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!
DWFan1 asks:
What’s your favourite Pixar film?
Guardian contributor Number 1 is Up
Number 2 is Monsters Inc.
Number 3 ... I'm desperate to do a Pixar film!
When directors are using a lot of words to explain something, that's when an actor's in trouble!
Liam Quane asks:
Do any directors have any directorial quirks worth noting? Like Danny Boyle, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay or Patty Jenkins?
Guardian contributor Honestly, no two directors work in the same way. They have all found their own ways of telling a story, and working with actors. The one common denominator I have found with great directors is that they are great communicators. They have an ability to communicate what they need in the fewest possible words. When directors are using a lot of words to explain something, that's when an actor's in trouble!
Updated
Part of the power of Trainspotting 2 was the passage of time, the devastation of the ageing process. That was our big special effect
Methodkill asks:
T2 was surprisingly good for a sequel, is the appetite from the cast and director for a third or are you happy to leave it as is?
Guardian contributor A great part of the power of T2 was the passage of time, and the devastating effects of the ageing process. That was our big special effect in the movie. I'm sure that none of us would hesitate to work with each other on other projects, but we're not in any rush to try and throw together a follow-up right now.
Updated
Alistair Borrows asks:
When recognised in public, do you ever get Trainspotting quotes thrown at you? if so which ones?
Guardian contributor I do. The quote I get thrown at me most is "my pleasure in other people's leisure"! I wish I'd written it myself.
RaylanCrowder asks:
I wanted to know more about your role in the upcoming Wonder Woman film. What was the experience like? More specifically, what was it like to work with Patty Jenkins? Do you see yourself playing such roles in more mainstream films in the future?
Guardian contributor Patty Jenkins is a force of nature. She has fantastic vision, strength and enthusiasm, which is completely infectious and motivates a cast and crew of thousands to really go beyond themselves. I feel that she got great performances out of all of us, just as she did on her amazing film Monster. I was very happy to be working with her.
Updated
Jim Georgiades asks:
The shit-yourself-in-bed scene must’ve been a lot of hard work, right?
Guardian contributor It wasn't as hard as showering Gail's family in shit at breakfast. That involved a lot of precision target practice... and cleaning up afterwards. The substance used was a mixture of chocolate and jelly... and excrement!
Speedragon64 asks:
You played as Renton in a Trainspotting theatre adaption and then you played Spud in the know well-known movies, what is your feeling about that and did you have advice for Ewan McGregor?
Guardian contributor I feel totally delighted that I had the opportunity to play both of those parts. Irvine Welsh gave me a gift with both of those characters. I make it my mission to enjoy the hell out of whatever part I have the opportunity to play.
Never ever give another actor advice, ever!
15percentfaster asks:
I always thought Mr Bremner was a good actor, but he blew the rest of the cast away in Y2k. What a performance.
Guardian contributor
Harmony Korine is an intellectual but he's also a total punk, compelled to oppose. Working with him was incredibly rewarding
Fac3s asks:
Could you share some recollections about working on Julien Donkey-Boy. What was the rehearsal process like, and what was Korine’s directing-style during the shoot?
Guardian contributor Harmony is an incredibly instinctive director. In real life he's deeply intellectual and fantastically educated but he's a total punk so he will dismiss anything that makes sense on an intellectual level and is compelled to do the opposite. So every day was a complete journey into an unknown. There was no dialogue written for the film, all of the dialogue was improvised. The script was just a series of scene descriptions that read like a long poem. And every scene was shot in a completely contrasting style so you never knew what the day was going to be like. It certainly pushed me as an actor. You have to be extremely adaptable to work with Harmony, but it's incredibly rewarding if you're prepared to give yourself over to him.
Updated
Working with Mike Leigh [on Naked] I felt quite intimidated. But I loved it and he really pushed me to go beyond my limitations as an actor
MediaDirector77 asks:
Hi Ewan, you were phenomenal in Naked, rapping with David Thewlis. A true landmark film in UK cinema. What is your abiding memory of that film, Mike Leigh and the scenes you appeared in?
Guardian contributor The experience of making Naked for me was terrifying and completely exhilarating. At a young age to be working with one of the most important directors in Britain. I learned massively about the relationship between real life and the work of an actor. Mike is incredibly exacting and I felt quite intimidated and unsure whether I'd be able to meet his expectations. I was incredibly stressed out for the entire preparation process! But I loved it and he really pushed me to go beyond my limitations as an actor. I'd absolutely like to work with Mike again but I would probably forever be terrified!
Updated
PCMonkfish asks:
Sat across from you on the Edinburgh-Glasgow train (true story). You forgot the cairds. In fairness, maybe you had them but you didn’t offer me a game of hearts.
Guardian contributor
TheSurvivalBag asks:
Meat (1991?) is the greatest short film ever made! What are your memories of it?
Guardian contributor I'm really surprised that anybody has seen that film because it's very hard to find. But I agree it's pretty special, special to me as a young actor - at 17. I learned a lot making that film. It opened the door to a world of film outside Scotland for me. I learned about filmmakers in London - I became part of a community of young filmmakers.
PhillyB asks:
How did Spud learn to write like Irvine Welsh?
Guardian contributor I'd like to know how Irvine Welsh learned to write like Irvine Welsh. The remarkable feat of T2 is to show how history becomes memory becomes fiction becomes reality and Irvine himself was a very unconventional writer, who didn't come from a literary background and worked in Edinburgh City Council as a civil servant and wrote in his spare time. I guess Spud had a lot of spare time on his hands
Updated
Ewen Bremner is with us now!
Ewen Bremner stumbled boggle-eyed into film folklore as Spud in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. A speed-addled miscreant with an unerring gift for flunking job interviews, Spud not only brought the skinny jean into fashion, but he also earned Bremner critical acclaim and commercial attention. Many memorable film roles have followed, from Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey-Boy to Black Hawk Down, and he also turned up in Tom Hooper’s TV miniseries Elizabeth I as that most unSpud-like Scot, King James VI. He’s currently appearing in Wonder Woman as a boozed-up first world war sharpshooter.
Still, Bremner’s defining character was never far away, and early this year he donned his trademark gawky spectacles again for Boyle’s belated sequel T2 Trainspotting. If it slightly stretched credulity that Spud had survived into the 21st century, it was nevertheless a treat to see him reunite with Renton, Sick Boy and the gang again.
Ewen Bremner will join us live for a webchat from 1pm on Monday 5 June to mark the DVD release of the film. Post your questions in the comments below, and he’ll take on as many as possible.
Updated
Thanks for all your questions! Goodbye