Born Lippy
Total Film October, 2003
By Daniel Webb

"He's often naked, Star Wars is "fine", and BAFTA kicked him in the balls. Total film talks straight with Ewan McGregor.

Rule Britannia. What a nation. We've survived the plague, new romanticism and Margaret Thatcher. Saved the world from fascism, given it football, won two World Wars and one World Cup. And yet, during the history of this green and pleasant land, it has been only cool to be British twice. First, the '60s. Michael Caine, Dr No, David Bailey, Swinging London. Yeah, baby, yeah. Then the '90s: Britpop, Damien Hirst and -on magazine covers, posters, bus stops and bedroom walls -a skinny, smacked-up skinhead in a glowing orange frame. In other words, Trainspotting pulled in and Ewan McGregor arrived. "It was hugely exciting, brave and new," says McGregor of the film that provided his big breakthrough. "I was thrilled when it kicked off like that, because I'd felt so passionately that we were doing something really great. It was a good time, you know? And it was a very optimistic time for British films."

Skip seven years and that optimism has gone the way of Oasis and Tony Blair's Cool Britannia. McGregor's latest movie is dark, erotic thriller Young Adam, another off-kilter exploration of the underside of Scottish life, adapted from the 1957 cult novel by beat writer and inveterate junkie Alexander Trocchi. Dubbed Last Tango In Glasgow by its writer/director David Mackenzie, it proved "very hard" to fund, prompting its star to lobby the British Film Council, which ponied up about £500,000. "No one is having an easy time of it these days," McGregor tells Total Film. "But if everyone f***s off to Hollywood then we're not going to be making films here at all..."

Just f***ing off is something the forthright Scot has had I plenty of opportunity to do -and sometimes it must be tempting. For example, during a cold day on the Forth & Clyde Canal, steering a barge in and out of a lock. Still, when Total Film arrives on Young Adam's Scottish set, the bouffant- haired barge-hand is cheerful, waving hello, listening to Mackenzie's direction and stalking around in a donkey jacket, looking like Montgomery Clift dressed as a bin man.

Later, Total Film walks through the shoot's grubby trailer park, where the wind is trying to wrestle a dress off Tilda Swinton, the main 'love' interest of McGregor's existentialist drifter, Joe. Laughing, she sets off for her next scene, while we -ooh, the glamour -grab an Irn-Bru with co-star Peter Mullan, who plays her character's cuckolded husband, Les. "Ewan's in every scene, it's remarkable, every f***ing scene!" he cries. "He gets to screw everybody! He shags everything! You look at the shooting schedule... Flicking, 'Joe shags', 'Joe shags'... And all I get is, 'Les is impotent', 'Les gets told to f***k off' ."

"This story is about a guy who uses sex to fill a gap, I suppose," says McGregor, contemplating Joe's frequent fornication and the frank sexual scenes that have recurred throughout his own career. "I think if the sex stuff was just gratuitous, it'd be a bit dull, and no one would go on about it. But the stuff I've done, say in The Pillow Book, and especially Young Adam, is about telling the story. When people are naked it tells you a lot about their relationships, and certainly in every relationship I've had, nudity plays a part at some point. Maybe people create a fuss about it because they're never naked, but I very often am..."

We're chatting some months later, having abandoned the waterways of Lanarkshire for the more salubrious surroundings of a swank London hotel, where the impeccably presented star is decked out in tartan tank top and snakeskin- style shoes, a combo only he or Bono could possibly pull off. Pleased that the "arduous" shoot has resulted in "a beautiful piece of work," he's enthusiastic about his co-stars, particularly Swinton -who he nearly worked with on The Beach, right? "No, I didn't nearly work with her on The Beach at all," he says, the air suddenly chilling. "But I liked working with her a lot. She's a fantastic actress and she's incredible in this."

The Beach was directed, of course, by his Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary collaborator Danny Boyle and was considered an ideal opportunity to continue their working relationship. By everyone except Fox, that is. Leo DiCaprio got the gig and McGregor's friendship with Boyle soured, until the pair recently "bumped into each other". "It was nice to see him. It was as simple as that, it was no big shakes," says McGregor. Yet he won't go so far as to say this means there's a chance he'll do the much-mooted adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting sequel, Porno. "I think Pomo's a really good book," he admits, "but I would be loath to make it in case it wasn't as good as the first one. It would be terrible Ito make a disappointing sequel to such a great film. It would have to be exceptional. We'll see..."

