Ewan Gordon McGregor was born March 31, 1971 and brought up in the "haggis and heather" town of Crieff, Scotland. In other words, Crieff is a small, traditional country town. He caught the acting bug from his uncle, Denis Lawson, a comic actor who starred in Scottish movies (Local Hero) and West End musicals (Mr. Cinders) and also was in all three Star Wars flicks. "He had long hair, beads and a furry waistcoat. I aspired to be as different as he seemed to me," McGregor says of his uncle.
At sixteen, Ewan left Crieff and Morrison Academy, where his father James is a Career Advisor and P.E. Teacher, to gain worldly experience with the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents encouraged him to leave school and pursue his acting goals rather than be unhappy. Ewan studied drama for a year at Kirkcaldly in Fife, then enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a three-year course. Right before graduating he snagged the role of Private Mick Hopper in Dennis Potter's 1993 six-part Channel 4(UK) series Lipstick on Your Collar and left to pursue his acting career.
Next came the one-line role of Alvarez in Bill Forsyth's Being Human, the Robin Williams bomb. But hey, Ewan did get to travel to Morocco to film his couple of lines so why not? He followed this up by hopping over to France to play the lead role of Julien Sorel in Ben Bolt's major three-part BBC adaptation of Stendah's Scarlet and Black. Not bad considering that his career didn't exactly take off after his debut in Lipstick like he thought it would.
Yet soon came his breakthrough role as Alex Law in the brilliant Shallow Grave, directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge and produced by Andrew MacDonald. Wicked, dark, hilarious, scary, wonderful: only a few words to describe this amazing film. With the underground success of Shallow Grave, came the opportunity for more work like Blue Juice and the role that created the most buzz for Ewan– Trainspotting, the second film by the Shallow Grave trio. Ewan starred as Mark Renton: heroin addict, hero, anti-hero. The film made waves for its brilliance, refreshingly bold images and for being sick, wacky, fabulously funny, visually arresting and completely innovative. Ewan was the center of the film which showed the world this bright new talent. The attention from the film allowed Ewan to move on to other films, adding plenty of roles to his resume, including the coveted role of the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three up-coming Star Wars prequels. Check out the filmography section for a list of all of Ewan's work and where you can find individual pages with information and images for many of Ewan's film and tv appearances.
For some more personal facts, Ewan is married to French production designer Eve Mavrakis, who is a few years older than Ewan. They met while working on the tv show Kavannagh QC, where Ewan played a young man accused of rape. They married in France in the summer of 1995 and have a daughter, Clara Mathilde, born in February 1996. They currently live in London and recently bought a house, allowing Ewan to give his daughter a garden to play in. Whenever possible, he takes his daughter and wife with him to each movie he makes.
Ewan also owns a motorcycle and loves driving around on it whenever he can. Ewan is a huge fan of Oasis and had the pleasure of announcing Oasis' act on the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards with Ewan Bremmer (Spud from Trainspotting) and gave out copies of their 3rd cd to members of the crew while filming the first Star Wars prequel. Despite playing a rock star in Velvet Goldmine, he still has dreams of being one. But don't get him wrong, Ewan loves acting and can't imagine doing anything else. He also claims he would never move to Los Angeles or back to his hometown as it is not the same as when he was there growing up. Ewan is very close to his parents who have accompanied Ewan to premieres and his older brother Colin, a RAF pilot. His mother Carol even has a cameo as one of the would-be tenants in Shallow Grave! She also helps handle Ewan's schedule, like guest appearances and fan mail. Ewan visits Crieff whenever he can. He's made trips back to Morrison Academy to give a lecture on the film business and acting and to participate in the Crieff Highland Games.
One thing to be sure of, Ewan does not want to make films he wouldn't watch himself– he doesn't want to contribute to Hollywood's growing pile of movies that all sound and look the same. One topic he loves to slag on is Hollywood blockbuster films, like Independence Day. Is this hypocritical in that Ewan has signed on for all 3 Star Wars prequels? Not according to Ewan, who feels the Star Wars movies are on a whole other level. Star Wars is independent film making at its highest level. And this films are cultural events according to Ewan. And aren't they? Plus, he remembers seeing the films that his uncle was in as a wee lad and even owning Star Wars bed sheets. It was a dream come true to snag this much sought after part and ahem, have his own light saber. Because of Ewan's feelings about Hollywood in general, he formed a production company with good friends Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee, Jude Law and Sadie Frost called Natural Nylon which he hopes will make innovative films that do not conform to Hollywood standards. They are currently developing projects, some of which Ewan will star in. Ewan, in fact, shared an apartment with Jude when they first started out not that long ago. They are all close friends and each one is a part of the new explosion of British cinema, with Ewan enjoying his rise to the top. If you have anything to add, let me know.
