Slumdog Millionaire Producer Christian Colson gets his just
moment in the limelight along with Danny Boyle, with his
outstanding film winning the Academy Award® for Best Motion
Picture of the Year. His speech at the 81st Academy Awards®
was brief, yet poignant. We reflect here back on Christian
Colson, in his own words (abridged). He states;
‘Thank you so much to the Academy. As you can see, our film
was a collaboration between hundreds of people. I'm so happy that
so many of them could be with us here tonight to share this
moment. Together, we've been on an extraordinary, an
extraordinary journey. When we started out, we had no stars, we
had no power or muscle. We didn't have enough money, really, to
do what we wanted to do. But what we had was a script that
inspired mad love in everyone who read it. We had a genius for a
director. We had a cast and a crew who were unwavering in their
commitment and whose talents are up on the screen for all of you
to see. … we had a shared love for the extraordinary city
of Mumbai, where we made the movie. Most of all, we had passion
and we had belief, and our film shows that if you have those two
things, truly anything is possible…Thank you.
Later, director extraordinaire Danny Boyle tells us some more
intriguing tales about the creation of his film. And as so often,
the man who is the creative brilliance that is the real reason
behind the films power and success, is as humble as can be.
Q. At what point did you decide to bring them
(the young cast) over (from India), and how daunting was it at
this late stage in this awards process for you to finally get a
turn in the limelight again?
A. Danny Boyle: When we got the nominations, we
had been thinking about it, because you want to share it with the
people you've made it with and who are responsible with the
success of the film, which is primarily the actors really. And
what we were very concerned about was distorting their lives, all
of them really, you know, because they are young. They should
stay at school. They are all in school. You know, we put two of
them into school…
But then somebody said to us, look, they will put it in their own
memory bank in their own way, whatever their lives are, and they
all have different lives, and they will find a place for it in
their own memory bank and you should not deny them that. They
should get the chance to experience it. And it's impossible to
imagine what they think of coming here for tonight. You know, you
talk to them, but you can't really imagine what it must feel
like. It must be extraordinary really… and it makes
tonight deeply special for us, because we tried to make the film
as a family unit, (with) everybody. And to have them all here
makes tonight feel like family really, rather than individual,
so, we are very pleased.
Copyright © Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
© 2009, The Hollywood Sentinel. Used with permission with
kind courtesy of the 81st Academy Awards®.