“Ewan McGregor”

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Speaker 1 Hey guys,

Speaker 1 my name is Sean Hayes. I know we haven't repeated our names in a while, but my name is Sean Hayes.

Speaker 1 This is Jason Baby. Just to be just a little clear, I gotta get dressed.
We're about to start, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Let's get to learn what the show's like, one of us brings on a guest the other turn. Oh, that's a surprise.

Speaker 1 What do we got? And I'm Will Arnett.

Speaker 1 Is it my turn yet? Sorry, I'm Will Arnett, and welcome to Smartless. Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 Smart

Speaker 1 Less.

Speaker 1 Smart.

Speaker 1 Let us.

Speaker 1 Do you want to see a great photo I got? Did you like photos? Oh, yeah, that was today's golf outfit. Yeah, I went with the light pants today because it's warm out here in Los Angeles.
Look at Jason.

Speaker 1 Jason's wife, Amanda, sent this to me.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Dancing in the morning.
Is that you, Jason? Well, I was happy about my outfit. It just looked great.
You know, I was happy about it.

Speaker 1 Those particular pants, you've worn them before, and I got to say, they're not my favorite. Oh.
They're not.

Speaker 1 Is there a compliment on the end of it? Because they're white? You look great, which is, which, first of all, you don't look bad in them. I said, they're not my favorite.
I like them. I know, I know.

Speaker 1 That front piece. It kind of looks like a...
That's the penis.

Speaker 1 That's what we call it. The front penis.

Speaker 1 The front piece. You mean the...

Speaker 1 It's kind of like a fold over. It almost looks like

Speaker 1 a formal slack. Oh, right.
Yeah, it is. I think it is a bit of a trouser that they make there.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Sorry, listener, just going over latest golf. Hang on, I'm trying to put this into fashion.
Sean, just so that Sean can feel included. You came on a little late today.
You did came on late.

Speaker 1 What's going on? You're still in the city. Still in the city? How to change? Don't you have to change clothes like two, three times a day? Cause the humidity is just.
You can walk outside.

Speaker 1 I'm just drenched in sweat. What are you doing outside? Don't you stay inside?

Speaker 1 Beautiful apartment. He's walking around, man.
Yeah, no, I tried to because it's air conditioning here.

Speaker 1 Is it real humid back east right now? Yes. It's unbelievable.
It's unbelievably humid right now. Yeah.
It's humid out here, so it must be terrible out there. Oh, because it travels.

Speaker 1 So then, Sean, what do you, so you and Scotty, you just, you pop out of the apartment and you just start walking around. Do you have some favorite places you like to go to?

Speaker 1 Well, we, we do, we have, I mean, there's one restaurant. Do you guys bring Misters? Do you guys bring Misters? No, we bring Mrs.

Speaker 1 Misters.

Speaker 1 No, there's one, there's one French restaurant we like on the east side. Oh, this is what I did for the first time in my entire life.
I walked through Central Park. What, first time ever?

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? First time ever. Oh, I get real.
I mean, I walked like, I've walked like, you know, just from, you know, like to that restaurant that I can't remember. Tavern on the Green?

Speaker 1 That's it. Yeah.
Tavern on the Green. I walked there once, but I never walked from like Upper West Side all the way through it, all the way down.

Speaker 1 It's kind of scary because they have, in the center, they have all those paths that go in like 10,000 different directions. Oh, granddad.
But then, yeah.

Speaker 1 Did you see the skating rink over there too? I did, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the roller skating rink. It was a roller skating rink.
No, in the summertime.

Speaker 1 Mom, you can't believe how big it is. Mama.
Well, they had people walking everywhere and people just seemingly going. They were busy.

Speaker 1 It was wild. Just walls and walls of buildings.
We used to, back when

Speaker 1 I was first living in New York 45 years ago, and I was very broke, we used to just walk through the park because we had nothing else to do, and it was free.

Speaker 1 And we'd just have a head full of rope, and we'd just walk around with shades on that's weedner weed yeah head full of i've never heard of that before head full of rope yeah

Speaker 1 and uh we just walk around and sit on the grass and i don't know maybe smoke some butts and

Speaker 1 like just walk over a different part yeah because it was free we had nothing to do and we were you know we were broke broke broke but it was great i love but you know my do you guys go to a chiropractor because you all you do is walk right in new york and my back is fucking killing me what kind of shoes what kind of shoes you got right now here by the way this is an an opportunity for you to get some new shoes.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Are you ready?

Speaker 1 Speak smartly here. I'm a little man right now.
What do you like? I forget what they're called. We all have them.
They're called. The on shoes, those smoothies.

Speaker 1 You might need like leg braces or something if you're blowing your back out just walking.

Speaker 1 How would you feel about a wagon? And then Scotty pulls it. Would you sit in a wagon?

Speaker 1 I'm above it.

Speaker 1 You've seen the dogs with the blown-out backs. Yeah.
Right? With the little carts. I would walk around with it.
What about a segue? Yeah, what about a segue?

Speaker 1 Once you get electric bikes and parking in your bike. Yeah, yeah.
I think we have to do bikes. I think we still

Speaker 1 get bike. You're coming out here tomorrow.
Yes. And hopefully.
And by the way,

Speaker 1 honestly, you don't like, we'll come in. You don't have to do anything.
We'll just do it. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 You're going for lunch at our friend. You're going for lunch at our friend's house, and then you're going to look around, and then we have a dinner tomorrow night.
Perfect.

Speaker 1 And then we leave first thing in the morning. Chappie's here.
Chappie's on his way here. He's in.
Bob is here. My sister is here right now with my brother-in-law, Ed.
It's a house full. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Except for that. it's going to be a lot of fun.
Hey, Jason, have fun, eh? Yeah.

Speaker 1 You got everybody there except me, I guess. Why didn't you come out, Jay, and then just go out? No, no, you shouldn't come out.
Because we've got other plans, okay?

Speaker 1 We're doing other things. Okay.
Yeah, you guys are going on a different vacay, which I don't,

Speaker 1 I don't know. Finish the sentence?

Speaker 1 I just, I don't know why you don't come out to where we are. All your friends are out here, is what I was saying.
You know, it's not up to me. I'm not living in a dictatorship.

Speaker 1 This is a democratic house, and

Speaker 1 there's a lot of complications to our trip. Maybe that's your problem.
As you know, it's by the way, that's the thing is you think it is a democracy, and you do live in a dictatorship.

Speaker 1 The problem is you're not the dictator.

Speaker 1 That's so funny. That's true.
Speaking of dictator, terrible segue because it does not apply to this person at all, but

Speaker 1 I will say this is somebody I'm really excited. I'm excited because, Sean, I can't wait to see how excited you are because this is going to hit you right in a sweet spot.
You must be an athlete.

Speaker 1 Right in a sweet spot for you. And also for me, he's been in a lot of films that I just absolutely love.
I remember his first film. I'm not going to say the title yet.

Speaker 1 I think it was his first film, maybe his second film, but the first film that really went, had a lot of sort of wide acclaim with a very famous, went on to be a very famous director as well.

Speaker 1 And I remember thinking, like, this guy, he just has,

Speaker 1 I don't know,

Speaker 1 I can't not watch him when he's on screen. He's got that thing.
You know, there are certain performers who have that.

Speaker 1 He's got that thing where you're just like, you're glued to and you're with him on everything he says, no matter the role. This is this guy.

Speaker 1 And he's won Emmys, and he's won Golden Globes, and he's been a globe trotter in that he's gone around the globe on his motorcycle.

