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Ewan
was interviewed by Kirsty Wark on the Kirsty Walk show for
BBC Scotland in Morroco during Ewans day off from shooting
Black Hawk Down. The interview was funny with lots of laughs
from Ewan, Black Hawk Down appears to be a happy shoot judging
the upbeat manner that Ewan was in.
Kirsty:
Ewan Mcgregor, 30 next week has starred in some of the most
talked about movies of the last 10 years. Catapulted to fame
on the energy of Trainspotting, to Hollywood star status of
Star Wars and he still finds time to make a 2 minute low budget
movie. Now he's in Rabat shotting Ridley Scott's latest movie
Black Hawk Down. I met him on Sunday his day off.
Kirsty
: Back in Morroco, you made your first film here?
Ewan
: I was here in 93 with Bill Forsyth's film Being Human, I've
never seen it, I spent one month in Rabatt. I had one line
in it.
Kirsty:
David Puttnam came out and said apparently "that boy
is going to be a star"
Ewan
: He's got very good taste hasn't he. I didn't know that.
Kirsty
: But I'd never guess you were back doing some kind of American
military movie.
Ewan:
Would you not, no.
Kirsty
: What's Black Hawk Down about?
Ewan
: It's about the American army's involvement in Mogadishu
when the warlord's and there was a famine and they were stopping
the food etting to the people so the Americans moved in with
a group called the Task Force Rangers.
Kirsty
: Black Hawk Down is based on a real incident in 1993 of a
UN force on a humanitarian mission in Mogadishu who went after
a Somali warlord and found themselves outnumbered and out
manouvred. The resulting battle left 18 US soldiers dead and
500 Somali's dead. It has profoundy influenced American foreign
policy ever since.
Kirsty
: Somali wasn't regarded as America's finest hour, when you
are looking at scripts are you looking for?
Ewan
: I always wanted to be in a war film, that's what swung it
yeah. Because I spent a lot of my youth running around pretending
to be a soldier. And now I'm getting paid to do it.
Kirsty
: Ewan was among the cast trained by US Rangers in Georgia
before travelling to Morocco for filming to recreate the battle.
Filimg started in February and the movie is due out in November.
Ewan:
We worked with a lot of sergeants in the training school.
Kirsty
: did you have to go throug rigorous training?
Ewan:
Fairly, we'd have 3 to 4 mile runs every morning. And we did
a Meet Jesus PT session at the end where we had to do an assault
course of a mile in the forest. It was hellish and then we
were ushered to a field and there were two guys in stretchers
and we moved them as a team across the field.
Kirsty
: And what was the trainers like?
Ewan
: They were quite tough. Not a lot of shouting except that
one where they stipulated we had to run all the way, people
were throwing up. It was about my limit, I didn't get to meet
Jesus though.
Kirsty:
What was he screaming at you?
Ewan
: It was just healthy encouragement, a lot of suck it down,
suck down the pain and carry on.
Kirsty
: Did you come to people's attention after you did Trainspotting?
Ewan
: In the states, yeah, that changed things yeah.
Kirsty
: Still look back on that and think it was a great performance?
Ewan
: It was fantastic, I was quite pleased with myself in it
, yeah. Best shoot, smoothest experience, best actors, best
crew it was fantastic. Around that time at Chicago airport
going to do ER, US customs asked what I was doing and I explained
that he might have seen me in Trainspotting, sent over to
Red immigration zone and stripped off. 'But I'm an actor for
christs sake!, I'm not really a heroin addict!'
Kirsty
: How do you deal with that paparazzi stuff?
Ewan
: There isn't any of it here so it's fantastic. I don't like
it, it's none of their business I think. What I hate more
than anything is when they take pictures of my daughter. I
always try and keep her out of everything. I don't want to
soil her childhood. Also, I don't want people to know what
she looks like.
Kirsty:
You don't subscribe to that "Hello" culture ?
Ewan
: hate it, yeah, people devour it, are they interested in
it just because it's there or are they just buying it because
it is there, because it is just absolute crap.
Kirsty
: Did you ever want to do anything else?
Ewan
No, never no. I wanted to be an actor at 9, I remember asking
uncle Dennis (Lawson) how do I be an actor? Told me to come
back in 10 years.I've never wanted to do anything else.
Kirsty
: Were your family supportive of that?
Ewan
: Very lucky, very scary moment for a parent when an offspring
wants to be an actor, just because of insecurity of it you
know. Parents right behind me, in a sense Dennis had done
a lot of the work for me, proving you can be an actor and
survive safely on it.
Kirsty
: Must be atough thing to decide to be away as an actor/
Ewan
: It's hard for a couple, they've (wife and child) travelled
with me, now Clarisa's at school it's different. It does mean
being away a bit more.
Kirsty:
You were away while she contracted meningitis?
Ewan
: Yeah, I was stuck in LA, filming ER, phoned home and she
was in casualty, it was horrendous, longest flight I've ever
had.
Kirsty
: So when you're away does she phone you?
Ewan
: Yeah, she phoned me and reminded me why I'm here cos I was
moaning that I missed her and wanted to be at home. She reminded
me that I was was doing it for things like clothes and food
and things like that.
Kirsty
: Does it embaress you to be wealthy?
Ewan
: No I mean all my money is in my house really, I'm certainly
well off, I've got a beautiful house and nice stuff.
Kirsty
: So when people say you signed up for Star Wars for money?
Ewan:
It's not true, I signed up for Star Wars. I loved Star Wars
as a kid. I used to know all the dialogue and I just wanted
to be in it and have a laugh and the cloak and stuff. What's
interesting with Star Wars is I really enjoy when kids come
up. I like that, wherever I've been in the world it's the
one film that most people remember me in. It's by no means
my best performance. It's not my finest performance. It's
what it is you know. It's great with the kids. I love that.
Do the lightsabre work and I like that as the film is essentially
for the children.
Kirsty
: There's lots of kinds of anoraks around?
Ewan
: Adults come up and ask me a lot about it and they go on
about it and I feel that hard to deal with as you feel, come
on mate, you're a bit older and better than that. We've done
the second one , I've one more to do. In terms of my career
and stuff, suppose it's opened stuff up in the states, but
it's not the overwhelming step up you imagine it to be, you
view it as being one of a kind.
Kirsty
: did you do it as a step up?
Ewan
: No I did it to get a lightsabre and run around in a cape.
Kirsty
: Any films you are unhappy with?
Ewan
: The worst thing is the director playing the director when
there are ego's around.
Kirsty
: So you feel confident about turning stuff down?
Ewan
: Yeah
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