie. That's what I already felt. I was like, there isn't a beat from the beginning where you're like, you don't feel how high those stakes are.

• 34:10Josh Horowitz?

  No, there's dread hanging over this film. You're just waiting for the shit to hit the fan. It's the cleanest entire film, and it happens multiple times. I do want to talk about music. It's so important to all of your work. Is there music on set? Is there, like, how, how do you, how do you create the musical landscape for something like this?

• 34:28Speaker 06

  No, we get, we usually, we get a playlist together.

• 34:31Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 34:31Speaker 06

  A kind of, you know, just like you do, and Spotify or Apple or whatever, and you get a playlist together, and then you share it with people. Sometimes you give it to the actors, sometimes you ask the actors for their tunes, if they've got tunes that things.

• 34:45Speaker 06

  So, so there is music that you can talk about rather than, you know, because it's so difficult to talk about music.

• 34:51Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 34:52Speaker 06

  It's far better just to play it and play music. And so it's mostly in the editing. And we got this amazing band from Edinburgh called The Young Fathers, who are a bunch, if you've never heard their music, listen to their music. They are wonderful. They're like a kind of rap version of The Beach Boys, but from a really tough area of Edinburgh. Some really rough estates, and they're most beautiful three blokes. They're just gorgeous. And, and, and, and they just started contributing music to it. And, yeah, the music's beautiful. And they wrote, they wrote this tune for the, towards the end, which is very emotional. I think the stuff that Joshua's talking about, and, and that's very beautiful. Um, that's quite. So we were very pleased with that.

• 35:37Speaker 06

  But you have to trust them. And you've got to trust musicians. Because often the business doesn't. It's kind of like thinks it can manipulate them. Or thinks it can just take the best bits of them and then do the rest.

• 35:49Josh Horowitz?

  Right, or imitate this as opposed to give someone free rein to kind of create something.

• 35:53Speaker 06

  You've got to trust them because they speak a language that reaches you in a way that we can't. They just do and it's unspoken and it's out there and. Oh, it's an amazing part of the process for me. It's one of the most beautiful parts of the process.

• 36:06Josh Horowitz?

  Did either of you have an inspired 28 years later playlist to help you get in the zone of sustained fear?

• 36:14Speaker 02

  I did. Mine wasn't really to sustain fear though. Mine was more, I guess, an emotional connection to Spike.

• 36:25Speaker 02

  Like, I wouldn't be able to recall the songs on it now. But I do kind of, I do quite enjoy that when I come to a new character is making a little playlist. Even just of like 10 songs.

• 36:37Speaker 02

  Just for like emotion kind of thing, yeah.

• 36:40Josh Horowitz?

  The, I don't think it reveals too much that that first trailer and the second trailer also has it. The Rudyard Kipling poem Boots. Like, amazing, just amazing, sets the mood. It's in the movie as well. How did you arrive at that? Was that in the script process or did that come in the editing or?

• 36:57Speaker 06

  No, so the guy, there's a guy at Sony, and I'm sure he's part of a big team, a guy at Sony. And this is the story we heard. They put it in the first trailer. And when Alex and I heard it, we thought, that is amazing. And we were looking, we were developing a sequence where the Holy Island survivors, of which this is part of the family. One of the ways that they organize their lives is that they have retrenched, they look backwards. But once the technology stops, rather than keep progressing, which you could argue theoretically you could without technology, they don't. They look backwards to a better time in England, which for a lot of people is post-war. The feeling of the 50s where life was simpler.

• 37:42Speaker 06

  You know, and there was deprivation, rations, etc. But people were honest, you know, and and there's that romanticism about it and they do that. And we wanted a way to represent that and connect it with their training that they were giving the young men. And it's interesting, they don't train the girls because again, they've retrenched back to that process before we evolved into better people. They went backwards like that. And they're not bad people, but they just went back there, subsistence farming, training the boys to be fighters to protect the island, which is part of the process of the story. And Boots became a wonderful soundtrack for that. Yeah, so um.

• 38:21Josh Horowitz?

  It's amazing.

• 38:23Speaker 06

  And it also gave us an excuse, we cut in at one point, Laurence Olivier as Henry the Fifth. And so it's our first, it's a chance for, we've all got a credit now with a Laurence Olivier.

• 38:34Josh Horowitz?

  You've worked with the greats.

• 38:37Josh Horowitz?

  What's a typical Danny Boyle direction? If only he had some enthusiasm, as we can tell, he's a very calm.

• 38:44Speaker 02

  But that's the beauty about Danny is like, there is so much um energy and passion and excitement in in what he does because he loves what he does. So I feel like whenever Danny would come to you with a note, he's often expressing what he wants you to um, or not even like what he wants, he's not showing you what he wants you to do, but he's feeling the emotion in which is in the scene. And that, I think, is so beautiful because you feel like he's proper in there with you, or sometimes you'll kind of watch him, you'll cut, not when you're acting, but like if you catch him watching the monitor at some point, but maybe you're off camera and he's just like

• 39:25Speaker 02

  glued in, you know, there's not, there's not a beat that he isn't considering or um or not taking note of. But yeah, I think I feel that you're a very, very emotionally intelligent um.