Speaker 1 He's an incredible

Speaker 1 actor. He is Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He is Ewan McGregor.

Speaker 1 I got it right on the motorcycle.

Speaker 1 How's it going?

Speaker 1 Why is Ewan McGregor in Sean's wheelhouse? What are you you talking about? Sean is the most massive Star Wars fan of the world. Are you joking? Oh, right, right, right.
I was thinking song and dance.

Speaker 1 I was thinking song and dance. Oh, I see.

Speaker 1 Wait, Ewan. Oh, my God.
This is so cool to meet you. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 So nerve.

Speaker 2 I don't know why I'm so nervous.

Speaker 1 Why? Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 Sean does that to everybody. It's weird.

Speaker 1 You have nothing to be nervous about.

Speaker 1 We are absolute fools, and there's nothing to this show.

Speaker 1 It's idiocy. It's titled appropriately.

Speaker 1 You're immediately the smartest guy in the room. Scotty, come over here.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 He's getting hot. Here comes Scotty.

Speaker 1 He's getting his husband. Scotty's going to lose it.
Do you know who the guest is? Just let him look and don't tell him. Look at that.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 That's my husband. Ewan McGregor, welcome, man.
Welcome, welcome. What an honor to have you here on the show.

Speaker 2 Well, it's such a great pleasure for me to be on.

Speaker 1 I was just an enormous fan of yours, buddy. Do you know Train Spotting is one of my favorite movies of all time? What has he done that has been bad?

Speaker 1 You answer that. Wait, hang on.

Speaker 1 I was going to start with this. That film I'm talking about, you and is Shallow Grave, of course.
Of course. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 Can you talk to us a little bit how that came together and what that experience was like and where met you in your life at that time, that film? Yeah,

Speaker 2 it was the first film I ever made. You were right.

Speaker 2 Is this good?

Speaker 1 This sounds great. Yeah, yeah.
Brilliant. Okay.

Speaker 2 You were right. It was the first film I ever made.
I'd left.

Speaker 2 Drama school and I did a six-month shoot on a Dennis Potter series called Lipstick on Your Collar.

Speaker 2 So I got out of drama school and straight in front of a camera for six months, which was amazing training, if you like,

Speaker 2 in that respect. And then I did a play and then I did

Speaker 2 a period drama called The Red and the Black. And then I went for an audition for this film called Shallow Grave.
So I'd done a couple of things on television.

Speaker 1 But did you know Danny Boyle before that? No.

Speaker 2 I didn't know any of them. And they were really very much like a

Speaker 2 three-person team. Danny, uh the director of course and then um andrew mcdonald was the producer and john hodge the writer and the three of them were very much like a

Speaker 2 creative um team like really truly they were and did they was train spotting the same team that was them yeah and then and so that's when i met them the first time and i was just lucky to get i was so hungry and so fucking like let me add it you know i felt like i'd been ready for a long time you know and yeah yeah and then i got on a state you know, we shot it so quickly.

Speaker 2 We built that apartment in Shallowgrave on a, in a factory in Glasgow, you know, and it was all,

Speaker 2 it was so, Brian Tofano shot it, who went on to shoot Trend Spotting and Life Less Ordinary. And he's a brilliant

Speaker 2 cinematographer.

Speaker 1 I auditioned for a Life Less Ordinary. Did you really? Oh, did you? Yeah.
And for Danny Boyle, I was so nervous. I just moved to Los Angeles.
And in the scene, he's supposed to throw keys at me.

Speaker 1 So I brought keys to act like they were just thrown at me. And he threw me his set of keys, so then I had two set of keys.

Speaker 1 Did you know that he was going to do it, though? He might have hurt you.

Speaker 1 Wow, that's crispy. He's going to do it.
So, how is the shoot, Sean? How is the shoot?

Speaker 1 I didn't get it. I didn't get it.

Speaker 1 Um, so uh, I'll bet you were great in the audition, but it's all, but I would imagine that those guys were that you also got the job also because it seems like you kind of fit in with their kind of fabric.

Speaker 1 They just seem like good dudes like you. And did that, would that kind of

Speaker 1 bring about train spotting as well? I mean, aside from your talent?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. It was interesting because it was all of our first movies.
You know, Danny had been a director in the theater for years. And I think that's why he's so very good.

Speaker 1 Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 And this was his first movie, and Andrew's first movie. And John was a doctor who wrote this brilliant script about these people.

Speaker 2 I guess he trained in Edinburgh, so he knew about like Edinburgh life and living in that city. And

Speaker 2 yeah, it was just the most amazing experience. But I felt like it was like the other things I'd done.
You know, I did that period of drama and I'd done that

Speaker 2 lipstick in your collar was set in the 50s and it was all single camera work anyway.

Speaker 2 So it felt much the same until I saw it and I saw what they'd been doing, you know, visually and what Brian, the shots that Danny and Brian dreamt up. And it sort of felt like

Speaker 2 it really felt like we'd sort of made a mark on British cinema. That's how it felt when it came out.
Yes, you did.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 2 we took it to, we went to it was my first adult trip to america we came to sundance with it and i'd been in the states when i was nine with my parents which was ridiculous nobody comes to america for holidays like uh it's too big of a deal you know but when i was nine we came over so this is my first time back as a sort of grown-up and i went to sundance with shallow grave and they gave me the script there for train spotting oh my god and they always he said um he said it was very like we don't we're not offering you this and it's not an offer and just you know we just want to know what you think of and so i read that on the plane i was like hell i mean it's what it's the role of a lifetime isn't it it's like one of the great

Speaker 2 leading roles and um

Speaker 2 but john i think it's i think i'm right saying john didn't think i was right for it because in the novel in irvin welsh's novel Ewan Bremner, who played Spud, had played Rentz on in the stage version before we made the play.

Speaker 1 Oh, it was a play? Train Spouting was a play?

Speaker 2 It was a novel first, and then they made a play of it, and Ewan Bremner was in the play as Rent.

Speaker 2 And in fact,

Speaker 2 he's much better casting in terms of the Renton that's written in the novel. You know, he's much more Ewan Bremner-esque than me-esque.

Speaker 2 So I think John wasn't quite convinced and I just had to do it, you know. So I went away and I just lost loads of weight.
I didn't eat.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 When you say you went away, where'd you go? Like a hole in the ground? Where did you go? Where do you got to go to lose weight?

Speaker 2 Well, I just did it.

Speaker 2 They still hadn't offered it to me, you know. They still hadn't said that it was my role.
But I just thought, fuck it, I'm going to make them know that it's my role.

Speaker 2 So I went away and I saw them now and again, but we'd made that movie together. And Andrew had an office in Soho, London, that I would drop into now and again.

Speaker 2 So I just didn't see them for a wee while.

Speaker 2 I just like shed loads of weight because I was young and it was easier to do then, you know. Yeah, so hard.
And I was a big, I was a nasty drinker back in the day. And

Speaker 2 I remember I like, I just started drinking like white wine wine and clear stuff, you know,

Speaker 1 instead of

Speaker 2 the alcoholic sort of dieting, you know?

Speaker 1 I just drink the clear ones, you know.

Speaker 2 And it seemed to work, actually, to a degree.

Speaker 1 Anyway, I lost all the weight.

Speaker 2 And then when I went back in to see them, and I think they were like, okay, because I looked more.

