CityLife

Interview: Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor in I Love You Philip Morris

Step away from the motorbike Charley Boorman – for Ewan McGregor, your best mate and fellow adventurer, has his heart set on hitting the road with a new companion.

“I’ve got a dog, Sid, and I’ve trained him to ride in my side car and I thought we could do a trip together!” says the Scottish actor sitting back in his chair, chortling to himself.

Dressed in jeans, white t-shirt and a blue v-neck jumper, Ewan, pictured, doesn’t exude movie-star charisma when he walks into the room but there’s a likeability about him, which has earned him movie-star status.

After a sabbatical of sorts, which saw Ewan and Charley ride around the world twice, the 38-year-old is very much back on our screens, with his next two films out within a month of each other.

His movie career began 14 years ago with his breakout performance as the heroin-addicted Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, a role that catapulted him to instant international fame.

An eclectic mix of roles has since ensued, including Jane Austen’s Emma alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, comedy A Life Less Ordinary with Cameron Diaz, musical Moulin Rouge opposite Nicole Kidman and the legendary role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.

In need of a change of pace, by 2004 Ewan had decided to take some time out from the movie-making treadmill and along with Charley, embarked on Long Way Round, a motorcycle adventure that saw the two traverse the globe.

“I didn’t feel like I’d decided not to make movies when I decided to do Long Way Round, but I suppose that’s partly what was going on subconsciously,” he says.

“I felt very strongly that it was time to get back into movies and thought now’s the time to hit it hard and just re-establish myself and make my mark,” he explains.

The first project he signed up to was I Love You Phillip Morris, starring Jim Carrey. It tells the true story of conman Steven Russell, who falls for Ewan’s character Phillip (left) in prison.

“My one fear was not playing a gay character, my one fear was looking like a straight guy’s version of a gay character,” Ewan says. “That was what I worried about.”

The actor admits he’s found the attention paid to the homosexual aspect of the story rather depressing. “It is a reflection I guess on where we’re at that it’s such a big deal that it’s a love story between two gay men, like the idea of two men being in love is slightly shocking or almost taboo, it’s beyond me,” he says.

He feels the same sense of bewilderment over questions relating to him stripping off in films. “I’ve never understood why that was such an issue,” he says.

He pauses for a moment before revealing his most ‘exposing moment’ was doing a dance for Jim’s character in Phillip Morris, an experience he describes as ‘the rawest, most open scene for me’.

He was later devastated to discover part of the scene had ended up on the cutting room floor.