It’s a dark tale of very rich and crazy people
Stylish 10-part drama Trust tells the story of the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty’s grandson with Donald Sutherland playing the billionaire. Executive producers Danny Boyle, 61, and Simon Beaufoy, 51 – the team behind Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire – tell us more
Tell us the story of Trust SIMON BEAUFOY: “It evolves around the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, which is the big one that everyone knows about.
“What they don’t know is that there were three generations of Gettys involved in this saga; the kidnapping is a way into the story of the richest people in the world.
“John Paul Getty was the world’s first billionaire and it’s a story about the lack of love that he had cascading down the generations from one generation of Gettys to the next, and how it all culminated in this terrible event when his grandson was kidnapped.”
What was it about this project that appealed to you, and how long was it in development?
DANNY BOYLE: “For me, it was the writing that appealed.
“I didn’t have the same obsession with the characters or the world, but it was the quality of the writing of an event that – because of my age – I vaguely remember.
“It was an investigation of something we are now much more familiar with, which is a dynastic and beyond-imagination-rich family.
“It’s almost like a blueprint for the way that money works in many ways in life now.
“And by money, I don’t mean the money that you and I use in our daily lives.
“I mean money as an elemental force that’s so powerful that it has its own morality and behavioural code.” SIMON: “Trust was two years in the writing and making but probably three years from when I first read an article on it and thought it was interesting.
“Then the more involved I got the more it became an extraordinary dark tale of some very rich and crazy people.”
Trust is a 10-part series. Was that appealing to you when creating the show as it gave such an opportunity to tell the story so in-depth?
SIMON: “It’s a great luxury of television. In film you’re on a narrative motorway; you have two hours and then you are out of the door.
“In this, you’ve got hours to stop the story dead and go sideways. We spend an episode looking at the kidnappers and how they thought and felt about what they have done, working out what the hell they are going to do with this kid if no one wants him.
“You can take these alleys and byways and explore at leisure, which is a huge luxury that television gives you.”
Were you involved in the casting? DANNY: “It’s a mixture of stars such as Donald Sutherland, Hilary Swank and Brendan Fraser. We sent the scripts to them hoping that the idea of the project was good enough to attract them, and fortunately enough it was.
“It’s a gallery of characters because that’s another thing about the 10-hour series – you can develop characters across what truly is a Dickensian gallery of people.
“In this case it was finding Americans and British, as John Paul Getty was someone who never went back to America, he lived in Britain and the only time he left was to go to Europe.
“This is this new world of television, which is a glorious canvas of actors. The most important piece of casting beyond these great tent poles of actors such as Donald and Hilary was the young man, played by Harris Dickinson.
“It was a serious challenge because if you look at pictures of him from the time, he’s actually 16 years old, but he looked like a young rock star of 20, like a Jim Morrison or a Robert Plant.
“To find someone who had that facility and the physical attributes but retained a sense of youth for the sympathy because of all he goes through.
“We actually cast him first and he’s a real prospect – a great British actor who quite literally vanished into the part!
Simon, how was the writing process for this?
SIMON: “Lots of research and a trip to Rome, which is always nice! It’s that luxury of being able to write around characters and events that you wouldn’t really make up.
“You wouldn’t dare make up a story about a man living in Sutton Place with a harem of women with a payphone and a pet lion!
“These are things that you’d be really castigated for making up as a writer. But there it all was.
“His son was stuck in this strange house by the side of the Thames for five years with his curtains drawn, not coming out apart from to find his next hit of heroin.
“They are all multimillionaires on paper but they are all scrabbling to find cash, or kidnapping themselves for cash.
“Ten hours to explore all of that is a massive luxury.”
Danny, you directed the first three episodes – how was that?
DANNY: “What was lovely about doing three episodes – and this is very much in the writing – is that every one of them has a different flavour, so it’s like doing three 60-minute films.
“They all have their own identity but have connective tissue, which is crucial, and all have ingredients which reset each time you begin them.
“We tried to film them in order so we could build as much of an atmosphere as possible.
“It’s helped by having Brendan Fraser arrive in an extraordinary performance at the beginning of episode two.
“Then another actor, Luca Marinelli, arrives at the beginning of episode three, and again he’s an amazing presence driving the film and setting up for future episodes.
The more involved I got the more it became an extraordinary dark tale of some very rich and crazy people
■ Trust is on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 9pm.
Trust executive producer Simon Beaufoy