Speaker 1 right then i was more sort of emaciated and stuff but i mean it was the most amazing experience making that film too by the way that film just took the world by i was gonna say surprise but it just took it by storm really that that i feel like that movie kind of shifted the way for a while there, the way people made movies, because it was

Speaker 1 very edgy, and obviously it was very raw and had a lot of, but it wasn't just for the sake of it. There was kind of a point to all of it, and there was something deeper happening.
It was very cool.

Speaker 1 Sean, by the way,

Speaker 1 I can see their wheel is turning. You're just hoping, like, God, Train Spotting the Musical.
If there's any way

Speaker 1 then Ewan could find a way to get you involved in the world, 5, 6, 7, 8, heroin here. And then it's more heroin there.
Sean now.

Speaker 1 Danny, if Danny, that's really heroin the song. If Danny decides to do it, you go in and this time, maybe you wouldn't bring your own keys.

Speaker 1 Wait, you and speaking of that, when you guys did the drugs in the movie, it was like both, you know, incredibly, incredible to watch this as actors, but just like, it looks so real.

Speaker 1 Like, I can't imagine. Like, did Danny ever talk you through like

Speaker 1 what the experience was for a hardcore? I don't even, I want to ask you if you actually did it to get into character, but like,

Speaker 1 how did you get there? Because it did look so.

Speaker 1 I don't want to ask you, by the way, I know that's a soft ask, but totally just an ask, isn't it? Yeah, it's an issue. It really is.
I'm not going to ask you.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to put you in a difficult position, but go ahead.

Speaker 2 No, it's quite an interesting point because

Speaker 2 I didn't do heroin. I've never done heroin, but I did think about it.
And I

Speaker 2 thought, I don't want to do heroines addicts a disservice by getting it wrong.

Speaker 2 So I did think, it did cross my mind, and I did say to Dan.

Speaker 1 You don't want to disrespect the heroines. You don't want to officer, I was just researching.

Speaker 1 I was just trying not to disrespect the addicts. What do you mean? Why do you mean why do I have a lighter under this spoon?

Speaker 1 I start shooting in three weeks.

Speaker 2 So I brought it up and I said, look, do you think we should do it? And I really thought about it because I thought, well, John, our writer, he's a doctor.

Speaker 2 Like, he could do it to us properly, you know, so that we don't die and stuff. He could probably

Speaker 1 administer the,

Speaker 1 oh my God. Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 So that we were safe-ish.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 2 but

Speaker 2 it just became apparent that that was ridiculous. That was just a really, really a disrespectful idea to the people we were working with.
And we went up to Glasgow and we worked with this group of

Speaker 2 recovering addicts called the Carlton Athletic Club. And they're a group of, it was predominantly guys then, and

Speaker 2 they have soccer teams, and they're all ex-junkies. But they have these football competitions, and they're five-aside competitions, and they kicked our ass.
Like we, the five actors, you know,

Speaker 2 we got our asses handed to us by all these ex-junkies. But once we started working with those guys, and we had a we had this guy, Eamon, who was our advisor on set, and he

Speaker 2 took us to some meetings, and I started listening to all these guys. And, you know, I saw guys who'd been sober a long time, clean a long time, and then

Speaker 2 some guys who just, you know, who were still in withdrawal. And I felt like

Speaker 2 once I met those guys and saw what was going on in

Speaker 2 their eyes, you know, I thought it would be just massively disrespectful to

Speaker 2 not have all your faculties together. So

Speaker 2 it was

Speaker 2 from then on, we just, yeah, we didn't.

Speaker 1 What were you and what was the yeah, that's the what was the um what was the feedback from the uh junkie community? Uh were they was it positive response to the film?

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 I'm actually kind of serious.

Speaker 2 no no there was uh

Speaker 2 yeah i had both i there was a backlash on the film because people said it you know thought it glorified yeah drug taking and um i i don't i don't think so and i've never thought so but um some people did think that and i met a couple i remember i was passing a uh guy a homeless guy in soho one night and and he'd seen the movie and

Speaker 2 He's like, you're one of us, brother.

Speaker 1 You know, come, come, you've got to, you've got, he was totally on the wrong side of the fence, you know. He was like, yeah, fuck it.
Come on. Oh, dear.
Wow.

Speaker 1 I guess it's better than getting stopped by the gang that love Star Wars, right?

Speaker 1 What are you saying?

Speaker 1 We'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 1 I just finished Obi-Wan, and it's so fucking good. You're so great in it.
I love that.

Speaker 1 How did you get, how did they get James Earl Jones to come back to do the voice of Vader? I mean, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 I know. Amazing.
I'm just glad they did. It's so amazing.
We had such a good time doing it. It was a long time

Speaker 2 since we shot episode three. It was 2003.
And

Speaker 2 but it felt good, you know?

Speaker 2 It felt quite good to come I I really I was in a much better place with it and um because our prequels came out and they sort of universally weren't liked by uh and and it was all pre um social media and everything so then the sort of voice that we heard were the critics voices and yeah, they didn't like them much and so it was pretty disappointing at the time.

Speaker 1 But the fans liked them though. Like that was the thing.
I feel like the fans like them for the story. And you're right.

Speaker 1 Boy, that's an interesting sort of distinction that you've made that we do live in a time now where the critics' voices have just been completely drowned out, haven't they?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're just aggregated now. It's just rotten tomatoes, period.
Yeah. Right, but even that doesn't really matter as much as what social media is saying.

Speaker 1 And that's not necessarily critics, it's people, right? It's other people. I think so, yeah.
Do you, yeah, that's interesting. So

Speaker 1 anyway, it was hard to get back into it or it was easy or well, I think

Speaker 2 when I finished the third one, I wouldn't have, if you'd asked me then, I'd be like, okay, I was always happy to be in it, and I was very, I was always grateful to be involved in something that big and to be part of the legend of it because I loved it.

Speaker 2 When I was a kid, I loved those films.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 2 I was seven, I think, six or seven when the first one came out.

Speaker 2 I'm just like, you can't, you know, it's in you somehow.

Speaker 2 And I know it is because when I was working on this series and I was faced with Vader for the first time in all his like scary majesty, I was totally knocked the wind out of me.

Speaker 1 It was quite scary seeing him coming at you.

Speaker 2 And Stormtroopers, like I never, I never acted with Stormtroopers in the prequels. So we did scenes with Stormtrooper, and I was like a boy again, you know, just like deep inside me.

Speaker 1 And talk about a huge difference.

Speaker 1 I mean, I know there was a gang of work between, you know,

Speaker 1 Shallow Grave and Train Spotting and then the Star Wars work. There's tons of stuff you did in between there.

Speaker 1 But I mean, the difference between probably what, like a 28-day shoot on those earlier films and then Star Wars, it'd take you probably a half a year to shoot those movies and working with green screens and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 I mean, I would imagine your answer to which do you like better, you probably say, you know, little bits of each, but it's a totally different process, isn't it?

Speaker 2 It's a different process, and it teaches you that you're always challenged, aren't we? By every job we do, there's some challenge that it throws at you.

Speaker 2 And in those prequels, it was very much the challenge of like being

Speaker 2 trying to be believable with this dialogue front of a blue curtain, you know, for four months. Hey,

Speaker 1 is it true that George Lucas didn't give you guys the script until like two days before every scene or something like that? Is that true? No.

Speaker 2 Okay, thanks. It was one of those, you know, I had to go to the studio and sit in a room sort of locked in to read it.

Speaker 1 Oh, I see.

Speaker 2 But we had the script.

Speaker 1 You know what made me laugh recently? It's made me laugh so hard.

