A beautiful Portrait by Variety from the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards last night:
Ewan attended the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards yesterday where he presented the Best Lead Actress Award to Julianne Moore. He seems to have skipped the red carpet, but I’ve added some candid pictures from the outside arrivals, from the show and the backstage.
Gallery Links:
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Show – February 21st 2015
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Outside Arrivals – February 21st 2015
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Backstage – February 21st 2015
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Outside Arrivals – February 21st 2015
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards – Backstage – February 21st 2015
He was Obi Wan Kenobi, and he’s now playing Jesus in Sundance’s Last Days in the Desert, but Ewan McGregor tells Krista Smith he still got tongue tied when he met Prince Charles.
Have your doubts about that new Star Wars lightsaber? Well you’re not alone. Ewan McGregor, that’s right, Obi Wan Kenobi himself, jokingly says the updated design leaves much to be desired.
McGregor has moved on from his Kenobi days to play another famous robed figure in the sand: Jesus. The actor spoke with Vanity Fair senior west coast editor Krista Smith about his Sundance film Last Days in the Desert which he originally describes as just a story about a father and son. The film covers Jesus’s time in the wilderness before the beginning of his ministry and McGregor plays not only Christ, but Lucifer as well.
But the challenges of playing the Messiah may pale in comparison with the fright McGregor received in 2013 when getting an Order of the British Empire from Prince Charles. In the video above, McGregor goes into great detail about what the ceremony entails, should you ever find yourself in his shoes.
Ewan McGregor plays Jesus and Satan in this hushed, austere and stirringly beautiful drama from writer-director Rodrigo Garcia.
A filmmaker known primarily for his perceptive melodramas about women, from “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her ” to “Mother and Child,” now turns his attention to a primal tale of fathers and sons — including the Son of Man himself — in “Last Days in the Desert,” a quietly captivating and remarkably beautiful account of Jesus’ time in the wilderness before the beginning of his ministry. Deliberately paced, sparely imagined and suffused with mystery, writer-director Rodrigo Garcia’s seventh feature is nonetheless quite lucid and accessible in its themes of empathy, compassion and sacrifice, and grounded by a Christ/Satan dual performance by Ewan McGregor that plays vastly better onscreen than it sounds on paper. While many will find the drama as arid as its parched surroundings, with a thoughtful and concerted marketing approach the picture might well appeal to art-minded nonbelievers and Christians open-minded enough to accept an off-Scripture narrative.
Certain to elicit the full range of reactions from the faithful and the skeptical alike, “Last Days in the Desert” approaches the figure of Christ — or Yeshua, as he’s referred to here — with tremendous care and tact, yet also with a scrupulous focus on his humanity rather than his divinity. Some may well discern a connection with “The Last Temptation of Christ,” though there’s nothing here that even remotely approaches that film’s controversy-stirring elements. This is a hushed, austere and surpassingly gentle treatment of a brief chapter of Jesus’ life — probably too subdued and speculative for those inclined to find profundity in the self-glorifying “realism” of “The Passion of the Christ,” but a vastly more considered and spiritually probing picture in every respect.
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Tonight Ewan received the International Humanitarian Award for his work with UNICEF UK at the 2nd Annual Unite4Humanity. Here are pictures and more about his work below.
Gallery Link:
Press Events & Appearances > 2015 > 2nd Annual Unite4Humanity – February 19th 2015 x49
Ewan McGregor – Int’l Humanitarian Award
In our current debate about the efficacy of vaccinations, actor Ewan McGregor, having seen the ravages of polio up close, feels the matter is pretty clear-cut.“I’ve seen it in Nepal and India and how close we are to having wiped out that disease completely, but not quite,” he says. “There’s still quite a bit of work to be done. You can’t tell the mother or the father of a child that’s been crippled with polio that vaccinations don’t work.”
McGregor, who acts as a roving ambassador for Unicef UK, should know. In 2004, he and buddy Charley Boorman trekked 20,000 miles across 12 countries on their BMW R1200 GS, their version of “The Motorcycle Diaries” chronicled in the documentary “The Long Way Around.” It was more than a freewheeling road trip; it was a wake-up call to human suffering that provided invaluable awareness to a charity that focuses on the plight of children in need.
In this and subsequent trips to remote regions of Ukraine, Uganda and Peru, they witnessed extreme poverty, learning difficulties, disease and kids from broken homes with nowhere to go.
“In America and in Europe, our way of life is such that it’s hard to imagine a village where there is no doctor or clean water, where if your baby gets sick, your baby dies and that’s it,” he says. “Yet it is the reality for so much of the world’s population. That’s why I think we have a responsibility to help.”
Louise O’Shea, spokeswoman for Unicef UK, calls McGregor the face of the org’s direct-response ads. “He fronted our appeal during the 2014 Commonwealth Games that raised £5 million,” she says. “His support for Unicef is like no other.”
