The reason why Danny Boyle turned down honours from The Queen
Thanks to his work at the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games, British filmmaker Danny Boyle is seen as something a little more than a movie director, becoming an iconic figure in modern pop culture. Praise is certainly warranted, too, with Boyle impressing, not only with his landmark moment in 2012 but also with the release of such classic films as Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and 127 Hours.
Working with such actors as James Franco, Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Robert Carlyle, Leonardo DiCaprio, James McAvoy and Chris Evans, Boyle has become an internationally-renowned filmmaker, 28 years after his feature film debut. Despite his global fame, Boyle still manages to inject a good dose of British class into almost every one of his movies.
Such was proven in the release of the zombie flick 28 Days Later in 2002, a nasty, blood-thirsty thriller which remained inextricably tied to Britain in place, time and style. In fact, its opening scene, which sees Cillian Murphy’s Jim walk through a desolate central London wearing his hospital robes, has become one of the most defining moments of 21st cinema and certainly one of the most famous movie scenes that takes place in the English capital.
Yet, despite Boyle’s evidently proud British identity, this didn’t stop the filmmaker from refusing to accept a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. Nominated for an honour for directing the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony named ‘Isles of Wonder’, Boyle decided to reject the honour, revealing his thoughts about the nomination in an interview with the Radio Times back in 2012.
“It’s just not me. I also thought it was wrong, actually,” he told the publication, sticking to his own strict moral code in the face of royal honour. Continuing, he explained: “You can make these speeches about ‘this is everybody’s work, blah blah blah’…And you’ve got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it’s the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people…I don’t know whether I’ll ever get invited back to the Palace”.
One of the many highlights of Boyle’s spectacular opening ceremony included a moment when Daniel Craig’s James Bond visited Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. Shortly after, the pair appeared to parachute out of a helicopter above the London Stadium, displaying two large Union Jacks in the air.
Sending the script to the Palace before they filmed the moment, Boyle recalls, “Basically we thought there are two scenarios. They’ll either agree, provided we do it with a good double (and we promised them that we’d either get a really good actor, a Helen Mirren-style actor, or we’d get a cracking double, so it wasn’t poking fun), or it will be a no”.
Whilst the late Queen Elizabeth II agreed to be in the opening set-up scene, she chose to pass on actually jumping out of the helicopter above the stadium.