Speaker 1 I read somewhere, I saw you in an interview or something, saying you used the force, the Jedi force, to open automated drawers at like supermarkets and stuff.

Speaker 2 But only if people are watching. If I think somebody's watching,

Speaker 1 I give a little, you do a little like wave in front of the door. That is so funny.
I don't get anything away here. Just like to say that.
Now,

Speaker 1 you can go around to

Speaker 1 stores and supermarkets and movie theaters and stuff like that. Or do you get tackled by fans and stuff? Or do you just kind of get stopped and say, oh, hey, I really like your stuff.

Speaker 1 And would you take a picture? And you kind of carry on. Are they nuts because of all the Star Wars stuff? Well, because of everything, right? Oh, I have everything, but I mean, well, I

Speaker 2 yeah, I think it's that really interesting.

Speaker 1 You've got this great level of fame, I think, like this perfect level of fame where you can, you can, you can, your, your celebrity can get films financed and be a recruiting element for other cast elements and directors and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 Yet you can still go out and have a

Speaker 1 you maybe could find some anonymity if you just kind of dress right. You know, you can,

Speaker 2 I just try to just do it, to do my life and not

Speaker 2 to a point.

Speaker 2 And then there's a point, it's always, it's unavoidable when you're somewhere, you know, when you go to do press somewhere and they know the hotel you're staying in, and that's unavoidable.

Speaker 2 And I guess that I have to learn to be better with that. I'm not great with the autograph hunters who stand outside your hotel because I don't really believe they're just trying to make money.

Speaker 1 They don't really want the autograph. They want to sell the autographs.
And I find that gets my ire up a bit. Yeah, yeah.
yeah, I've got to hang on.

Speaker 1 I just want to say, Sean, can I just jump in and say my son Abel, who's 11 years old, and I've never done this, but I'm going to put you on the spot, Ewan.

Speaker 1 He asked me to ask you,

Speaker 1 he was wondering, why did you accept the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Like, was there a reason besides the money?

Speaker 1 Abel just asked me. He just asked

Speaker 1 you.

Speaker 1 That's hysterical. He asked me because he knew that you were on the show today.
And he is, he is,

Speaker 1 again, he is such a massive fan, Abel. He is freaking out that you're here today.
And he left yesterday to go up and spend a couple of days with his mom. And he is like freaking out.

Speaker 1 He knew you were coming on today. And then he just texted me that, knowing that you're on now.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 1 I imagine you didn't probably even need to read the script, right? I mean, the yes was probably automatic.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 2 I really had to think about it because it came quite shortly after that train spotting period. And I really, by that time, I was so

Speaker 2 full of myself.

Speaker 1 You know,

Speaker 1 I was like, this, I'm a Danny Boyle's actor. I'm like fucking urban grunge.
I am. Here I go.
I am the oasis of the British movie industry, you know.

Speaker 1 And I, and then when Star Wars came along, I thought, I don't know if I want to do this.

Speaker 2 This isn't me, you know?

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 also I worried about sort of, I suppose I was worried about typecasting or something like that.

Speaker 1 Because you're going to be so famous from it.

Speaker 2 It was so it's just going to be so big, I think.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then I thought, well, I don't know. This didn't really, I was so into being the sort of anti-hero, if you like, you know,

Speaker 2 I live in America now, but I, but for a long time I didn't. And I thought, I'm going to do it, you know, I'm like a

Speaker 2 indie British actor is what I felt like. And I felt, and more than anything, I felt like I was Danny Boyle's actor.
And I felt that that sort of defined me. Yeah.
I really did.

Speaker 2 And so I did, I did, I asked everybody, i spoke to my uncle was in all three of the original ones he played wedge and tillies my uncle's an actor called dennis lawson

Speaker 2 and uh i asked him and i said what do you think and he said

Speaker 2 if you want a career after 30 don't do it that's what he said oh really what did danny boyle say did you ask danny boyle i did ask danny boyle yeah i think he said that i should do it but in the end it just got closer and closer like the closer i got to it i remember doing you know going to recalls and recalls and screen tests and then meeting George and it got down to like two or three of us, I think.

Speaker 2 And by that time, I just thought, I just was so attached to the idea of it from when I was a kid that I thought,

Speaker 2 you know, to get a chance to be that character and to be the younger Alec Guinness is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But you were also signing up for what, three? Two or three at a minimum? Yeah.
Three.

Speaker 1 And but the other thing is like you ask your uncle, but the last thing you should do is ask another actor any advice on whether or not you should do something.

Speaker 1 I think it's like the worst thing to do because they can't help but put their own fucked up

Speaker 1 reasoning into it or their own desire or whatever. They can't help it.

Speaker 1 I remember one time. They didn't ask me to do it.
Yeah, exactly. They didn't ask me.
Right. And I wouldn't do it.
I wouldn't do it.

Speaker 1 I remember years ago, years ago, you were at the Golden Globes.

Speaker 1 And I remember because Bradley Cooper at the time was, I think it was on Alias maybe. And so he was there.
He had gone and he was like, I'm going to the Colton Globes tonight.

Speaker 1 And we lived in this same.

Speaker 1 And so then he came back and he was like, man,

Speaker 1 he and I were just talking about this the other day because I told him you were on the show and he goes, man, I just saw Ewan McGregor was there tonight and he had like eyeliner on.

Speaker 1 And he was there and he goes and he looked so fucking cool. And he's like, and we could never pull that off.
We could never do that.

Speaker 1 And he was right. We were like, you had eyeliner on at the Globe? And he was so cool.

Speaker 1 Ewan was. And we were like, fuck man, we could never do this.

Speaker 2 I did that film Velvet Goldmine

Speaker 2 with Todd Haynes, and I just loved it. And

Speaker 2 I really always had this

Speaker 2 rock and roll fantasy, you know, that I probably still have a little bit that wouldn't it be amazing to be like a rock and roller on tour and stuff.

Speaker 2 And I don't think that for a so for a while I did, I wore makeup and nail, you know, like nail varnish and stuff, but only for a little while. And I liked it.
And I've always liked,

Speaker 2 yeah, this isn't probably what you should do.

Speaker 1 So I'm going to do it, you know, at the globes.

Speaker 2 Maybe it's not the best. I don't know.

Speaker 1 So by the way, you pulled it off. It was very cool.
And I get it, too, because you just,

Speaker 1 I'm also a contrarian, I think, by heart, by nature. And I'm always like, if everybody else is doing it, then that means I absolutely cannot do that thing.
Yeah. Often to my own, you know,

Speaker 1 disservice or whatever.

Speaker 2 You know, it's not always the best thing but i i don't know if i'm sensing that there's a little bit of that in you as well i know there's definitely i i'm like that with movies that are hugely successful i'm like well i'm not gonna watch it you know and then i see it eight years later and i'm like that film's really good it's like yeah right yeah that film was really good eight years ago

Speaker 1 i do the same thing i do that with movies i do that with tv shows i was like yeah hey man during the pandemic i was like have you guys seen the american office it's really good And I'm friends with a lot of people on the show.

Speaker 1 I'm friends.

Speaker 1 Like Krasinski, and I had to be like, I actually never watched it. I'm like, it's really, really good.
I did that with Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad, I didn't, I watched like two years ago.

Speaker 1 I feel like I'm going to be saying that about the Sopranos when I get that watch. Yeah, I've never seen The Sopranos.
I did that.

Speaker 2 The Sopranos was my one years later. Years, years later.
Did you not watch it?

