“I was sort of arrogantly self-assured”- When Ewan McGregor gave his bold take on acting

Ewan McGregor is a 54-year-old actor hailing from Perth, Scotland. He is probably best known for his performances in Trainspotting (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and as the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (1999 - 2005), as well as the 2022 mini-series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

With a career spanning almost three decades, McGregor has acted in over 50 films and several television series, including Halston (2021) and Fargo (2017), which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film, respectively.

In an interview with GQ in July 2022, Ewan McGregor revealed how he felt about acting. He claimed:

"I never find the acting of anything hard. I have just been doing it a long time, and I trust myself. Before I was even doing it, I was sort of arrogantly self-assured. I’m not like that about lots of things in my life."

He further explained:

"That said, if you were to speak to Mary [his wife], two weeks before I started Halston, I was sh*tting bricks. There’s something about approaching a role – you feel like you’ve got to do it all. So I am both of those things: I’m a nervous wreck, and I’m absolutely self-assured. But I forget before I start filming that I’m self-assured."

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Ewan McGregor on choosing his projects

Ewan McGregor at The Olivier Awards in April 2025 (image via Getty)

Ewan McGregor has acted in numerous films and television shows, portraying a multitude of different characters, thus highlighting his diversity and range as an actor. He has played the hero, the villain, or even been brutally murdered in several films, and his performances have remained equally impressive in all.

The secret to a good performance, according to the actor, was choosing projects that required him to become the character he was playing. He stated:

"If I've ever done anything that didn't come from a burning need to do that play, that part in that film, then it's never been my best work. Not because I didn't try harder, or try hard enough. There's something magical about that: the need to do something. When you read something and you go, 'this has to be me.'"

However, that does not mean the actor is free to participate in all the projects that excite him. As is the case for any actor of his caliber, time is a constraint that he cannot overcome. He described feeling weird when he had to deem any project pointless simply because he had no time.

In the same GQ interview, Ewan McGregor spoke about his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel films and the 2022 mini-series, which he also executive produced. He delved into details about how being on set for the prequel movies was much more difficult than being on set for the series. He also briefly reminisced about his time working for Danny Boyle in the 1990s.

When asked whether he had an inclination to play more complex characters similar to his roles in Halston, Fargo, or Kenobi, and whether they made him happier than action, he said:

"They're more of a challenge. I'm still just looking for the most interesting thing to do next. If you read an action hero on the page, there's not much to play. But in actual fact, I'd quite like to do a full-on action film. I like all the training, I like the fighting. So I actually am looking for a fucking action role to play."

Which performance of McGregor truly moved you? Let us know in the comments section.