Ewan McGregor talks about his new erotic thriller Deception

On the set of Deception, Ewan McGregor discusses a role that requires him to make love with five total strangersJames BoneDriving through the main gate at New York’s Steiner Studios feels rather like entering Guantanamo Bay prison camp. A guard checks your identity and raises the security barrier. Ahead lies a vast car-park that was once a parade ground, dotted with newly built hangars. The similarity with Guantanamo is no coincidence. Though just across the river from Manhattan’s famous skyline, the Steiner Studios lie in the old Brooklyn Navy Yard.Deception, Ewan McGregor’s new erotic thriller, is being shot on a sound stage in one of the glass-and-steel hangars, and the Scottish star has a busy schedule ahead of him. Over the next two days, he is to film a montage of sex scenes that requires him to get it on with five different actresses – none of whom he has met before.The director has left the sex scenes until the last two days of the seven-week shoot. McGregor, looking very American in black jeans, a striped jersey, a baseball cap and baseball boots, seems, if not downright nervous, at least preoccupied with the marathon of sex scenes on which he is about to embark.“They’re interesting. I’ve done a lot of them. I try to find something about them that is realistic,” he explains. “There are Hollywood glistening sex scenes, and I’m not very interested in them. I don’t think they’re very interesting to watch… I think sex isn’t like Hollywood sex. It’s very often many things, but it can very often be awkward. In these scenes, they’re strangers, so they can be embarrassing. And things don’t just go off like they do in a Hollywood movie. I think finding those moments that make it real makes for the audience a much more erotic experience, or a much more powerful experience, because you recognise things you do yourself, or things that have happened to you.” Source: entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Empire (UK) – May 2008

Many thanks to my dear friend Riikka for sending in scans from the May issue of Empire. :tongue:

Hampstead Theatre Spring Gala

On March 13, 2008, Ewan attended the Hampstead Theatre Spring Gala at Lords Cricket Ground, London. The event aims to raise funds for young actors.

Theatre’s hammer time with the stars

Big-name celebrities turn out in force to help raise thousands of pounds at Lord’s auctionSTARS of stage and screen came out in force to bolster the coffers of one of Camden’s most prestigious theatres.Ewan McGregor, Tom Conti, Maureen Lipman and Patricia Routledge were among the 500 guests at the Hampstead Theatre Spring Gala, held at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Thursday.As the champagne flowed, supporters of the theatre in Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, enjoyed musical entertainment from 1940s-themed swing band The Blonde Bombshells, a lavish three-course meal and a selection of comic scenes from past and future Hampstead Theatre productions.Lord Archer then took up the auctioneer’s hammer, proving his considerable skills as a salesman with the quick-fire auction of 10 lots.Bids on a week in Tuscany, dinner with acting couple Alison Steadman and Michael Elwyn, and drinks at Claridge’s with the author Penny Vincenzi raised more than £53,000 from the celebrity-packed audience.Comedy actress Maureen Lipman, who called one of the lots, also came under the hammer, offering her services as a fundraiser for a charity of the bidder’s choice.While Mrs Lipman fetched a grand total of £4,000, that figure was pipped by the bid of Hollywood actor Ewan McGregor. The Train­spotting star paid £5,000 for a photograph of Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali, signed by the three times world champion boxer.But it was lot 9 that proved the evening’s biggest money-spinner. The tour of Pinewood Studios with actress Emma Thompson was sold to one generous party-goer for £8,000.Other lots under the hammer were art tours of London, the rare auction catalogue of Princess Diana’s dresses and tickets for some of the top theatres in London, including the Hampstead Theatre.The night, hosted by actress Lynda Bellingham, was rounded off by the “Queen of Burlesque” Immodesty Blaize with her Swarovski-encrusted rocking horse act.Source: www.thecnj.co.uk

Ewan’s acceptance speech for his Empire Icon award

“Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I would really like to have a round of applause for Chiwitel’s beard that we just saw which has sadly gone now, it was quite a monster. I worked opposite for three months and we watched it grow, how wonderful his beard was.”In my second year at drama school, I saved up and brought two tickets to see a play at The Old Vic, my mum came down to visit and I took her to see a play called A Flea In Her Ear that Jim was in and after it I remember saying to her – I was absolutely blown away by it, it was an incredible performance. Afterwards I remember saying to her, ‘Mum, can you ever imagine working with an actor like Jim Broadbent, wouldn’t that be amazing’. Some years later, I was sitting in an airport lounge waiting to go over to Australia waiting to do my first wave of rehearsals on Moulin Rouge and Jim tapped me on the shoulder. I said to him, ‘Jim where are you going?’ He said, ‘I’m going to Australia’. ‘What Sydney?’ ‘Yes, I’m making a film with you, you cunt!’… And indeed we did.”I’ve been so lucky to work with a great many talented and passionate actors and directors and occasionally producers and so I’d like to thank you all. I’d like to thank everyone at Empire who have been so kind to me over the years and I’d like to thank your readers.”I married just after we finished making Trainspotting and she’s been with me throughout this entire journey and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you so thank you very much.”Lastly but not leastly, as an actor you’re lucky if you form creative partnerships, sometimes you can work with a director over and over again but it’s rare, sometimes you do and then you don’t any more. In my career, the one lasting partnership I’ve had since I left drama school at 19 to this day and onwards is with my wonderful agent Linda King who can’t be here tonight, I’d just like to say that I love her and I thank her very much. Thank you very much.” Source: www.empireonline.com