McGregor won’t soon forget his fashion turn in ‘Halston’
Imagine a galaxy far, far away where the one-name fashion wonder Halston dresses Obi-Wan Kenobi in something fabulous from the swinging ’70s.
Ewan McGregor can. McGregor is in the unique position of being the sole person who might care, considering his dual roles as the Jedi master and the flamboyant designer, the latter the subject of a new Netflix miniseries and the former a Disney+ “Star Wars” installment that has the actor on set in Los Angeles.
“It would be much more comfortable,” he said. “It would all be in cashmere, none of that heavy blanket material stuff.”
Even before “Halston” recently dropped, it generated some heat for McGregor and director Daniel Minahan, both among the series’s executive producers with Ryan Murphy.
Halston’s niece, Lesley Frowick, along with other relatives, bashed Minahan’s project as “frankly, garbage” and “inaccurate,” having seen a trailer. Frowick said the family and the Halston Archives were not consulted. Minahan has said he spoke to Halston’s brother, Robert Frowick, while developing the project. Robert Frowick died in 2007, and his widow disputes her husband was consulted.
“I think everyone’s entitled to their opinion. This is not a documentary. It’s a dramatic series,” Minahan said. “And the people who knew Halston and were
around him who have seen it have responded well.”
“Pose” star Billy Porter, a fashion lover supreme, has questioned casting straight McGregor in a gay role, noting gay actors rarely get straight parts.
“I felt that Ewan was the best person for the job,” said Minahan, who is gay. “I just can’t imagine anyone else doing it.”
McGregor said word that Frowick and another of Halston’s nieces were unhappy “makes me sad.”
“We were meticulous,” he said. “Dan Minahan has been researching this for 20 years, so it’s a shame.”
Halston was a Midwesterner who revolutionized his industry with deconstructed gowns, washable Ultraseude shirt dresses and a minimalist approach that redefined American fashion starting in the 1960s. He was known for making Jackie Kennedy’s pink inaugural pillbox hat and had a stable of beautiful muses and A-list friends, including Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol. He died in 1990 of AIDS-related complications at age 57.
The series is full of Halston snorting cocaine, having sex with male hookers and call boys, and spending lavishly.
The biopic, based on the 1991 book “Simply Halston” by Steven Gaines, delves into his reinvention, from poor boy in Indiana to a turtleneck-clad workaholic with a short fuse.
McGregor learned to sew, whipping up baggy trousers with one pocket on the inside and one on the outside. He also had tea with Minnelli, though he kept the details private.
“I just wanted her to know that he was in safe hands with me,” McGregor said. “You know, there’s lots been said about Halston over the years, and I wanted her to know that I respected her love for him and I respected their friendship.”
McGregor, 50, may be back with the Force, but he said he won’t soon forget Halston. “I loved playing him so much,” he said. “I don’t think there will be any Halston in Obi-Wan, but there will be a little bit in me. I think he saw beauty everywhere.”