Armchair Critics - Let's Talk TV

[Butty Brennan]

Cruise might not have matched up with the books but I liked what he did with the role as well. He gave off  an aura of someone you didn't want to mess with.
It was the same with Trainspotting, if you read the books Begbie is portrayed as a big muscle-bound thug but despite him being quite small Robert Carlyle did a great job in the film, he made him a very menacing character.

I've read trainspotting a f w tim s and I dnnt racall but it's probably been 20years since I last read it 
Thwrw were a few gym rats in IW s world of Leith or whatey but I don't r member Franco being one of them

He is a big guy in the books, and he's a skinhead in Skagboys iirc. In fact Welsh thought that Carlyle was a dodgy choice for the character at first due to his small size but Danny Boyle said that the most dangerous psychos are the small guys, they will always go that bit further.
It was a great bit of casting, when I read the books I always picture Begbie as Carlyle.
On the subject: Sickboy was from an Italian family in the books, he got all the girls with his suave latin looks so Johnny Lee Miller with his spiky blonde hair was a bit of a departure there too.