Speaker 1 Not yet. It's ridiculous.
I mean, you know, like one here or one there. Yeah.
You and this is a true story.

Speaker 1 One day when we were, Jason and I were working together years ago, he came after a weekend and he goes, hey, you know, this is a true story. He goes, hey, you know, Blues Brothers is pretty good.

Speaker 1 And I go,

Speaker 1 this is like 2004. 2004.
And I go, Blues Brothers, the 1978 film? Yeah, it's pretty good. I just figured everyone had sort of missed it, like me.
Everyone's like me, right? There's so many people.

Speaker 1 That's the narcissist captain narcissism in me. That's this terrible call.

Speaker 1 Ewan, where did the

Speaker 1 motorcycle passion come from?

Speaker 2 I've I've always ridden motorbikes since I was well, no, I was I wanted to ride motorbikes since I was a teenager and my parents would never let me.

Speaker 2 And um, so it was just after I finished drama school I realized that I could do what I wanted, you know, and so I got my first little motorbike in London and I used to park it outside and when they came to visit me, I'd there was a lovely girl upstairs called Elska.

Speaker 2 I used to p take all my stuff up to my riding gate, my helmets and gloves and I'd stash them in her place so they wouldn't see them you know and pretend that anyway that went on for a while and I started riding ever I just love it I still love it as much as I ever did and I

Speaker 2 started I rode everywhere in London I'd use it to get about and I'd go for trips on it and

Speaker 2 I met my great mate Charlie Borman when we made a film together called Serpent's Kiss in Ireland

Speaker 2 and we both had just had babies and we were both into bikes he'd grew up riding motorbikes And so we just sort of, we did a lot of track days together and we did, we, we were involved in a race team, not riding, but we were sort of the sort of,

Speaker 2 I don't know, the sort of glam squad for this little motorcycle racing team.

Speaker 1 Like road, road bikes?

Speaker 2 Road bikes, yeah, like

Speaker 2 track racing, like the, wow. And then, and then, and then I read this book written by Ted Simon.

Speaker 2 who wrote a beautiful book called Jupiter's Travels in the 70s. And he was a journalist, I think, for the Sunday Times.

Speaker 2 and he decided he wanted to travel the world and he wasn't a biker but he just thought that's the best way to see the world is the and he's right it really is the best way something about it so he he rode this he got a triumph and he rode around the world and it took him four and a half years and his book started

Speaker 2 he starts like three and a half years in and he's run out of petrol and he's sitting underneath a tree in India somewhere and his bike's propped up there because he's got no gas.

Speaker 2 And he just said, I'm sitting here safe in the knowledge that someone will come and help. And that's sort of how the book starts.

Speaker 2 And it had taken him three years to realize that that was a truth, you know. And there's something beautiful about his writing in the book.

Speaker 2 And it's just sort of boiled away in the back of my brain until one day I was thinking of, Charlie and I were always talking about looking for somewhere to ride and we thought we'd go to Spain from London on some sports tours and we'd take our wives on the back and then maybe they could fly home and we'll race back.

Speaker 2 And I just started thinking, well, I don't know, and then I started looking further afield and I got a world map and I looked at I thought we could go to China and back that would be cool and then I thought well that what would just come back along the same route and so I kept looking right on the map and it was sort of a direct line round to America and you know Canada and

Speaker 2 I just thought well we could do that so that was our first trip for in 2004.

Speaker 1 Wait, you went all the way around the world?

Speaker 2 We went from, well, it's officially not around the world trip because it's only the northern hemisphere, but we rode from London round to New York. So we rode from London

Speaker 2 and we went in the Channel Tunnel to France, and then we rode to Far Eastern Russia and Siberia. And then we got a plane with the bikes to Anchorage, and then we rode from Anchorage to New York.

Speaker 2 And that was like four and a half months. And

Speaker 2 we shot it. We shot it as a documentary with this amazing

Speaker 2 journalistic cameraman, Claudio von Planter, who's our guy. And he just rode with us.
Big name.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 a third bike. That was a

Speaker 1 three bikes.

Speaker 2 And then we had a couple of pickup trucks that we saw once in a while. And we'd, you know.

Speaker 1 And then we did Africa.

Speaker 2 We did the whole African continent in 2007. And we did

Speaker 2 from Terro Del Fuego, which is the tip of South America to Los Angeles and just before the pandemic in 2019 on electric bikes, on the electric Harlem.

Speaker 1 All of these are all. Yeah,

Speaker 1 I saw footage of that where you guys were in Chile, I think, going across the flat, yeah? In those electric lights, going out.

Speaker 1 That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 They're all on Apple.

Speaker 2 There are three documentaries, Long Way Round, Long Way Down, and Long Way Up. Okay, excellent.

Speaker 1 That's the order to watch them.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's great.
I have a question. Do you? Okay, go ahead, sir, and state your name first.

Speaker 1 Where are you calling from?

Speaker 1 But do you and Jason, do you guys ever get mistaken for each other? Because I always thought you guys kind of look similar. I've always thought my wife wants us to play brothers forever.
Me too.

Speaker 2 I've always said that. I've always said that.

Speaker 1 Because you're beautiful, Ewan. You're really, really handsome.
That's a compliment to Jason, that is. That's an incredible compliment.
No, I see it. I definitely, yeah, no.

Speaker 1 Do you feel like playing his much younger brother?

Speaker 1 Let's do it. No, no, no, no.
I would definitely play his kid brother. Win, you know, just sort of like, hey, Jay, you could be his dad almost.
I swear to God, let me look at the camera.

Speaker 1 Move your camera. My camera for a second.
Move your camera a little bit.

Speaker 2 I think we should put it out there, Jason. It should happen.
Don't you think? Yes, please. We should do some

Speaker 1 Cindy Brothers thing. Ewan, how's your American accent? Is it quite good? I think it's okay.
Of course it's good. I think it's good.

Speaker 2 I work with Liz Hemelstein. Does anyone work with Liz Hemelstein?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 Well, you probably don't have to work with someone of your American accents, but I do.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm Canadian. I had to work.

Speaker 1 Will, wait, did you really work on getting rid of your outs and abouts?

Speaker 2 No, I didn't. Out and about?

Speaker 1 Out and about. Did you?

Speaker 1 No, I did, but there were certain things, eh? You know, like just tried to get rid of it. Sure, you know, so that I didn't go up at the end of anything.

Speaker 1 You just have to take the question mark off every sentence.

Speaker 1 I didn't say how so. But I have, I mean, I used to do,

Speaker 1 I used to say, it's an absolutely brutal day for motor car racing. That's good.
I used to do that.

Speaker 2 Is that Jackie Stewart?

Speaker 1 Jackie Stewart. Yeah, it's Jackie Stewart.
It's Jackie Stewart. Jackie Stewart.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 He's still knocking about. He's still at all the races, Jackie.

Speaker 1 Is he? He's still around. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 He seems to be very present.

Speaker 1 Now, are you a golf fan?

Speaker 2 No, I just was interested in your outfit, your golfing outfit that you were discussing at the beginning with the funny trousers thing at the front.

Speaker 1 It wasn't bad.

Speaker 2 How do you do you all play golf?

Speaker 1 Sean does not. Will and I do.
Jason and I. You do.

Speaker 1 Do you play any at all?

Speaker 2 I grew up playing because I was a because in Scotland everybody plays. And

Speaker 2 then I just, I've done it from time to time. And I can never get over the fact that I'm not as good as I think I am.
So

Speaker 2 I always end up in a horrible mood. Is that just the way it is?