Once bitten, twice shy? After all, McGregor isn't a stranger to sequels -or prequels -that compare badly to hallowed originals. When he was first trusted with filling Sir Alec Guinness' shoes for The Phantom Menace, the then 28-year-old actor was full of fizz for lightsabers, Jedis and a galaxy far, far away. After its box-office bow, however, he was perceived as being much less enthusiastic, while he publicly slammed the "terrible, terrible title" of Attack Of The Clones. 'Well, it is!" he says, unrepentant. And how did George Lucas react to his decidedly non-Hollywood honesty? "He's been fine. I mean, I've never said anything derogatory about his movies at all. I love being in them and I love the way lads love them. When lads come up and ask about lightsabers and cutting Darth Maul in half and all that, I get a real lack out of it. But, they're very difficult to do, that's all. And I can't say otherwise, because they are. "But, urn, I think they..." Yes? "You know..." Go on. "1 was much... I was happy with the second one and I think they're fine. They're just not the be-all and end-all of anything for me. And I don't mean that disrespectfully, they're fantastic. They're just two movies I've been in, but I've made an awful lot of other ones."

He has, too, with 16 features released since Trainspotting sent him stratospheric. Ignore the space operas, however, and you've got a slightly audience-phobic CV. Neither Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, miner comi-tragedy Brassed Off, nor glam-dram Velvet Goldmine exactly had punters pounding down multiplex doors, with only Moulin Rouge and ensemble actioner Black Hawk Down pulling in big bucks. Whether daring (Young Adam) or dubious (Rogue Trader), his choices are not that of a traditional movie star, yet he rides high in the public's affections, recently being voted the ninth greatest film star of all time in Channel 4's poll, and often identified as the most successful Scottish export since Sean Connery. Why? Surely it's something to do with his no-bulls**t persona. The drama student who dropped out to star in Dennis Potter's TV series Lipstick On Your Collar may now regard his wife (production designer Eve Mavrakis) as the biggest influence on his life ("Since I've been with her, I'm much more interesting and interested than I ever was before"), but the father-of-two has never lost the zeal of the boy from Crieff whose influences were "old movies, '30s and '40s black-and- white romances, Hollywood at its best, Ealing comedies, and Billy Connolly and Denis Leary and fast motorcycles..." Connolly is probably the most telling touchstone. "It's funny," reflects McGregor. "Jimmy Stewart would be my favourite actor, but I don't know if he's an influence. Whereas I think Billy Connolly has been an influence, because he was my hero, really. I loved what he said, I loved the way he said it, I loved what he'd done with his life. And the fact that he's so much himself, you know, and that he says what he means, he doesn't f**k about. I really like that about him."

This is what the public really, really likes about McGregor, too. His honesty. If he hates Heat magazine, he says so ("a dirty, filthy piece of shit," he told LBC's listeners, recently); if he's irritated, you know it. It's a truth he can carryon screen, in the gut-trembling grief of Moulin Rouge, the rock-star abandon of Velvet Goldmine, and the blank stare of Young Adam's anti-hero. During interviews he's impressively uncensored. "I thought that was a bit of a kick in the balls, really," he says, of the British Academy overlooking him for Moulin Rouge. "In terms of a British actor doing something like that, not to be nominated for a BAFTA, I thought, was a bit nasty." And regarding those post-Moulin rumours that this one-time busker would release an album, he acknowledges that "it's very difficult for actors to bring out music albums without it just being a nightmare of cheesiness," adding, "I wouldn't hold your breath." As for future projects, there's Tim Burton's Big Fish with Albert Finney, Jodie Foster's Flora Plum, and Marc Monster's Ball Forster's psychological thriller Stay. Plus Renée Zellweger rom-com Down With Love and, of course, Episode III, which should "culminate in some massive fight with me and Hayden Christensen -Hayden's very tasty with his lightsaber."

Long-term, he's interested in another major franchise, with McGregor responding to the inevitable "will you play James Bond?" question with genuine consideration, rather than the faux self-deprecation of most wannabe 007s. His conclusion: "I've gone through phases of thinking it would be fantastic and phases of not. I'm in between at the moment." He'd certainly excel on Her Majesty's Secret Service, but the publicity grind and time-sapping shoots could restrict a varied career, even as it sends him to superstardom. Still, at least people would see his films, something which does bother him, judging by an anecdote about Velvet Goldmine's poor distribution. "1 don't do things half-heartedly, I throw myself into all my work, so I felt let down there," he says. I wrote to the distributors and complained. I said, 'I f***ing knocked my guts out doing this fIlm, to do something dangerous and, I thought, interesting, and I feel that you've just done nothing at all to try and get people to see it.' I basically got a letter back saying, 'It wasn't going to work anyway'. I thought, 'Well f***ing give it to someone else... Don't take it on yourselves!"

Leaning forward in his seat, he's almost incredulous: why do something you don't believe in? The 32-year-old may not be the hard-drinking tearaway he once was, but he still shows the same passion: "I'm just delighted to see myself up there, doing what I've always wanted to do. It still gives me a kick." By turns frank, funny and thoughtful, he still cares. "It has so much depth... It's beautiful," he muses of The Pillow Book. "And people snigger because my c**k's in it. That's a shame..."

A shame likely to be replicated with Young Adam. So, knob aside, why should Total Film readers watch it? The straight- talking Jedi pauses.

"Just tell them I said they should. Ha, ha!"