127 Hours
127 Hours brings together Oscar winning filmmaker Danny Boyle with versatile actor James Franco as they tell the story of Aron Ralston's remarkable survival.
From the beginning, Boyle knew he was going to require something quite extraordinary from his lead actor, not just in his performance but also someone who could possess the physical capabilities demanded by the role of Aron.
Not only would that actor have to be able to handle being in nearly every frame of the film and have to work in physically suffocating quarters, under mentally unhinging circumstances, he would also have to let the camera get deep inside to the most primal of emotions.
Stripped of everything, even the ability to move, Aron was left with a raw view into who he was and who he hoped to become.
Because of all this, Boyle wanted someone who would have his own insight into Aron’s persona - someone with a passion for the wilderness and a penchant for fearlessness but also for self-reflection.
Those qualities, and the acting skills required, seemed to combine perfectly in James Franco, who is quickly becoming one of his generation’s most original talents.
Franco’s diverse roles have included Pineapple Express, the iconic James Dean in a celebrated television movie, opposite Sean Penn as Harvey Milk’s lover in the award-wining MILK and most recently as the legendary American maverick Allen Ginsberg in HOWL.
An adventurous renaissance man of his own accord, Franco also recently pursued an MFA at Columbia University and was recently accepted to a Ph.D. program at Yale.
Ralston was himself excited by the choice. "I was very happy to know that someone with those kind of dramatic chops was going to do this. I knew from seeing James in other films that he really likes to inhabit the people he plays," he says.
"I was psyched to meet him. We listened together to the video I made that was my Last Will and Testament, which I thought was going to be the way I said goodbye to my friends and family.
"I also kind of re-enacted things for James, like some of the body positions I used while standing for so long and even demonstrating exactly how I held the knife when I was cutting into my arm."
He goes on: "It was really fun watching James watching me, because I could see the wheels turning in his mind as he was making all these mental notes. Ultimately, though, it was the subtle stuff James did that I think brought real magic to it."
Franco felt strongly drawn to the role from the minute he heard about the project - and it turned out to be like nothing he’d done before. "One of the reasons I wanted to do this role is because it is made up of so many little personal moments, those moments we all have when you’re completely alone," he says.
"I felt like that was a side of me I could really understand and tap into. The story is basically about a man confronted with his own death and figuring how to get back to life it’s a human situation I don’t think has been explored very much in films before.
"I also thought it was a tremendous opportunity to tell a story through minute physical actions and these kinds of private soliloquies Aron has when he talks to his video camera. It was very different from most roles."
He continues, "It was also very unique because I really don’t interact with other actors for most of the movie. I love working with other actors, but this was something unusual and challenging. The focus of attention was completely different.
"It was like I had to learn to act with the space around me, with the rocks, with the canyon, with the camera."
Although Franco did spend time getting to know Ralston and went on a long hike together to see Aron in his element, neither he nor Boyle wanted to try to mimic Ralston’s physical characteristics on screen. "Danny’s take on the movie was that it was really about penetrating this incredible situation Aron finds himself in," explains Franco.
"So we didn’t want it to be about trying to re-create a real person but, rather, about trying to really feel this human experience."
Franco credits Boyle with helping him to do that to, at times to an unsettling degree, by keeping him in narrow, uncomfortable spaces and off-kilter throughout the shoot. He was squeezed so tightly into the replicated canyon set that he would emerge from shooting days with bruises, rashes and scars.
"It was a physically taxing shoot for me," he admits. "But it was such an interesting situation to portray and Danny is an amazing director. He’s very energetic and passionate but he always gets what he wants."
Talking directly into a video camera in place of the usual movie dialogue was also something Franco had to wrap his mind around. "It was almost like doing an old-fashioned Shakespearean soliloquy, where you’re talking right to the audience," he notes. "It was very unusual for a film."
It was Boyle’s unconventional vision for the film that kept Franco inspired even as the production kept him shivering and agonizingly motionless in a frigid canyon, night and day.
"What I loved is that Danny took a completely different approach than any other filmmaker to making a movie set in nature.
"Instead of using nature’s slow pace, he gives it a wonderful urban pulse and feel," sums up Franco.
To dive even further into the role, Franco worked out at a climbing gym and slimmed down to Ralston’s sleek, outdoorsy physique. He read books about climbers and adventurers and he also looked inside himself to really ask if he could actually do what Aron did to survive.
"I thought about how drastic his circumstances were that it was life and death," Franco says. "I’m pretty squeamish about blood, even in the doctor’s office, but you know, in that situation I’d get over it. I’d like to think that I’d try something and that I couldn’t just sit there."
He goes on, "This character really goes up against death and to a certain extent, Aron had to accept that he might die in order to take the risk to get free.