• 39:39Speaker 02

  Man. With a real sensitivity and a real intellect. That was my experience, I would say, on this job.

• 39:47Josh Horowitz?

  I want to mention also, not only the evolution of this kind of isolated society that's fascinating in this film, it's the evolution of the infected that I find very interesting. That I think people are going to be fascinated by. They've gone in different ways, basically. There are some that have been to the gym and are really working out, they're really scary. There's some that have let themselves go a little bit. And I think they're equally scary for me. How did you arrive at that? I guess you just sort of like, you and Alex think out, okay, how would this go down? How to extrapolate from 28 years?

• 40:18Speaker 06

  It was very, it was very serious because the authorities, the EU, UN, whoever is, the military who are quarantining the island of the UK, are imagining it will die out, but that's a complete mistake. It's nature, it's a part of nature, just like anything. And it will evolve and it will survive. It's not just the story of survival of the people on the holy island, who are survivors we recognize as being like us. Everything else survives as well and it finds ways to survive rather than let itself be burnt out. So one of the big things was the amount of energy that's needed to be a rage infected is enormous.

• 41:01Speaker 06

  The calories you're burning up are just phenomenal. So you think, well, they'll starve to death straight away. So you go, yes, they would unless they survive. Because, and they, so they hunt, of course, to eat, to survive. Except some of them do it differently. They expend no energy at all and they live on the ground. The people you're talking about being out of condition. And they eat grubs and worms and things like that. And then others evolve and it's more like the virus acts as a steroid on them. And they evolve into the leaders of the hunters, if you see what I mean. So it becomes a kind of hierarchy in a way. And you realize, you get little glimpses, you think they're a little, they're a bit organized in a way.

• 41:46Speaker 06

  Because 28 years is, obviously, it's a

• 41:49Speaker 03

  Ridiculous amount of time for that kind of evolution to have taken place. But but it once you accept that it's just a period where evolution is seen to happen and it's accelerated for our purposes.

• 42:00Josh Horowitz?

  For you guys, again, this gets back to what you keep saying, Aaron, about sort of like the set that he creates, like being in that environment and seeing these folks in that amazing makeup must be like, OK, I'm in, I'm into Annie Boyle 28 years later. This is 30% of the job right now. I can, now I know where I'm at. What was it like to sort of see, I don't know, this amazing makeup job done?

• 42:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, our prosthetic team was.

• 42:24Speaker 06

  Yeah, they were brilliant, yeah.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  What, who are the names, do you know?

• 42:27Speaker 06

  John Nolan.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  John Nolan, yeah.

• 42:28Speaker 06

  And his studio, yeah, they were.

• 42:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 42:30Speaker 06

  Victorians.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  Because they were absolutely, yeah, they were terrifying, actually, yeah. Also, they're often like stunt performers. They run at full speed. Nobody's slowing down for you. Like, you're getting chased.

• 42:45Speaker 06

  Yeah, right, in feels.

• 42:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:47Speaker 06

  Quite thick feels.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  Through nettles. Yeah, without any clothes on. Yeah, there was definitely some moments where you're like, what, you know, be, yeah.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 42:59Josh Horowitz?

  Like, it's a movie, guys, you don't have to go full speed, they'll speed it up in post.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  I can't remember the last time I ran this much, yeah. Yeah, there, yeah, there's some pretty terrifying infected out there. But the, there was some of the prosthetics on, on the, on the. Slowly. Yeah, I don't want to, yeah, unlike.

• 43:20Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:20Speaker 03

  Ones that aren't very well-conditioned, as you, as you put it. Yes. That like to eat the grubs along the floor, which you've said, so that's OK. A bit terrified when you get backstage. But, but, yeah, no, and hats off to those, those individual actors who were willing to be in that, those, those, yeah, the prosthetics, so, for a whole day and, and, and out in the cold and things like that. It was, yeah, it's, it's a whole other level. That's a whole other kind of dedication that, you know, actors can do that in a way that,

• 44:00Speaker 03

  because it's, and, and, and feel, because you can feel incredibly vulnerable, of course, in the, in the way that they were performing, but.

• 44:11Speaker 02

  It's so true, actually. You really do have to have an element of fearlessness in there. It's such a good point. Some people were like in the chair for like five or six hours.

• 44:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:21Speaker 02

  But amazing as well to think of like that they have advanced or regressed in different ways. Like just that detail is.

• 44:29Speaker 03

  I'm thinking specifically of this one girl and who had her eyes completely stitched up and stuff like that. Like there is some uncomfortable situations.

• 44:41Speaker 03

  No, it was terrible, right? And she just was like.

• 44:45Speaker 06

  She was amazing.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  She got on with it, like, and that's kind of crazy.

• 44:49Josh Horowitz?

  So you have teased that already the second film has been shot by another great filmmaker, Nia DeCosta.

• 44:54Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 44:55Josh Horowitz?

