20 Things You Didn’t Know About Trainspotting
2. Some Of The Characters' Appearances Are Quite Different From The Book
A few creative liberties are always expected to be taken when adapting a novel for the big screen. After all, it would take a freakishly amazing casting director to find a supremely talented set of actors who also just so happen to look literally identical to the way the characters were described in a novel.
Faced with this same dilemma when casting the feature players for Trainspotting, Danny Boyle simply decided to just leave certain aspects of the group on the page when it came time to shoot.
In Irvine Welsh's book, Begbie is said to be a tall, big, intimidating fellow, but Boyle decided that he need only rely on that last trait for Carlyle's iteration. Sick Boy has black hair in the novel. Tommy's last name goes from Lawrence on the page to Mackenzie in the feature. And Renton is even described as looking like Alex McLeish due to his vibrant ginger locks in the source material.
What a different looking piece of work we'd have had on our hands had Boyle decided to stick to the written art...