Ewan McGregor: “I love Tim Burton. I’d work with him for the rest of my days”
Ewan McGregor is a fascinating actor because he is perceived very differently by movie fans of different generations, and tends to do his best work when he’s happy on set.
Those who were around in 1996 first caught him with his shocking breakthrough role in Trainspotting, a film that set culture ablaze and announced the emergence of a new voice in cinema. Although it was the type of part that introduced him as an edgy, experimental actor destined to have a longstanding career in provocative independent films, McGregor levelled up when he landed the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Being part of Star Wars turned him into a household name and only ended up benefiting his career; while the prequel trilogy was highly divisive, few negative things were ever said about McGregor’s performance, as many felt that he had perfectly embodied the spirit of the late Sir Alec Guinness.
Regardless of having a healthy string of romantic comedy roles during the same time, it never seemed like he had reached the upper echelon of stardom, and even if he had the talent to prove it, McGregor’s name wasn’t brought up in the same conversations as contemporaries like Matt Damon, Joaquin Phoenix, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Edward Norton.
The actor has always had an eye for choosing interesting directors to work with, and in the early 21st century, there was no reason to turn down working with Tim Burton. Although Burton’s reputation has suffered somewhat after some of the less well-received films he’s made in the last two decades, he was considered to be one of the industry’s most consistent draws for quite some time. There’s always been a bit of whimsy and heart to balance out the weirdness in his films, but 2003’s Big Fish was arguably the most sincere and emotional of his entire body of work.
McGregor not only seemed to relish being part of the film but also spoke highly about his experience working with Burton, saying, “I love Tim Burton. I’d work with him for the rest of my days, very happily. I think he’s excellent. He’s one of the few great filmmakers, you know? He’s a professional, proficient movie director, and you work with them very rarely.”
McGregor has worked with many directors of varying degrees of experience, but he was particularly impressed by Burton’s competence and totality of vision.
“You’re not left in any doubt that he knows what he’s doing,” he explained, “He’s great. He just lets you play. At first, I couldn’t work out what felt different about the movie, and then I realised that from when he said, ‘Action’ to when he said, ‘Cut’, there was no stress. There was no tension there, it was just fun.”
Burton may have faced a career reckoning after the underperformance of Dumbo and Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, but he appears to be on the upswing; he directed a massive hit in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and produced one of the biggest Netflix hits of all-time with Wednesday. McGregor has done solid work, while mostly staying on the small screen, but it would be a better time than ever for him to reunite with Burton on another film that shows the same optimism, creative ingenuity, and emotional purity as Big Fish.
