MCGREGOR LEFT BEAMING WITH PRIDE FOR CLARA EWAN ME GIRL
Hollywood star admits to nerves ahead of starring in daughter’s new film loosely based on their lives but insists he loved every minute of their time together
EWAN McGregor admits he got the jitters over the prospect of starring in his daughter Clara’s new movie when he discovered the script was inspired by the ups and downs of their relationship.
But despite initial reservations, Ewan insisted the film, Bleeding Love, which will be released in cinemas on March 29, was too good to pass up.
The Perth-born actor, 52, said: “I was a little nervous about it at first because, of course, Clara told me she was writing a film loosely based on our experience as a father and daughter.
“Then I read the script and all that went away. I just felt immensely proud, very moved and blown away by the quality of it.
“The fact this was a script she had written and so carefully crafted into something so unique made it even more impressive to me.
“I was excited to be a part of it and, yes, to also get to work with Clara.
“The story appealed to me and the journey these two characters go on and the repairing of a relationship was very interesting to me.
“I knew it was something Clara had written and was looking to produce but I didn’t know until I read it exactly what it was going to be or how beautiful and moving it would be.”
Depicting a road trip together ended up being a dream experience, not least because it gave Ewan a chance to see his daughter excel in her dual role.
“Well, I can’t speak for Clara but I loved it,” he said. “I was a very proud and happy dad.
“To be able to spend such a large amount of time together felt really special because, obviously, it’s not always possible after your children grow up.
“But we had a great time over three or four weeks of shooting.
“A lot of it was just the two of us in a truck and it really did feel like a road-trip experience beyond the characters we were playing.
“It was a really special time for me and I felt very proud of her work as an actor and as a producer. But most of all, we got to hang out in a way parents don’t get to do very often with their adult children.”
The dad and daughter partnership
will likely put to bed any rumours of a rift between Clara, 28, and Ewan after he filed for divorce from her mum Eve Mavrakis in 2018.
A year before, Clara had described the other woman in Ewan’s life, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as “a piece of trash” on Instagram.
She admitted later the outburst wasn’t “her finest hour” but she had been upset after discovering her dad and Winstead – who met in 2017 while filming TV series Fargo – were seeing each other while he was still married.
Production designer and art director Eve is known for her work on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Imagine Me & You and Bandit Queen.
She met Ewan on the set of ITV’s Kavanagh QC before the pair married on July 22, 1995.
The couple. who finalised their divorce in 2020, also share daughters, Jamyan, Esther and Anouk.
Ewan and Mary have a son, Laurie,
Playing a dad was something Ewan feels is timely for him and insists it doesn’t make him feel old. He said: “Not old, no. I’m happy to play dads. I feel like it’s my time to be a dad on screen, actually, because I was a dad for 15 years in real life before
I was finally cast as one.
“I don’t know why that is. Now I can’t stop playing dads. I don’t mind. It’s all just acting to me.
“But to play a dad to my own daughter is pretty special, I have to say.”
And he loved that he got to play the part in his own accent. He recently bought a listed propLeona erty in Perthshire and it’s understood he will split his time between LA and here.
He said: “Yeah, I got to be Scottish. We were actually going to have me with an American accent but we didn’t do that in the end.
“So it was nice to be Scottish, because I’m often having to do one accent or another for a character. This isn’t a true story at all but it did make it more personal in a way because it was like having nothing to hide behind.
“It was probably the closest I have come to just playing myself in how easy it felt.”
The film gets its title from the Leona Lewis song Bleeding Love, a special song for both father and daughter and one they listened to a lot.
“It’s kind of our song really as a family,” Ewan said. “It’s a song we always used to play around that time. I would play it full-blast in the car on the school run, just for fun. Lewis was huge for us on the school run.”
Ewan found fame in homegrown movies including Shallow Grave and as Renton in the adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s bestseller Trainspotting.
He then ditched his Scottish accent in Hollywood where he landed the role of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars films The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, as well as for TV roles in series such as Fargo.
He’ll also be able to look on with pride as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace gets a 25th anniversary rerelease on May 4.
“I think it’s great,” Ewan said. “I’m really happy that film and all the Star Wars prequels, actually, are getting the love I think they deserve. I’ve spoken before how they were not the easiest films to work on but I am immensely proud to be a part of them.
“Phantom Menace, especially, was a huge moment in my career as an actor.
“It was amazing to be cast in something so huge and to play a young Sir Alec Guinness.
“I just remember how huge everything was, at what massive deal it was for me personally to be in Star Wars.
“I remember taking Clara to see the sets at Leavesden Studios when she was tiny. And now here we are having made a film together.
to play a dad to my own daughter is pretty special ewan on filming with clara on four-wEEk shoot
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have played a part in the Star Wars universe. Having a child come up to you wide-eyed asking where your lightsaber is never gets old.”