"And for me, that’s a lot of what this was about, looking at how a person copes with being alone, being afraid, being in pain, and how that gets him right down to the essentials of existence."
The filmmakers watched as Franco dove deeper and deeper into this personal abyss, then came out the other side. "I think James does work in this film of equal importance to what Danny has done. It’s a kind of duet," comments Christian Colson. "Franco fully inhabited the character and it’s a very unique and amazing performance."
Despite the fact that the film focuses so intently on James Franco as Aron Ralston, finding a strong cast to fill the film’s supporting roles was equally important to the filmmakers.
"When you’ve only got a few supporting characters, the emotional investment you make in them is heightened, and we were very aware of that," says Colson. "I especially love that Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara as the two girls Aron meets at the beginning of his hike are so funny and light in their performances.
"Even though it seems like their moment with Aron passes quickly, retrospectively it takes on this immense importance because they become his last real memories of human contact, of interacting, and feeling completely alive."
Even though she and Kate Mara are a kind of joyful, comic relief before the storm, Tamblyn notes that the experience of shooting the film was 'crazy athletic, with a lot of hiking, running and sweating.'
But she also says, "It was a highlight of my life, to get to work with a master filmmaker in this gorgeous part of the country. Kate and I had to create this soft, funny, easygoing atmosphere in the beginning of the film, something that would feel natural but would also be memorable enough to become truly important to Aron later. That was exciting."
Playing Aron’s parents are Treat Williams and Kate Burton and his sister is played by Lizzy Caplan. To take the role of Aron’s girlfriend - the young woman he regrets not opening up to as he fights for his life in the canyon - the filmmakers chose rising French actress Clémence Poésy, best known for playing Fleur Delacour in the Harry Potter film series.
"The scenes with Aron’s family and friends turned out very beautiful," says Colson. "They have this elegiac quality that makes you really feel Aron’s need to get back to the world and to the people he loves."
127 Hours is out now.
127 Hours brings together Oscar winning filmmaker Danny Boyle with versatile actor James Franco as they tell the story of Aron Ralston's remarkable survival.
From the beginning, Boyle knew he was going to require something quite extraordinary from his lead actor, not just in his performance but also someone who could possess the physical capabilities demanded by the role of Aron.
Not only would that actor have to be able to handle being in nearly every frame of the film and have to work in physically suffocating quarters, under mentally unhinging circumstances, he would also have to let the camera get deep inside to the most primal of emotions.
Stripped of everything, even the ability to move, Aron was left with a raw view into who he was and who he hoped to become.
Because of all this, Boyle wanted someone who would have his own insight into Aron’s persona - someone with a passion for the wilderness and a penchant for fearlessness but also for self-reflection.
Those qualities, and the acting skills required, seemed to combine perfectly in James Franco, who is quickly becoming one of his generation’s most original talents.
Franco’s diverse roles have included Pineapple Express, the iconic James Dean in a celebrated television movie, opposite Sean Penn as Harvey Milk’s lover in the award-wining MILK and most recently as the legendary American maverick Allen Ginsberg in HOWL.
An adventurous renaissance man of his own accord, Franco also recently pursued an MFA at Columbia University and was recently accepted to a Ph.D. program at Yale.
Ralston was himself excited by the choice. "I was very happy to know that someone with those kind of dramatic chops was going to do this. I knew from seeing James in other films that he really likes to inhabit the people he plays," he says.
"I was psyched to meet him. We listened together to the video I made that was my Last Will and Testament, which I thought was going to be the way I said goodbye to my friends and family.
"I also kind of re-enacted things for James, like some of the body positions I used while standing for so long and even demonstrating exactly how I held the knife when I was cutting into my arm."
He goes on: "It was really fun watching James watching me, because I could see the wheels turning in his mind as he was making all these mental notes. Ultimately, though, it was the subtle stuff James did that I think brought real magic to it."
Franco felt strongly drawn to the role from the minute he heard about the project - and it turned out to be like nothing he’d done before. "One of the reasons I wanted to do this role is because it is made up of so many little personal moments, those moments we all have when you’re completely alone," he says.
"I felt like that was a side of me I could really understand and tap into. The story is basically about a man confronted with his own death and figuring how to get back to life it’s a human situation I don’t think has been explored very much in films before.
"I also thought it was a tremendous opportunity to tell a story through minute physical actions and these kinds of private soliloquies Aron has when he talks to his video camera. It was very different from most roles."
He continues, "It was also very unique because I really don’t interact with other actors for most of the movie. I love working with other actors, but this was something unusual and challenging. The focus of attention was completely different.
"It was like I had to learn to act with the space around me, with the rocks, with the canyon, with the camera."
Tagged in James Franco