Ewan McGregor
- Profession: Actor
- Place/Date of Birth: Crieff, 31 March 2020
Star Wars scare - May 05
Ewan McGregor has admitted that Star Wars fans scare him. The Scottish actor seems to have had enough of working on Star Wars and has spoken out about the film itself and its obsessive fans. In a recent interview Ewan admitted that he found his role as Obi Wan Kenobi uninspiring as he played second fiddle to all the special effects relied on to make the films in to blockbusters and now he’s had enough of Star Wars geeks too. "They have big meets and conventions, and I find it all a bit frightening. Once this guy met me at a stage door when I was doing a play in London. The guy yelled, ’Obi-Wan. Do you have any advice for a trainee Jedi?’ I just said, ’No, don’t be so ridiculous.’ It’s just so weird, it really is."
See photos of the premiere
Revenge of the McGregor - May 05
Ewan McGregor chose not to turn up for the Star Wars premiere. The Obi Wan Kenobi actor, who has in recent months made his feelings about his time with the Star Wars camp quite clear, decided that he would not take time out from his West End show Guys and Dolls to promote Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Ewan stars in the West End show with Ally McBeal’s Jane Krakowski in the lead role and, now that his run in the Star Wars prequels are all done seems happy to put his time as a sci fi hero behind him.
Film firm failure - May 05
Ewan McGregor’s mum is to shelve her movie firm. Carol McGregor set up the company, McDongall Films, to provide audio descriptions of films, including her son’s own Shallow Grave, to assist the blind. However, Carol’s firm has floundered due to competition from London and has been forced to cut links with projects such as the multi million The Road Dance. The firm needs a ?6m investment to get it back on it’s feet.we’ll have a whip round.
Valiant Premiere - Mar 05
Ewan McGregor stepped out at the London premiere of animated movie Valiant, which took place at the Odeon Leicester Square. Also in attendance were Ricky Gervais, Gail Porter and Harry Potter’s Emma Watson.
see pictures
A robotic performance - Mar 05
Ewan McGregor steps out at Robots premiere. A casual Ewan stepped on to the red carpet in celebration of his latest film Robots. The animated film features Ewan’s voice as he plays robot Rodney Copperbottom. The movie also stars Robin Williams and Halle Berry. See photos
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He started out at the local Morrison Academy and at the age of sixteen made his way down to the big smoke to train at the Guildhall School. Ewan got an early break thanks to Dennis Potter, who cast him in the critically acclaimed TV show Lipstick on Your Collar in 1993, just before his graduation. The small role got Ewan noticed and soon after leaving Guildhall he was cast in Bill Forsyth’s Being Human.
Ewan wasn’t about to hang around making mediocre movies though. In 1994 he was cast as Alex, one of three lead characters in Danny Boyle’s excellent Shallow Grave, which won a Bafta for Best British Film. His breakthrough came two years later, again thanks to Danny Boyle. Ewan was cast as the lead character, heroin addict Mark Renton, in cult classic Trainspotting. The controversial movie became the seminal nineties film, loved by young people all over Britain while Ewan became British cinema’s hottest property, the film world’s answer to Damon Albarn in a Brit-pop obsessed country.
From then on Ewan made sure he didn’t become stereotyped, taking parts in everything from arty intelligent projects like Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (which helped to cement the reputation of a certain of Ewan’s body parts as a star as...ahem, big as its owner) to costume dramas - Jane Austen’s Emma - to gritty northern dramas such as the critically acclaimed Brassed Off.
By 1997’s A Life Less Ordinary Ewan was a global superstar and was the obvious choice for a role in then biggest movie franchise in history. Ewan’s role as Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels may not have allowed him to flex his acting muscles but it did send him stratospheric, and while he kept on with the quirky projects such as Big Fish and Moulin Rouge! he was also able to command huge salaries for each appearance and make action blockbusters such as The Island and Stormbreaker as well as costume dramas such as Miss Potter. He is set to appear in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream and as the devil in I, Lucifer in 2007.
The huge fame that came with these movies also allowed Ewan to branch out with his own projects - notably The Long Way Round, a TV show which saw Ewan and pal Charley Boorman attempt a motorcycle trip from London to New York. As well as plenty of time in front of the camera Ewan, along with Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Sean Pertwee and Jonny Lee Miller, keeps his hand in behind the lens with Natural Nylon a production company owned by the Brit Pack A list.
updated January 2007
Ewan has been married to make up artist Eve Mavrakis since 1995. They met on the set of TV drama Kavanagh QC and now have two daughters Clara Mathilde and Esther Rose. In April 2006 the couple also adopted a four year old girl from Mongolia.
October 2007