Now Magazine November 2003

'Sex with Nicole? No, I was scared stiff'

Ewan McGregor’s never been shy of getting his kit off on screen, but this time he thinks he's outdone himself - for in his latest film he has sex scenes with four different women. "It's a lot of sex in one film, even for me," says Ewan, 32, of his lead role in Young Adam, which will be released in September. “But sex is only part of it. The whole film’s dark and dangerous and it was great to do.” In the
film, set in 1954, he plays a young drifter called Joe. It’s his most powerful performance since Trainspotting in 1996. There’s sex in a barge, a knee-trembler in an alley and a particularly messy time with Emily Mortimer involving mud, ink and custard. “I had to beat
her bottom, raise her up and take her from behind,” says Ewan. “I then go to the pub. By the time I come back, she’s very loving.
“So although it looks like rape, it’s also a game. They have an adventurous sex life, which is an important part of the story. I have to admit, I love that scene with the custard.”

But Ewan, who’s an old hand at on-screen sex with the likes of Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz, Anna Friel and Rachel Weisz, insists that passion has only got the better of him on one occasion – with Alice Krige in the BBC play Scarlet and Black, 10 years ago. “I
had to lie on top of her and they kept pulling back the sheet. They wanted to see my naked bum and her naked thigh, so we couldn’t wear any underwear at al. I got an erection. It was all very embarrassing. “It was a case of ‘Cut! We’ll go again.’ I calmed myself down and we got on with the scene. There was no such incident with Nicole in Moulin Rouge – because he was scared stiff of her. “She was one of those actresses I was very nervous about meeting,” he recalls. “She’s hugely famous and there was me thinking ‘F***ing hell,
it really is her – in the flesh.” Yet when we got to know each other she told me that her fear was that I’d think: ‘Why the hell did they cast you?’

“I never thought that for a second, because I was so screwed up myself in getting things right. After the initial nerves, we got on great. It was like having an older sister. “I’d belch or swear or tell a rude joke and she’d go ‘Ewan!’, as if she was slightly embarrassed by me. So that was how it was. It was amusing for me, because I’d play up to it. I’d think: ‘How am I going to shock Miss Kidman?’ “The rumours of a relationship were crazy. We were good mates, nothing more. You’re always going to get that sort of stuff.” But Ewan only has eyes for his French wife Eve, 36, a set designer. They have two daughters Clara, seven, and 18-month-old Clara. Eve’s said that the only jealousy she ever suffered was when Ewan had a sex scene with Kelly McDonald in Trainspotting. “I was pregnant with Clara and Kelly, who’s delightful, was a beautiful, fresh flower,” said Eve. “Maybe it was my hormones, but it took me until after the birth not to tremble when I saw her.”

Ewan met Eve on the set of the television series Kavanagh QC. Was it love at first sight? “It was for me,” he says. “I was living the life of Riley at the time – the bachelor who was up to no good around town. I then saw her across a crowded film set and thought: ‘God Almighty.’ “My wife’s fiercely beautiful and French and hugely in charge. She looked like a woman who was wasn’t going to take any sh** from anyone. So I just went after her hammer and tongs. “I remember thinking: ‘This won’t be like any other relationship.’ And I was right. It hasn’t been. I didn’t want to make the wrong decision.” In typical style, Ewan doesn’t sidestep the fact that he’d become more of a Jack-the-lad that was probably good for him. “I was full of myself at the time, which wasn’t a good thing,” he says. “But Eve knows me better that anyone else. “If I get upset about something that’s written or something that’s happened at work, she’s just very straight with me. People on the film set will be careful about the things they say to me. But she doesn’t have to worry about that, so I get it straight from the heart. Sometimes it hurts. But that is, usually, what you need to hear.“

Ewan insisted on taking time off during Eve’s last pregnancy. “I did film after film, like Nora, Moulin Rouge, Star Wars and Black Hawk Down and had suddenly had enough,” he says. “I needed a long time off, to be Eve and the family. I really wanted to be there for my eldest daughter when Esther was born. I thought it would be good for us all to be together. “Clara took to her sister beautifully. She’s very protective of her, and it was good to see. There was none of me going away to work, so we got into a family routine which was good. Then I was hungry to do another film.” The new film has a modest budget, but Ewan insists that finance was never a factor. “I’ve never really chased the money,” he says. “I could be paid more for doing other things, but that’s never been my drive. “I just wanted a very good story, with no action or special effects, and that’s what we’ve got. There’s also a depth to Joe’s character, which is peeled away carefully, piece by piece. “There’s a huge area of addiction in the story. The author who wrote the novel it’s based on was a heroin addict at the end of his life. My character Joe is always looking for his next fix in life, something that will make him change. “But one
fix leads to another fix, and he just ends up with a lot of women. He drifts from one experience to another, waiting for a change that never comes. I didn’t go out of my way to make him an audience-friendly guy. So I was delighted at the reaction in Cannes because
I’m really proud of what we’ve all done.”