Nia DaCosta And Erin Kellyman On Rage, Community And "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple"

Reading back over Danny Boyle interviews when the first film came out, and he talked about how 28 Days Later wasn't about zombies, it was about rage. So I wanted to ask you both how rage is represented in this iteration of the film?

Nia: For me, it's about how to metabolise your rage and how it can manifest in different ways. You have people who are really scared, like Jimmy Crystal. His life was stolen from him, he watched his family get massacred, and he watched his father also be killed, but in this really complicated way that he's trying to make sense of. He's alone, and that's unfair, and I think the unfairness of it metastasises into this dark awful thing that turns into rage, anger and fear. I also think when it comes to Samson's story, the rage tells us what we can do with it and what it actually means and whether or not it's something that is core to who we are or if it's just a feeling that passes through something we experience.

Nia, you've essentially taken on the second part of a film, which is almost unheard of, as directors usually take on both parts of a film if it's decided to be split. What was the handover process from 28 Years Later?

Nia: Anything that carried over was a lot of discussion, and I was super clear what my vision was for the film from the beginning, from my very firstmeeting. Danny (Boyle) was really generous as he'd let me watch a very early cut of the movie, so I could know at least a ballpark figure of where he was operating. He watched every take, all the footage, as all the producers did and do, so he gave me a long leash but also was there if I needed anything, which was really wonderful. So I felt a lack of fear, I wasn't worried about "oh no, well this feels so different", the scripts themselves are very different, and I have different main characters who cameo in the first film but have become the core of mine. I knew I could do my own thing, but I trusted that it would stay in the same world because all the producers who are invested in that happening were there every step of the way. 

Ralph Fiennes' character Ian repeats, "There's nothing wrong with peace and respite" Everyone has their own version of peace and respite, so what are yours?

Both: My house.

Nia: My friends, it really fills my cup to spend time with my friends. I had a Sunday roast a couple sundays ago after three weeks of bouncing around the States and Europe, and I came back and had a Sunday roast with my friends, and they were laughing so much it was just so fulfilling and wonderful. 

A roast is always going to do it.

Nia: A Yorkshire pudding?! Hello!

Erin: I'd say my mum's house with my sister. My friends can come too, haha, I like them as well.