Ewan McGregor is in the middle of a quiet coughing fit when I enter the room. “Sorry,” he rasps, “water went down the wrong way.”
He flashes that lupine grin and chuckles as he tries to contain himself. Eventually, a few clears of the throat and we’re out of the danger zone. “Was close there for a minute.”
He may be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood since his breakthrough 20 years ago in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, but the 48-year-old Scot never fails to disarm in person.
Perennially likable in company, he answers openly and broadly, rarely projecting a chilled vibe, although maybe he’s just that good an actor.
We meet today to talk about a significant film in his career, Doctor Sleep. A horror movie in the mold of The Shining, it is Stephen King’s own follow-up to the 1977 classic.
The character, Danny Torrance, is now fully grown – an adult still coming to terms with the trauma he endured as a child. He encounters Abra, a teenager who wants to work with him in harnessing her extrasensory gift in defeating Rose the Hat and her followers, The True Knot, who are looking to recharge from the ‘shine’ of innocents in their yearning for immortality.
It’s all a long way from McGregor’s early days. Trainspotting was the film that made the man; a roguish heroin addict determined to shake his vices and start anew, the actor embodied the epitome of “cool” for a generation. He secured his indie credentials with a string of low budgeters, from The Pillow Book, Velvet Goldmine, Boyle again for A Life Less Ordinary and The Serpent’s Kiss.
And then he made the unexpected crossover to studio movies with the most prominent studio franchise of them all, Star Wars.
As Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, many worried Ewan had sold his soul for the right price, but this new move only sought to stretch his already broad range, and now the star expertly navigates both sides of the big screen spectrum.
He went on to solidify his movie star credentials with Moulin Rouge, Black Hawk Down, The Island, The Impossible and Angels and Demons while maintaining his indie crown in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, Beginners, The Ghost and Big Fish.
McGregor lives in LA with wife Eva Mavrakis. They share four girls; Clara, 23, Jamyan, 18, Esther, 17 and eight-year-old Anouk.
STRIPLV: Why has this film not been made before now? MCGREGOR: It is incredible to think it hasn’t, but we are in an era of prequels and sequels and all that, and I think the expectation is that this is the treatment films should get, whereas in reality some movies and some storylines are best just left in the past. STRIPLV: How do you approach a film like this that has such a notable story, and one that everyone knows? MCGREGOR: The original The Shining movie is so iconic and such a statement piece of horror that you know you can’t go near it in terms of your approach or your ability to reinvent. That’s really why Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep became a whole new story, tagging on to the reality of old. And that’s the way we have approached the film. The original story is untouched, and everything that connects that desperate setting will stay as it is, certainly in this project. Our intention was always to create a totally new story, and I think we’ve done that very well. STRIPLV: Are audiences tuned in to the horror genre at the moment? MCGREGOR: I think it needs a big film such as this one to draw it back a bit. Obviously, the superhero genre has been the one that has really come to the fore in the past 10 or 15 years, and the blockbusters are either in that area or just high-octane special effects productions. Doctor Sleep is really neither of those, but I think that’s a brave and important stance to take. You can’t start challenging something simply by just repeating it, and we’re all looking for this particular genre to make a comeback. When you have a platform as strong as ours, it’s very possible. STRIPLV: Who has inspired you most across what is more than two decades in film? MCGREGOR: I drew from all my directors; I discovered something different in their work, and I discovered some stuff that I didn’t want to do myself because from my experience as an actor. If I walk on to set, and I haven’t rehearsed on the actual set, and I’m pointed at my mark, and this is where you walk to and this is where you stop, I’m feeling immediately uncomfortable. And if I feel uncomfortable in that situation, then every actor I work with will feel the same unless I do what Danny did with me. I have a bond with actors because I am one, and I believe in actors and giving them a fertile environment to nurture and grow. And some directors are unaware of that need. Some directors don’t want that preparation time. They feel that if you don’t do it first on camera, you’ll lose the spark and the spontaneity that comes with the first try. Something special. Which can a very successful method; herein lies my point; there’s no right or wrong way. STRIPLV: Critics seem to be largely positive, which is great for your first feature. MCGREGOR: I don’t read reviews. STRIPLV: Do you not? MCGREGOR: I haven’t done for a very long time because I can’t take criticism, it upsets me too much. I can’t do it, so I choose to eliminate it from my life. How I’ve been for a long time, and I’m happily encased in my bubble. The only