One of the most prolific and eclectic actors of his generation, Golden Globe winner Ewan McGregor has conquered the box office in action adventures, sci-fi, comedies, thrillers, and in both large and small budgeted movies. He has even lent his voice to cartoons. In many instances, he has seduced the critics.
In a career spanning three decades, the Scottish actor has appeared in over 60 films. On the big or small screen, he has embodied the most diverse characters, from a drug addict, Trainspotting (1996) to a Jedi Knight, in the Star Wars saga. He even ventured into the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001). His fondness for challenges and giving his all for the love of the art led him to direct the film adaptation of one of the most complex works of American literature, Philip Roth´s American Pastoral (2016).
It all started in Perth (Scotland) where McGregor was born in 1971. Both his parents were teachers but Ewan was not very keen on studies, eventually quitting school when he was 16. “Ever since I was a child, I knew that acting was my higher calling. I dreamt of being an actor and did everything in my power to become one, the actor told the members of the HFPA. After leaving school he studied drama at Fife College and worked at Perth Repertory Theatre before moving to London to continue his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Six months short of his graduation he left to star in his first major production, the six-part TV miniseries Lipstick on Your Collar (1993). The same year he appeared in Scarlet & Black. He soon made his feature film debut appearing in Bill Forsyth´s Being Human (1994). Two years after turning professional the actor was vaulted to international stardom with his portrait of a junkie trying to straighten up his act only to get sucked back into old criminal behaviors in Trainspotting.
Building on his success, McGregor worked non-stop the next decade and made headlines when he landed the role of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999). The film turned him into a true global star.
In 2012 he was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor on Comedy or Musical for his portrait of a fisheries expert who helps bring the sport of fly fishing to the Yemen desert in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. He won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV series for the endless dramatic resourcefulness shown in Fargo, where he played the double role of very different twin brothers.
A parent of five children, he is a passionate biker and social activist. McGregor admits to being a tireless worker who hates being a movie star. Movie stars usually have to strive to keep the magic of celluloid in real life but Ewan McGregor is unique risk-taker who appears to be up for any challenge. The latest challenge is his Golden Globe nominated turn in Halston, the Ryan Murphy´s mini-series about Roy Halston Frowick, the American fashion designer who rose to international fame in 1961 when he designed Jacqueline Kennedy´s pillbox hat for the presidential inauguration of her husband.
The show explores the rise and fall of the man who created a fashion empire trusted by the greatest movie stars who also happened to be his friends, such as Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, and Anjelica Huston. It was Halston who encouraged Elsa Peretti to become a renowned jewelry designer. The series sadly culminates in Halston’s fashion empire disappearing in the many excesses of parties, drugs and lovers.
Ewan McGregor inhabited the extravagant designer with such gusto that, sometimes, he seemed as if he was channeling Halston. “I loved looking into his life, especially that period in New York City. He was very knowledgeable and passionate about what he did,” said the actor. McGregor immersed himself in copious amounts of research in all things related to the 1960s and 1970s, gathering any material that could shed a light on the designer’s true-life story. “It’s a very interesting tale of a man who came from a small town in middle America, went to Chicago and then onto New York, to follow his dream of being a famous fashion designer. He’s a fascinating character and I sort of fell in love with him,” confessed the actor when he met with the HFPA. For this work of transformation and flair, MacGregor received a Golden Globe nomination.