Speaker 1 That's all of us. But then, you know, Roy McElroy,

Speaker 1 he says, don't let golf affect your attitude. Let your attitude affect your golf.
Oh. You know,

Speaker 1 that's good.

Speaker 2 I think I'm good at golf. If I could just get out of my way, I think I've got to go to the bottom of the base.

Speaker 1 You stick to motorcycles and rock and roll.

Speaker 1 You're a stud. You're a man's man.
Will and I, you know,

Speaker 1 we're just golfers, you know? Yeah, we're delicate golfers.

Speaker 2 But here it's different. I feel like it's different.
There's a sort of...

Speaker 2 I don't know if it's different. It's always struck me as being different here.
In Britain, it seems to be a little bit, feels a bit more elitist.

Speaker 1 it's here, it's elitist.

Speaker 2 Here, I feel like everybody plays golf, and you know, golf clubs are, I don't know, because the big golf clubs here in LA are so expensive, aren't they? Like, you have to be.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a real status thing. It's, it's, I'm not proud of it.
Um, I just love the game. Yeah, yeah, I will say this.

Speaker 1 I think the thing that I struggle with the most with golf are a lot of the people who do play golf. And I'm sure we're going to get a lot of pushback from people.

Speaker 2 In the golfing community.

Speaker 1 And now we've enraged the heroin addicts and now the golfing community. And if they ever got together,

Speaker 1 there should be a golf championship for heroin addicts and that would be

Speaker 1 they just fall asleep as their partners would be amazing but you do have it does there is that there is that sort of part of golf that does have this very sort of um elitist and kind of exclusionary feel vibe to it of people who are completely out of touch and and so you never want to become that that that's the part that i don't that I don't like yeah but I mean it's like if you like doing it like who don't right no I know of course of course but you just hope that you don't become that, you know?

Speaker 2 I think you're right. I think that seems to be like the golf club side of things.
And then, because the idea of being part of a club, it lends itself to that anyway, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 Something you have to pay in to feel special at your club. But the actual game of golf when you're on the on the beautiful fairway is a is really challenging, man.

Speaker 1 No question. I mean, Will, do I grind or what? I mean, I'm out there just trying to really shoot a low number.
He's not even really fun to play with anymore. anymore.
Not at all.

Speaker 2 Oh, you're too serious about it? Yeah, wait.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, but I'm just, I'm only out there for the challenge. I'm the slowest golfer in California.
I'm speeding up. I'm trying to get faster.
You are speeding up.

Speaker 2 You are getting fast. See, I find that difficult.

Speaker 2 If there's someone behind me on the tee waiting, I get so stressed.

Speaker 1 I'm just stressed on his hip. No, don't worry.
He doesn't get stressed.

Speaker 1 I tried golfing in Ireland once with my brother. Did you? Yeah, one of my friends, my brother, Kevin, I played golf with him in Ireland, and they didn't have carts, so he'd carry our bags everywhere.

Speaker 1 And I said, I'm out. And then I got.
Wait, that's when you came out?

Speaker 1 Oh, oh, you're out of, sorry.

Speaker 1 On a golf club in Ireland? Wow.

Speaker 1 I'm out. Seems like a good

Speaker 1 ghast. And

Speaker 1 I screamed it.

Speaker 1 So, wait, how come we haven't heard of Kevin before? How many siblings do you have, Sean? We have heard of the pastoral. I saw Kennedy, Tracy.

Speaker 1 Kevin, Mike, who passed away, sadly, my sister, Tracy, and me. Kevin, you, Tracy, and Dennis.
And Dennis. Dennis, who's no longer with us.
No, Mike. Passed away.
Michael.

Speaker 1 You've been friends with Sean for a long time, by the way. This is embarrassing for you.

Speaker 1 Will. Will, why don't you tell me the name of your brother, real quick? Chuck.

Speaker 1 That was pretty fast.

Speaker 1 You're getting faster. My other sister is here.
She has a Scottish name. Her name is Shanley.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and the other one is Tennis. Tennis.
Tannis. Tennis.
That's fantastic. That's my job.
But Shanley is here.

Speaker 1 And then I played golf with Jimmy Burroughs, who was on our podcast. Great golfer.

Speaker 1 And Alan Thick, who sadly passed away as well. But that was really fun.
That was in Cabo St. Lucas.
That was, and I did really well.

Speaker 1 Okay. Ewan McGregor's with us.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 he's joining us from a very handsome kitchen. Where is your house there, Ewan?

Speaker 2 I'm in my, this is my,

Speaker 2 I'm down in my little, I'm in my tiny house. I've got a little tiny house in my garden.
And looks handsome. I do, it's just like quiet in here because there's no one in here.

Speaker 1 Are you in California?

Speaker 2 I'm in California. California, yeah.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 we'll be right back.

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Speaker 1 All right, back to the show.

Speaker 1 So you've lived in America for a long time. You're like five years, six years?

Speaker 2 I moved here in 2008. Okay.
And I became an American two years ago.

Speaker 1 Welcome.

Speaker 1 Welcome. I love it here.

Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 I just love it. I love living here and I have no intention to not live here.
I just love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 What was that process like?

Speaker 1 What did you have to know? You have to know like the the the the the Star Spangled Banner or basic American history or how does that go?

Speaker 2 It's a bit well I I'm a sh um it's probably a bit like a driving test, you know, when you learn all this stuff and then

Speaker 2 as soon as they say you can drive a car, you forget all of all of it. So it's a lot of American history,

Speaker 2 how the political system works here, which is difficult for a Brit because it's quite complicated, it seems. And then

Speaker 2 some of you got to know names of like your local

Speaker 1 senators and then congressmen, yeah.

Speaker 2 Congress people, senators, and stuff like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then history and dates and stuff. They ask you dates of like when things were written and what have you.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. I did it in 2007.
I became a, I did the same thing.

Speaker 1 And I remember they did the thing you had to, you had to remember which were the original 13 states, et cetera, and all those sort of things. So I studied.
I wanted to be, I wanted to get 100%.

Speaker 1 And the guy, it's really up to the discretion of the person who's giving you the, that final interview, right? It was anyway back then. And the guy goes, he starts asking me a couple of questions.

Speaker 1 And then he could see that I knew what I was, I knew what the answers were. He's like, okay, well, you got this.
And he moves on. I was like, no, no, no.
You're not moving on. I studied this.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 I had had the same thing. Because you have to get 10 questions.
No, you have to get six questions right out of 10.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And

Speaker 2 I got six right. Yeah.
It's like a hundred. I think there's a hundred potential questions and they ask you 10 and you have to get at least six of them right.

Speaker 2 And so once you get six of them right, they go, okay, that's it.

Speaker 1 You're in.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I was like, you. I was like, no, no, what are the other four? I

Speaker 1 spent a lot of time learning this stuff, you know. Yeah.
Now, you and McGregor, talk to me about your domestic situation there. You've got, you got one kid, two kids, one wife, boyfriend.

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter. This is a real liberal show.

Speaker 2 I'm recently married. I'm married this year to my love, Mary,

Speaker 2 Elizabeth Winstead. Congratulations.

Speaker 1 You got married this year?

Speaker 2 I got married this year. I have

Speaker 2 four daughters with my ex-wife, Ev. Yeah.
And Mary and I have a one-year-old son.

Speaker 1 So I have five children. Oh, baby.
Oh, that's so funny. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I'm really lucky and very much in love and I'm very, very happy.

