SPOTLIGHT MCGREGOR: EWAN NOT SUCH A BEGINNER by joel martens
How do you fit a whole lot of questions into the short span of 10 to 15 minutes, with a man who has had so much to say on screen? The prospect of chatting with Ewan McGregor about what’s important to him, the things he looks for in his work and how he chooses his roles was daunting to say the least. Then throw in just a tad of, “OMG, I am actually talking to Ewan McGregor,” and you have this writer’s recent experience. McGregor has nearly 50 films to his credit and by the time 2012 rolls
around it will beyond that mark (and we haven’t even opened the television or stage doors, both of which are far-reaching and prodigious). His roles have run the gamut to say the least: a sketchy heroin addict inTrainspotting, a priest with a flaming god complex inAngels and Demons; the delightfully loony boyfriend to Jim Carrey in I Love You Phillip Morris; the singing, heart- sick lover Christian opposite Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!and recently as a son coping with change, love and loss in Beginners with Christopher Plummer—a must-see film recently released on DVD. Born and raised in the small, quiet town of Crieff in Scotland’s Perth-
shire, he began entertaining early. His first role was at the tender age of 6, in a Sunday School play about David and Goliath and the rest as they say is history—he had the acting bug. At 17 he set out a working and studying his craft in the Perth Theatre, then to Kirkcaldy College for drama classes, then the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. McGregor had early success after Guildhall and immediately stepped
into a leading role in Lipstick on Your Collar, which was followed by Family Style, a small one-line role inBeing Human with Robin Williams, more tele- vision and a role inShallow Grave where he met director Danny Boyle. The two would eventually collaborate on the aforementioned film Trainspot- ting, which ended up being Ewan’s breakout role. From that point on he has worked solidly—if not frenetically—until now and continues to do so with several films due out in 2012. It was a pleasure to talk with him and hear what he had to say about his film recently released on DVD, Begin- ners, which was the initial reason for the interview, but we managed to cover a bit more.
You seem to be very grounded, in a world that seems not so grounded, how do you manage it? I don’t know, I don’t know firstly if I am (laughs)! I’ve had quite a long
time to understand the business, a kind of experience of realizing what’s what. Your filmography is such a journey, nearly 50 films so far, can you talk about some of your favorites? I’ve got so many and there are different ways of looking at them; you
can look at them, in terms of the films themselves, or the kind of memories one has of where you were or how they represent different times in your life—so that sometimes you have different ways of remembering and enjoying films. I mean I do have favorites, some that I love. For instance I loved the Greenaway Film called The Pillowbook, which is one that I did quite early. All of the work that I did with Danny Boyle—Shallow Grave, Trainspotting andA Life Less Ordinary—were very important to me. I hadn’t seenTrainspotting in quite some time, it is truly remarkable. Wonderful film, yeah. I don’t know, I have had great times on many
of the films I’ve done and even great times on films that ended up not very good, but I had a good time doing them—I learned something on them. And I have had miserable times on films that have turned out to be quite good. There are no rules to it, which is I suppose, what makes it quite interesting really . . . How do you decide what roles to take and what roles to pass by? It’s just my instincts when I am reading them really. I am usually quite immediate, if I like something I’m reading I’ll just grab it. I will want to do it immediately. I suppose I was freer earlier on, I didn’t care about anything, like who was directing it or whatever. Now I suppose there is more, just because one has done more of them. You have more experience under your belt, there is a sense that you really want to do as much as you can to make sure that they will really be good. I spend more time now thinking about who is directing, watching the director’s reels or his or her films. But still, if the character kind of grabs me it just sort of grabs me. How did you come by the role forBeginners? Somebody told me the story when I was at Sundance with a film. I was
skiing and they told me the story. I was on a chair lift and was told about Mike’s (writer/director Mike Mills) story. I had never met Mike, so when I got home I found the script had been sent to me and I read it and was very taken by the story. I thought it was a beautiful tale, I liked his writing very much as well as the feeling of it. Then, I met Mike and I was completely
32 RAGE monthly | DECEMBER 2011
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