time when I learn of a rubbish review is when I get a text from a friend saying, “Hope you’re doing alright, fuck them, they don’t know what they’re talking about.” (Laughs) STRIPLV: When was the last time you read one? MCGREGOR: It was before I went on for Guys and Dolls one night, someone handed me a paper saying, “There’s a nice write up about you.” So I thought, let’s break this rule. And it started off with, “McGregor isn’t without his knocks and proceeded to list off all the crap that’s been said about me.” I tossed it away before I got to the apparent “good bit.” (Laughs) STRIPLV: There was a bit of bad blood there between you and Danny for a while. MCGREGOR: We didn’t speak for ten years, so it wasn’t good. STRIPLV: About The Beach? MCGREGOR: It was over The Beach, and some business was handled badly. I was hurt by it, yes, I was very surprised, and I wasn’t pleased at the time, but I’m glad it’s behind us now. That’s the nature of relationships; you go through ups and downs. STRIPLV: Because you two were like the dream partnership? MCGREGOR: I think there was a stage in my career where I was Danny Boyle’s guy, I was his actor, and that’s who I felt I was. Of Danny, Andrew McDonald, John Hodge, whom I met when we worked on Shallow Grave, it was the first time for all of us in a film, and there was that connection there. Danny understood me, I understood him, you know, he got the best out of me. We understood the high level of quality desired, and you don’t get trust very often. He could have asked me to do anything because I know it would have been something very trailblazing and special. I really missed that connection between us, so I’m really glad that we’re working together again. STRIPLV: Your eldest Clara, it seems, is following in your footsteps. How do you feel about that? MCGREGOR: Yeah, it’s an exciting time. I’m very happy for her; it’s something she’s wanted to pursue. There are drawbacks to the profession that you would prefer your own offspring to avoid, but it’s their life to experience and navigate. STRIPLV: Your career—you’ve stretched from big budget to independent, obviously more independent, is it strange to work on something like Beauty and the Beast, or Star Wars? After working on Danny Boyle’s groundbreaking films, and Todd Haynes in Velvet Goldmine, Peter Greenaway in The Pillow Book, it was quite the jump. MCGREGOR:Star Wars was the biggest conflict professionally because at that point, I saw myself as an actor who worked on independent projects, who had an edge, a grit. A propensity for the left of center. I worked with, as you say, Peter Greenaway, Todd Hayes. It really didn’t feel like me, even going in for the audition, I’ll give it a go but what am I doing here? It honestly felt like selling out. I was looking at it through a prejudiced angle. I saw it as big studio, soulless, out to make money and nothing more. But George Lucas is an artist. A creator of worlds. He won me over because I believed every single thing he said, I believed in him and wanted to be part of that world. And it didn’t limit me in any way. Between making these films over a duration of 10 years, I worked with Woody Allen, Baz Luhrman, and it didn’t do me any harm. I’ve had a chance to work with some of the world’s greatest directors, and no one considered me in a different light because of Star Wars. STRIPLV: Would you be up for making more Star Wars films? MCGREGOR: Yes, and yes. There’s that period between episode three, which I finished in and episode four where Alec Guinness first played Obi-Wan, there’s something to play around with there. Disney needs only to call me. (Laughs) STRIPLV: Have you ever done a job just for the money? MCGREGOR: Well, sometimes you get an offer with lots of money, and there’s no way you can turn it down. (Laughs) But it’s never been for just the money. Sometimes you’ve done a string of independent films, so why not? This could be fun. STRIPLV: Is an Oscar the dream? MCGREGOR: I’d love one. I would. I’m certainly not waiting around, planning my next move around it, but it would be great. STRIPLV: You seriously aren’t aging—what is the McGregor secret? McGREGOR: Make-up and lots of it. (Laughs) Thank you. There’s no secret because I think I’m maturing along with the rest of them. Just exercise I reckon, that seems to be key to staying healthy. Not in the gym, I’m a stranger to the gym. Getting around outside, walking, running, cycling. It’s not a question I’m asked very often. Will that do? STRIPLV: Your parents had initially thought you would follow your brother’s academic path? MCGREGOR: There was a void of expectation when my brother left home at 17 because he was very good at school. He was the head boy, and the teachers all loved him. When he left there was this expectation that I would take his place, but I wasn’t like that. STRIPLV: Did you grow up with the sense of rebelliousness that you sometimes get to show in your work and life? MCGREGOR: I grew up in a very conservative setting. But it was also a very beautiful childhood simply because of the setting. The open spaces and nature really gave me a love for life that you just don’t get I imagine if you grow up in a big city surrounded by concrete. So I think that helped feed my fantasy life and gave me some sense of adventure. I don’t know. I think I always had some natural sense of fun and mayhem. I would never want to curb that. It’s who I am.