Film Review #584, August 1999

When Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace blasted in multi-record-breaking style onto US screens in mid-May, Ewan McGregor was promoted from hard-working and reliable British actor to instantly recognizable international superstar.
   But old habits die hard for McGregor, the charismatic Scot who's until now carved a successful career from small British films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Brassed Off and this year's Little Voice, rather than American blockbusters. Now he has second billing in the first Star Wars prequel playing a young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
   The day of this interview a Fox publicist announces that he doesn't feel up to doing his scheduled interviews (due to start at 9am). When he finally emerges from his New York hotel room after midday, McGregor, who's known to be fond of a pint, looks a bit the wors for wear. His voice is rough and he zips-up his black leather jacket and begs someone to switch off the air-conditioning because he finds it freezing. But he soon warms to the task and although he makes it clear that talking to the press is not one of his favourite things, he has a few laughts, he thrusts and parries and shows a mischievous nature which is one of the reasons George Lucas, the master of the Star Warsl universe wanted him for the film.
   Obi-Wan begins Episode I as an apprentices to Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). They rescue Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from the peaceful planet of Naboo after a blockade and invasion by the Trade Federation. On the desert planet of Tatooine (ring any bells?!), the Jedi discover slave boy Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who Qui-Gon senses is the Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force. Of course, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are soon up to their hoods in battle droids and the satanic Darth Maul, a Dark Side denizen who wields the galaxy's first double-sided lightsabre.
   McGregor cuts a dashing figure in the spiritual Jedi outfit first modelled by Alec Guinness as the elderly Obi-Wan. Clad in knee-high leather boots, unusually neat brushed-back short hair with a funky plaited rat's tail hanging down from the back of his head and a cloak and judo tunic, he looks born for the role. The first day's shoot was a big moment for him because that's when he got all his Jedi gear on for the first time. "I remember standing looking in the miror with my cloak," he says, "It is incredibly cool, and looks good."
   In one of the film's biggest set-pieces, he and Neeson fight the devilish-looking Sith Lord Darth Maul with lightsabres. McGregor actually began his lightsabre practice 22 years ago. He was a six-year-old living near Edinburgh when he got his first toy version. It was a torch with a plastic blade and, all over the world, just about every kid could also be seen wandering the streets pretending to be a Jedi trainee. McGregor was just as territorial about his weapon on the shoot as he was back in 1977 - "Nobody touched my lightsabre."
   There were family stories to fire up the Force in the young McGregor too. Because his uncle, the actor and stage director Denis Lawson, played rebel fighter pilot Wedge in the original Star Wars trilogy.
   Obi-Wan is the only human character in The Phantom Menace who also exists in the original Star Wars movie (Anakin is a completely different character from Darth Vader). That was a big challenge for McGregor because the original Obi-Wan was played so distinctively by Alec Guinness and the gentle tone and inflection of his voice have become synonymous with that character.
   McGregor says he watched a lot of Guinness early work and "just tried to be like Alec Guinness really, or have a flavour of him." That includes the voice. McGregor has played posh before, in Emma but in the Phantom Menace he adopts a particularly plummy English accent that he says he developed from what he heard of Guinness in his early films and in the first Star Wars. "He's got such a distinct voice, and you can't do an impersonation, because that's not gonna work. But I worked quite hard to try and get a flavour of it so that it was recognisable as being him. And it's quite tricky because it's a voice we immediately associate with an older man, and so to use that voice as a younger man, I had no idea it would work or not."
 ,  He didn't know whether he got away with it until he saw the movie for the first time the previous night. "I was worried or concerned that it worked at all, being a young Alec Guinness, and I was pleased. I just about got away with it, I think."
   George Lucas says he cast McGregor because he's a really good actor, "That's the primary thing. And then I looked for somebody who is physically right for the part and has the personality that is right for the part. I wanted Obi-Wan to have a little mischievous nature, which is what Alec Guinness had, and I wanted him to be strong but also kind of impetuous and impatient with his mentor. And I think Ewan sort of qualifies in all those areas. I'm not making him be Alec Guinness. It's just as Bobby De Niro wasn't Marlon Brando (in The Godfather Part II). He played the character of Corleone. In this case, they're playing the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi in their own way. I mean, obviously we're trying to have some similarity going on there so that there isn't too much of a jarring thing, but the actor has to play it in his own way. He's not playing Alec Guinness, he's playing Obi-Wan Kenobi."