  There is an intention to do a third. Can you hint a little bit about the scope of this story? So we have not, we can say this for the record, Killian Murphy is not in this film. We love Killian Murphy. He is an executive producer.

• 45:06Speaker 06

  He is. He is indeed. And, and, and I've been told to say to you.

• 45:15Josh Horowitz?

  You are your own man. Say what you want to say, Danny.

• 45:18Speaker 06

  I know. It's not as simple as that.

• 45:21Speaker 06

  No, no, I've been told to say to you that good things come to those who wait. There are many good things associated with Killian and, no, he, he, he, he, he. There's a, there's a handover technique. Although the films sit and exist individually as you hope to be satisfying stories on their own. Within each one is a handover sequence, which Josh has seen, where these characters are introduced. And that happens in the second film. And, and then if we get the money.

• 45:57Speaker 06

  Tom Rothman at tomrothman.com.

• 46:03Speaker 06

  If we get the money, Killian will obviously be a dominant factor in the in the third part of the film. But the story arc is worked, as Alex has very carefully worked out, so we're just poised, really. I mean, you know what it is, they're just waiting to see what business it does, really.

• 46:23Josh Horowitz?

  Has it been, I would imagine, as an executive producer, he's been part, at least to some extent, of creative discussions. I mean, you met this man at a much younger age, and now to be collaborating with him, coming off this Oscar win, it's very telling that coming off an Oscar win, like, he wanted to prioritize working with you guys and coming back.

• 46:40Speaker 06

  I know, that's very nice, and it's lovely, and he's a great guy, and he's smashing, and, yeah, he was very complimentary about the film, and so we were very, yeah, it's gone, yeah, it'll be good, I think.

• 46:51Josh Horowitz?

  Of course, a lot has changed in the world in the last 23 years. There was a pandemic, I don't know if you heard, there was a pandemic. How does that inform this film, you think? I mean, it has to impact the storyline.

• 47:04Speaker 06

  It does in obvious ways, and it's sort of, but it did something in less obvious ways, which is that, you know, it wasn't just like the shock of the pandemic, which we, it was the way that we got used to it. Because I remember thinking, if you were, like in the first film, everybody was super so cautious about getting infected. It was like, did the blood get on you? It was like, and if it did get on you, I'll hatchet you to death. And it was like, everybody's like this. But you can't exist like that for 28 years, it's exhausting.

• 47:40Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 47:41Speaker 06

  Dead anyway.

• 47:42Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 47:43Speaker 06

  So they kind of, it's like anything, like humanity behaves like that. You begin to become, not casual, not relaxed about it, but you begin to take more risks. There's kind of a slight latitude. So we built that into it, it felt like, you know, that they, yeah, anyway, it's weird thinking like that. But that's what the experience of Covid did, when you go through that experience. Because I remember, I remember when Covid started, and the guy, the groceries were delivered, I used to put blue gloves on. Take them in at the door. And when I look back on that, I think, what was I doing? What was I doing? And I get the groceries in and I rub bleach on them like this, on the plastic containers that the electric was in. That's insane.

• 48:26Speaker 06

  So, and obviously you relax after that initial panic stage. Anyway, so, stuff like that works its way in.

• 48:34Josh Horowitz?

  I want to mention one other actor we haven't mentioned yet. Ralph Fiennes. No surprise to anybody, is amazing in this film. Amazing in this film.

• 48:45Josh Horowitz?

  A very unusual, fascinating character. I don't know, can any of you just talk a little bit about working with one of the all-time greats and what he brings to set?

• 48:54Speaker 02

  This is so good. It's, it's, what I think is beautiful about his character is what he's providing the characters in the film. You, as an audience, feel yourself. There's just this really, I don't know, this kind of magic happens when you're watching the movie. He kind of, yeah, I don't want to say too much, but the, he gives the most incredible form, performance, but he kind of provides the audience with exactly what he's providing the characters, which you really need. Come that time, guys, yeah.

• 49:27Josh Horowitz?

  And he is, I mean, you guys, I know I've seen the trailers, like, I mean, from the outside in, I was like expecting a kind of a, a Colonel Kurtz figure, like a madman. And he is mad in his own way, but in another way, seems to be the most rational person we, we find in this story.

• 49:42Speaker 06

  He also, again, it's quite difficult, this, he, he represents something in England that's really important to us.

• 49:52Josh Horowitz?

  I hope this wasn't cruel for you guys, to tease you guys for this movie for an hour, but as you can tell, it's very special. And this is a special group of actors and it's so exciting to see Danny do what he does best in this genre like nobody else. I'm going to thank you guys and as we go out tonight, I'm going to treat you guys, we're going to treat you guys to a five-minute sequence from 28 Years Later. But before we do all that, give it up one more time for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Danny Boyle. The movie is out June 20th. We're going to set up the GoFundMe for the third film. We're going to make it happen from hell or high water. Thank you guys so much.

• 50:32Speaker 05

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't supposed to do this by Josh.

• 50:52Speaker 00

  As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.