Speaker 2 How old's your son? I'm blessed with all my kids. He's just turned one.

Speaker 1 Wow. Okay.

Speaker 1 I have a two-year-old. I have two older boys from my first, and I have a two-year-old as well.
How old are your girls?

Speaker 2 My eldest girl, Cara, is 26. Yeah.
And then I have two 20-year-olds, Esther and Jamian, and my youngest daughter, Anouk, is 11.

Speaker 1 So all ages.

Speaker 2 I love it so much.

Speaker 2 I love it so much being a dad. I really do.

Speaker 1 Now, did you think you were going to love it as much as you did? Or, I mean,

Speaker 1 I thought, yeah, this is going to be cool. And then i'm now i'm just like a just a baby i mean i cry watching commercials if there's a little kid in it i just love it

Speaker 2 i i think i do i think i was totally all with yeah i was i i had clarinet when i was 24 years old and i was just always um

Speaker 2 i always knew that i wanted children and uh

Speaker 2 I just and I really I really love it. I really do.

Speaker 1 It really makes me incredibly now. Quick math there.
That puts you at 50?

Speaker 2 51.

Speaker 1 51. When's your birthday? What sign are you? Sorry, I'm asking for a friend

Speaker 2 and then i want to know what your rising is what what are you i'm born on the end of i was the last day of march 31st of march 1971 so i'm in aries

Speaker 2 where are you guys at what what ages are are we here in the oh i'm just 35 but i think that we should um

Speaker 1 move on

Speaker 1 will will doesn't will can't play older than 40. tell me i skew 30 i skew late 30s but but i i um

Speaker 1 i'm 50 i'm 52. sean and i are both 52.
We're only a couple of weeks apart. I'm 53.
I'm the adult here.

Speaker 1 Okay. Grown up.
That's why you're so good at golf because you just got that bit older than us. Yeah, but I just don't hit it as far anyway.

Speaker 1 Hey, tell me about, because I've seen, I think, everything you've ever done. By the way, I also auditioned for Down with Love.
Still, I didn't get that anymore. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Or this Make-A-Wish is going great with a great average.

Speaker 1 But tell me what it's like. Because didn't you do, are you in Pinocchio coming out? Are you in it? Or like you, do you voice it or you're in it?

Speaker 2 I voice it. It's totally stop frame animation.
Wow.

Speaker 1 And that's Guillermo del Toro. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's wild. It's embarrassing.
I had an experience. I don't know if you've ever done this.
It's sort of an actor's nightmare of

Speaker 2 being in a situation where you're absolutely unprepared. And that's what happened with this.
I went. to meet Guillermo and just I thought to discuss

Speaker 2 the role and to discuss what we were going to do with it.

Speaker 2 And I arrived, and I was in a sound studio with the front of a mic with a lectern with the script on there. And he's behind the glass and he's going, okay, let's start off with Q1.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 And I hadn't read the script because I just thought we were having a chat.

Speaker 1 So I was busy and I hadn't read it.

Speaker 2 And I started trying to do it. I just couldn't tell him.
And I thought, I'll just, I just have to go. So I started.

Speaker 2 And of course, I had an idea of who Jiminy Cricket was, but it didn't seem to be anything like what I was reading on the page. and I didn't know what accent to use or what I

Speaker 2 almost was crying I almost got to the point where I wanted to cry you know I was so embarrassed and I just asked him to come in the room after about 20 I did about 25 minutes of this nightmare

Speaker 2 so he comes around into the room and I went look

Speaker 2 really tearing up and I went

Speaker 1 I have to tell you, I haven't read the script.

Speaker 2 I wasn't sent it. I thought we were having a discussion about, and it turned out, thank God, I hadn't been sent it, although I didn't didn't know that for absolute sure.

Speaker 2 But anyway, then we just, he was just great because he just went, no,

Speaker 1 what you're doing is good.

Speaker 2 And, and he talked to me for about half an hour, and then we just went and we recorded the whole thing.

Speaker 1 No way. And then I read it and we went back in.

Speaker 2 So it's been one of those things, you've probably all done that, where you go back several times, you go in and out.

Speaker 2 But I think it's going to be really, I love him and I love his take on things. And so to be involved in this is really cool.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, explain the whole thing.

Speaker 1 Will wants wants to do some voiceover work. We'll talk you through the process of it.

Speaker 1 Hey, you and so the crazy story. I told you guys this story about when I did Ratatouille, right?

Speaker 1 Did I tell you guys this? I didn't know you were in that. I was in that.
Yeah, with, and Brad Bird directed. So similar thing.
So I get a call. This is crazy that you just told this story.

Speaker 1 When was that? That was like at least 15 years ago, maybe more.

Speaker 1 We were still doing

Speaker 1 original arrested development at the time. So anyway, he goes, they sent me the the thing and they go, you're going to go up to Disney to record this stuff.
And I'm like, great. Yeah, no problem.

Speaker 1 I get up there. I guess it sent me materials, but I'm not sure.
Either I didn't see it or ignored it or whatever. And I was not prepared for what I was walking into.
Same thing.

Speaker 1 Walk into a sound stage, into a recording studio at Disney.

Speaker 1 Brad's there and he's like, and he's in the booth with me. And they bring out all their, he's like, you've seen all the art for your character, Horace, the sous chef.

Speaker 1 And I go, yeah, of course I've seen the art.

Speaker 1 And this one's my favorite. Look at that.
And I'm looking, and I'm looking at it, going, Absorb everything, absorb everything.

Speaker 1 You know, just and I'm looking at, and then he goes, So, obviously, and as you know, because Horst is German, and I'm like, Yeah, right, because he's German.

Speaker 1 Um, and I'm thinking, like, what the fuck? And I'm thinking, I don't think I do a German

Speaker 1 apart from like what you do in a bar to a friend. I don't know.
And he goes, and then he's like, Okay, let's go. And I'm like, What the fuck am I going to do? Same thing.

Speaker 1 The panic, the sweat, the fucking, and he's right there. And Brad Bird, I revere the guy who made The Incredibles.
He's a great director. He's gone on, it was a super sweet guy.
And I just did it.

Speaker 1 I just bullshitted my way through. I did this fucking, the movie exists to this day.
Oh, my God. Do it, do it.
Three, two, one. German accent.
Three, two, one. With this thumb, I killed three men.

Speaker 1 That's pretty good. Now, you and Jiminy Cricket, is he Scottish?

Speaker 2 Yeah, sort of very like my voice, because I didn't really know what else to do.

Speaker 1 So he's very close to me. Did you go higher? Did you go higher at all? He's just small.

Speaker 2 He's tiny. So I like...
She's we're always shouting everything because

Speaker 1 everyone's so far away, you know. So it's a very shouty.

Speaker 1 It's a very shouty performance.

Speaker 1 Pinocchio!

Speaker 1 This summer, in his shoutiest performance to date,

Speaker 1 Ewan McGregor is.

Speaker 1 Ewan,

Speaker 1 I want to hear a little bit of an American accent.

Speaker 1 Just for a second, just a little bit. I am Jason Bateman.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Hey, I'm Jason Bateman.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's pretty good.

Speaker 2 There's lots. I mean,

Speaker 1 there's so many American accents out there.

Speaker 1 Unbelievable, too. That was too.

Speaker 1 Are you excited about something next? Because you always just pick the coolest stuff. You always work the greatest stuff.
Because you like working that much?

Speaker 2 I tell you what,

Speaker 2 I've really learned that I like not working too.

