Ewan McGregor, one of the most prolific Scottish film stars – with the permission of the eternal 007, Sean Connery – is a bird of passage who has never wanted to nest in Hollywood, where he arrived with a lightsaber and with the robes of a Jedi master , a role that marked a before and after in the half century of life that he celebrated this week.
Born in Perth (central Scotland) 50 years ago, McGregor did not hesitate to leave the rural environment where he lived with his parents, both teachers, to pursue his dreams among the skyscrapers of the City of London, at the school of music and dramatic arts Guildhall, where he shared a classroom with current James Bond, Daniel Craig, before graduating in 1992.
McGregor consolidated his leap to the big screen with “Being Human”, in the shadow of the late Robin Williams, but it was not until he crossed paths with director Danny Boyle that his career began to gain momentum.
Without comfort zones, it has been part of musicals, children, comedies, action and science fiction
Under his wing, the Scottish actor won an Empire Award for his performance in the thriller “Shallow Grave” and later, already a Boyle fetish, bought his one-way ticket to fame as the lead in “Trainspotting,” where he put himself in the shoes of drug addict antihero Mark Renton.
Off the screen, this role as a ruffian brought him the odd anecdote that the Scotsman confessed with laughter years later, such as that time he was recognized by customs at the Chicago airport and forced to undress to search him, something that He scandalized McGregor: “I’m an actor, for God’s sake! I’m really not a heroin addict. “
There are those who blame him for having made a somewhat absurd decision at that time by truncating his good streak after “Trainspotting” by allowing himself to be overshadowed by Michael Caine with a supporting role in the film “Little Voice”, but his career soon regained its pulse.
After the meager success of “A Little Ordinary Life”, Boyle opted in “The Beach” to replace his leading actor with Leo DiCaprio, leaving McGregor helpless until he fell into the arms of George Lucas, who appointed him teacher in 1999. Jedi from the “Star Wars” franchise.
The actor accepted the role without hesitation because he felt that he owed it to his inner child and, above all, because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, Denis Lawson, who gave life in the first three films of the saga to Wedge Antilles, a young and rebellious pilot.
Converted into the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi, McGregor knocked on the doors of Hollywood and devoted himself to the slipstream of the three “Star Wars” prequels as a reference for a generation that grew up accompanied by The Force.
A DIVERSE CAREER
The Scotsman does not understand comfort zones and proof of this is his vast and award-winning record, which includes everything from musicals (“Moulin Rouge!”) To family films (“Big Fish”), through action films (“Black Hawk Down “), Woody Allen comedies (” Cassandra’s Dream “), thrillers (” The Impossible “,” Doctor Sleep “) or films for children (” Robots “,” Beauty and the Beast “,” Christopher Robin “).
In these comings and goings, McGregor has repeatedly left the heat of the Hollywood spotlights to participate in independent plays and films, direct and star in the adaptation of “American Pastoral” and shoot documentaries on the back of his Harley during long journeys through the world together with his friend Charley Boorman.
Gone are the years when the actor attracted the attention of the tabloids with his integral nudes in several films, his already overcome problems with drinking and the stormy divorce of the French designer Eve Mavrakis, with whom he has four daughters, while filming the fourth season of “Fargo” and fell in love with his castmate, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
RETURN
Overcome all that, and after going through Argentina to film his motorcycle travel series, “Long way round”, now McGregor (perhaps in need of a little money) dusts his old lightsaber from “Star Wars” to return to the galaxy that made him see stardom, this time again as Obi-Wan, protagonist of the future third live action series in the saga, after “Rogue One” and “The Mandalorian”: the The new Disney + series begins filming this month, taking place ten years after the events of “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” in which Kenobi suffered his greatest defeat, the fall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who became the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Like Obi-Wan Kenobi, McGregor knocked on the doors of Hollywood and consecrated himself
The series, the most anticipated of the series prepared by Disney + inspired by the galactic universe of George Lucas, will be directed by Deborah Chow, who has already led two episodes of the first season of “The Mandalorian”, and with McGregor, Hayden Christensen will repeat in the role of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader that he already did in Episodes II and III of the second George Lucas trilogy.
The new cast names announced now are Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie.
It is just one of the entries of the galactic war that will appear on the screen of the on demand platform: after the success of “Mandalorian” the franchise announced that it is preparing another fiction called “The Book of Boba Fett”, which will be released in December 2021 starring Temuera Morrison, who already appeared in the 2002 film “Attack of the Clones”; “Ahsoka,” which will star Rosario Dawson; and “Rangers Of The New Republic”, of which hardly any details have transpired, except that it will be supervised by filmmakers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Oh, and very soon the animated “The Bad Batch” is coming …
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