The Beach at 25: How Danny Boyle’s divisive thriller nearly sank Leonardo DiCaprio (and upset Ewan McGregor) The adaptation of Alex Garland’s Gen-X counterculture bible was beset by problems from the off – protesting locals, near-fatal accidents and a behind-the-scenes fallout that would rage for a decade.
Cast alongside DiCaprio was Robert Carlyle as the frightening Daffy, who passes Richard a map to the beach before opening his wrists, and Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet as Françoise and Étienne, a French couple with whom Richard first journeys to the beach.
Garland, inspired by his own time in the Philippines, had intended for The Beach to be a shrewd swipe at such a mindset, but it became a favourite among travellers nonetheless (when I asked my well-travelled partner if she read The Beach while backpacking around Thailand in the Nineties, she replied, “Everyone was reading it.”).
Boyle gave a copy of Garland’s novel to his regular leading man, Ewan McGregor – suggesting he would be cast as lead character Richard – but the filmmakers realised they needed a bigger star name to justify the required budget.
Directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonardo DiCaprio – who was still riding the box-office heartthrob wave of Titanic – the tale of a backpacking trip gone awry was the first major film of the new millennium, arriving on 11 February 2000.