Speaker 2 now that we had the experience of being off for that year, you know with lockdown and I and I I've never really been that great at not working I like working and I enjoy it so much what we do and

Speaker 2 but I realized that I was actually much better at not working than I thought I was so now and now I've got this little boy and I'm with Mary and

Speaker 2 I feel like I just want to I do want to spend less time away and more time at home. And so

Speaker 2 this year I've done very little. I've done a lot of promotion for the Star Wars show this year.
And

Speaker 2 I don't know exactly what I was supposed to be making. I had an experience that hasn't happened to me a lot where I was going to be making a movie in Scotland.

Speaker 2 And so I sort of planned my year about making this movie in Scotland for the whole of the autumn and it totally just disappeared.

Speaker 2 I was just texting the director one day about a question about something else and he went, oh, no, we're not doing it.

Speaker 2 Thanks for letting me know.

Speaker 1 What about Moulin Rouge? Because you were so great in that. Would you ever do another musical?

Speaker 2 Yes, totally. I loved it.
And I did a musical on stage after that. I did Guys and Dolls in London for six months.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 2 And I really liked it.

Speaker 2 What an amazing thing to do. It's quite something to get on stage and do something like that every month.

Speaker 1 Abe Burrows, right? Abe Burroughs? Did Abe Burroughs write that? Yeah, Abe Burrows wrote that. The guy, Jimmy Burroughs, we were just talking about, who's on the show, he's our friend.

Speaker 1 He's a great television director, one of the greatest. And his dad, Abe Burroughs, wrote it.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 So when you're not being a great dad and a great husband um to fill your days what would you do aside from being a dad and a husband do you have any dumbass hobby like me and will playing golf um i do i i i

Speaker 2 i have always loved motorbikes and old car and vws like old beetles and buses and stuff so i'm a bit of a um you're out there fixing them up and stuff yeah i like to put potter i'm not i'm not great i'm not like a mechanic or anything but i do faff around i like faffing around in there and I spend hours like in my shed.

Speaker 1 Now, what is the goal when I see people working on engines and stuff? It's not just about the difference between making them run and not run.

Speaker 1 Isn't there like fine-tune, like you can make it run a little bit quieter or make it run a little faster? Like, what are you out there? What is what, what, what do you do when you're feffering?

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 2 it's generally just trying to make them move.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay, so it is about on or off with the kind of stuff that I like.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's not that, it's not that fine-tuning, really. The VWs are pretty simple and I just love them.

Speaker 2 I love them so much.

Speaker 1 How many you got?

Speaker 2 I have three Beatles and I've got two buses.

Speaker 1 I got

Speaker 2 an old 1960 Rolls-Royce that I love.

Speaker 1 Did you see the new VW electric car?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I am. That's pretty cool.
I'm actually doing, I'm working with VW, helping them promote the new electric bus.

Speaker 2 Because I did that big trip on an electric motorbike and

Speaker 2 I've been an enthusiast of VWs for years. And

Speaker 2 so we got in touch and

Speaker 2 we've made a couple of commercials with my old stuff and moving into this new electric bus.

Speaker 1 Don't they own Porsche now? They always have.

Speaker 2 Yeah, so many. Porsche and Lamborghini and Dakota.

Speaker 1 VW owns Audi, Audi, and Porsche. I drive the new Audi.
Who's got a new Audi? Yeah, I drive the new Audi all-electric vehicle. It is my favorite car of all time.
It's less written, Sean.

Speaker 1 Still roaming, less written, and actually.

Speaker 1 No, it really is my favorite car of all time.

Speaker 1 Ewan, what's the ad that you do for the travel company? I love, hang on, I just have to say this. Expedia.
Expedia.

Speaker 1 As a voiceover guy, I love your intonation on it's not about the things we have, it's about the, what is it? What's the final line? It's the places we go.

Speaker 2 Well, are we going to live our lives and regret the things that we didn't buy or the places we didn't go?

Speaker 1 Or the places we didn't go. And the way you say it,

Speaker 1 I fucking love it, man. It's so good, right? Because we play it on sports all the time.
It's so good.

Speaker 1 I like that.

Speaker 1 None of my hyundai reads um yeah no jason

Speaker 1 on hyundai uh you know it it's it's your journey it's you don't like the way i say it's it's your journey you know the way it hit really hit your no you and when you're on the expedia so good so good have you heard my lemons have you heard my lemons

Speaker 1 i like the lemons lemons lemons lemons lemons

Speaker 1 yes you come in on that lemon

Speaker 1 lemons lemons lemons it's very difficult is it wrong that i really like?

Speaker 2 I think there was a time back in the train spotting days where I would have been like, fuck that.

Speaker 1 I'm not doing a fucking advert. And now I'm like, I love it.
Can I do another Expedia? Can we get in touch with Expedia? Gnashing his teeth about doing Star Wars.

Speaker 1 And now it's just like, we're going through all the. Yeah.
Well, it's the best, right?

Speaker 1 Bring it on. I'm like.
It's perfect.

Speaker 1 It's the absolute best. I love doing it too.
It's so good. And we're available.

Speaker 1 We're available for lines.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 you and God, we could talk to you forever. It's so great having you here on the show.
It's a very fast hour. A very fast.
God, you're a delight.

Speaker 2 I needn't have been so nervous. I was very nervous before.
I don't know why. I guess because I haven't met you all, and I was impressed to be on your show.

Speaker 1 I've had a great time. I'd love to meet you in person one day.
That would be great, buddy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm going to look for something where

Speaker 1 we got a brother thing going.

Speaker 2 I think we should definitely do that.

Speaker 1 I'd love that. We're going to find something.
I'd wash the hell out of that, right, Joe.

Speaker 1 Let's do it. Yeah, we'd watch the hell out of that.
All right, guys. Ewan, such such a pleasure.
I love you. I'm such a huge fan.
Thank you for being here.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 Thanks for doing our show, buddy. Thanks for doing it.
Great to see you guys. See you guys.
All right. Take care.
Bye, Ewan. See you.

Speaker 1 Wow. We have had nice people on this show.
Yeah. But like really nice people.

Speaker 1 I feel like he may, that might be the gold right there. As far as just nice, sort of like real, infectious, positive energy.
I was like, I was nervous. I knew Sean.

Speaker 1 I've been sitting on this one for a while, and I knew I was like, oh, Sean is going to flip. I I was out of the way.

Speaker 1 Just because he played Obi-Wan Kenobi

Speaker 1 in those movies, but then he just came out with the series Obi-Wan Kenobi. And also, just like, I've seen Train Spotting is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Speaker 1 Like, that's one of the movies that made me want to be an actor. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 I just, I've just been so, I just always assumed that that's a really good dude. Yeah.
And there it is, sure enough. There you go.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 I had heard, I don't, I had heard a couple of people just sort of anecdotally say that he's just the coolest, nicest, realest person. And

Speaker 1 he's great. I know.

Speaker 1 You know, it's so great.

Speaker 1 I love his accent is so great. And he's Scottish.
And we were talking about the Open,

Speaker 1 which was played

Speaker 1 up in St. Andrews in Scotland.
Not to be confused with the Canadian.

Speaker 1 There is another St. Andrews, but that's called St.
Andrews Bay.

Speaker 1 Bay Lives.

Speaker 1 Really well worked in there, Will. That was good.

Speaker 1 Have you been sitting on that since we talked about it? No, it just occurred to me. And I was like, wow, how am I going to get there? Anyway, bye.
Bye-in.

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