   The shadow of the veteran British actor loomed large over McGregor. "Guinness was, and is, a most extraordinary actor and was leading British cinema when British cinema was leading the world in cinema, and did some extraordinary work a very eccentric and brilliant actor. Then he did a film in the Seventies called Star Wars, and I think since then still that's what people ask him about, as if the rest of his work didn't exist. So I think he's rather perplexed and confused and probably p*ssed off."
   Asked how he would feel if 20 years from now people were still asking him about the Star Wars prequels McGregor says, "Probably p*ssed off and really grumpy. But I don't know. You put yourself up on a big screen, so you get what you ask for. And then if people come to you for the rest of your life for this movie or the next.
   "I had a lot of people ask me about climbing down toilets since I did Trainspotting, so I'm kinda cursed with that for the rest of my life. But that's fine, because it's a film I'm really proud of and I like it, as is Star Wars. So, that's okay."
   What's not okay by McGregor is being quoted as saying he was bored making The Phantom Menace. Asked about this comment that it was the epitome of tedium, he suddenly goes on the attack: "You've got to all relax as the media. I've had enough now. I was talking about the technicalities of making the film. It's a more tedious process than other things. I wasn't talking about it in a negative way. It's just the time that's taken, and it's very hot, it's hard work, and then suddenly it goes the most boring film I ever made, and I get in a lot of trouble from the producers. So just relax."
   He's still in the remaining two installments despite his comments, and he says, "It's true, I enjoyed myself and I'm looking forward to the next two." Especially now he's seen the first one. "But I wasn't bored. How can you be bored? It's Star Wars. Every day, it's Oooooh!"
   He admits that when it became a realistic possibility that he might actually get the part, he didn't question whether it would be the right career move. But by the time Lucas offered it to him, he'd decided it was, "And it took me about three seconds to say 'yes'.
   "You have to consider the scale of what it is. It's more than just playing a part in a movie. It becomes something else, a film like this." So despite the long-term commitment he had to make to do the three prequels, "It's just too much fun not to be in it, really. And it would take a much braver actor than I to say no when they offer it to you." McGregor is impressed by the way all the Star Wars movies, including the new one, work on different levels.
   "I've always liked them primarily because they're like fairy tales to me. They have characters who we understand, like the prince and the princess, and the jester and the wizard, and they're kind of old-style fairy tales, which I relate to, and it's just fantastic for kids. And then, good versus evil, the religious or spiritual side of things with the Force - it operates on all different kinds of levels. However it's a good laugh to watch. But I don't see it just as entertainment.
   "I understand that it's a very complex piece of work, and they all are. And there's comments, like the scene when we arrive at a planet that's entirely one city (Coruscant), and the traffic is in the sky but it's still in grids. I think there's a lot of comment on our world going on in it, that you can notice or not. Kate, my (three-year-old) daughter, wouldn't worry about that, but she'd still enjoy it. So yeah, they're not simple films, they're complex and rich."
   McGregor's favourite character from the original trilogy was Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher. "I fancied Princess Leia for so long. I had a real crush on her. There's still a little part of my heart that's there for Carrie. And Harrison Ford was cool. And Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). You wanna be him because it's all happening around him." Ford turned up at the screening last night and McGregor got to meet him for the first time.
   So what did Han Solo say when he shook your hand?
   "None of your business."
   But seriously...
   "I thought it was really sweet that he came along. He just said, 'Well done'. I said 'Thanks very much'. I wanted to ask him about the scar on his chin, but I forgot. I've always wanted to know how that happened."
   As fame has picked him up and carried him along, McGregor has meet icons like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, but that's still just a novelty to him. "I don't walk around feeling famous particularly. Oh, I'm right f-ing famous today. Feeling really famous today. However, I can get into most restaurants and that's nice. I went with Nick Nolte (his co-star in the thriller Nightwatch) and that was quite something. It's great to meet people you've been watching in the movies all these years."
   As for the astronomical number of kids who are now going to be watching him in Star Wars Movies, McGregor says he doesn't see being a role model as his responsibility. "It's a film for children and that's fantastic. I was surprised doing it. I kept remembering that it was for kids, and in that respect it is good, because it's good against evil and we're pretty good people, me and Liam. I think that's great, but it's not necessarily or duty. Trainspotting wasn't a good role model for anybody, but it's not my business to be one."