This site is all about what people think of Ewan McGregor. By clicking on the quotes link in the site map box to your right you can read quotes about the man from over 200 of his peers, co-workers, family-members and friends. The reviews link will allow you to read what the press think of him and awards will outline the accolades he's won. The spotlight link will bring you to a small sample of quotes and reviews on a particular theme. Finally, if you are only interested in the most recent additions to the site, you'll find those below.

Emily Mortimer (actor Young Adam)
It's a film that's very much on the edge, in terms of the stark and erotic stuff that goes on between Ewan and a series of women, of which I am one. The custard scene is quite angry and edgy and because I have been telling him off, he spanks me. I am the nearest his character gets to a proper relationship, but I am dead at the beginning of the film and all my scenes are in flashbacks. Ewan is so sweet and kind and generous and ungrand and lovely that it was a good experience. Mail on Sunday, July 28 2002 (thanks Karen)

Jenny Topper (artistic director Hampstead Theatre)
(on when Ewan performed Little Malcolm)
Ewan is adorable – there wasn’t a single night he didn’t come down for a beer (in the public bar of the theatre). Hampstead & Highgate Express, July 26 2002 (thanks Claude)

Peter Mullan (actor Trainspotting - Swanney, Young Adam - Les)
There's no way of saying it without sounding wanky, but Ewan is a darling. He's brilliant to work with. He carries none of the luggage you would expect from someone who is now a bona fide star. I swear on my ma's grave, it's no' fuckin' there. He's as good a young actor as I know. Empire Magazine, September 2002 (thanks Sumaire)

John Leguizamo (actor Moulin Rouge – Toulouse)
Ewan is amazing, such a naturally gifted actor. Some of us have to work and think about things, he just shows up. He is who he is, he's naturally charismatic, he just brings it to the role, and he has this incredible generosity. www.fox.co.uk (date?)

Marius DeVries (musical director Moulin Rouge)
Ewan has a very musical temperament and music is a language he understands, although his voice was perhaps a little underdeveloped when we started. For Nicole, though, music was pretty much a foreign language, so she had an awful long way to go before she was able to go in front of the camera. The whole process for Ewan and Nicole and the rest of the cast took an enormous amount of courage — something like standing up stone-cold sober in a karaoke bar in front of 50 million strangers. I wouldn't have fancied doing that. Sound on Sound, November 1 2001

Jacques Villeneuve (race car driver – former World F1, CART and Indianapolis 500 champion)
(about Moulin Rouge)
The movie is dazzling. The costumes and sets are incredible. The cinematography is also very impressive. The acting is brilliant. The singing is so good. The first notes that Nicole and Ewan sing are natural and too good to be true. I was thinking, "It is them. It's really them singing!" Simply incredible (…) One of the best movies I have seen. www.jv-world.com (thank you Lisa)

Pat Murphy (director Nora)
I think the reason the film is happening is because of him, because he stuck with it for all this time. He's been attached to it since about 1996. I sent him the script and he really liked it. He came to Dublin and did a reading with Susan, and once they had read together, they seemed just so perfect. I saw how it could be. That was part of the reason I stuck with it, because I could see how great this film could be with these people playing these parts. I'm just really lucky that both of them wanted to do it and that they held it together this length of time. It's great. The Irish Times, July 10 1999

Hugh Quarshie (actor Star Wars: The Phantom Menace – Cpt Panaka)
I had a bit more to do with Ewan than with Liam (Neeson). I like Liam a lot, he's very soft spoken and easy going. He's a real gentleman. Ewan is much more livelier and a bit more mischevious perhaps, and he and I had a bit more time off in Tunisia, so we hung out a little bit. Hospital Radio Chelmsford, date?

Lauren Graham (actor Nightwatch - Marie)
All my scenes were with Patricia Arquette, Ewan MacGregor (sic), and Josh Brolin. They were all lovely, and talked a lot about their children. AOL chat, 1996

Patricia Arquette (actor Nightwatch - Katherine)
(how she and her former husband, Nicholas Cage, handled love scenes with others)
I was thinking like what can we do so that you feel like your there and I feel like I’m there. So we made this agreement that we would eat raw garlic during love scenes in our movies. So I ate all these cloves of raw garlic… Ewan’s allergic to raw garlic apparently, so ...(laughs). The Tonight Show, April 9 1998

Kerri Russell (actor)
(when asked to name movies she had recently enjoyed)
Nothing to Lose... there were some funny moments. Brassed Off... Ewan MacGregor (sic) rocks! Universal Chat, June 24 1997

Dennis Lawson (actor, director, Ewan's uncle)
(on 9-year old Ewan telling him he wanted be an actor)
I remember him being very serious and he wasn't um...our relationship wasn't ever very serious so I knew that he meant it at that time. But, he never wavered from it. Never. Ewan McGregor Revealed, E!Entertainment Television, January 19 2002 (Thanks Karen)

Lindy King (Ewan's Agent)
(on being one of 11 agents who tried to sign Ewan from drama school)
I would love to say I'm an unbelievably perceptive agent and I saw in him something nobody else did. Wrong. There was a feeding frenzy cause he's extraordinary. Ewan McGregor Revealed, E!Entertainment Television, January 19 2002 (Thanks Karen)

(on Ewan’s role choices)
I think he's attracted to the dark side. He loves exploring the dark side of people's psyche and the dark side of their life, in order to taste it and experience it. Ewan McGregor Revealed, E!Entertainment Television, January 19 2002 (Thanks Karen)

REVIEW

What the Butler Saw - play (1993)
It can't be easy making your stage debut without clothes. Ewan McGregor does it like a future star. His clothed acting confirms this quality. Unnamed local newspaper review (quoted in Ewan McGregor Revealed, E!Entertainment Television, January 19 2002)

Leigh Nash (lead singer Sixpence None the Richer)
(when asked to name his favorite actor)
I really love, love Jessica Lange. I love Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson. I love Frances McDormand. The Cusacks. Joan and John. And Bill Murray is great too. TV Guide Online chat, February 21 2000

Emily Mortimer (actor Young Adam)
Ewan was just really loveable, really heaven, like having a pal (…) Anyway, Ewan was perfect for all the heavy stuff because he makes it seem like it isn't at all and it's all fine and safe and quite funny, y'know? The Sunday Herald, July 14 2002

(when asked if she found herself attracted to Ewan)
Hahaha! I think he has this effect on lots of people, doesn't he? The cleaning girls in the hotel were so besotted with him. He definitely likes the company of women and I think that's always very attractive. But no, you have to slightly close your mind to all that because if you let it happen you're kind of lost, y'know? Not that there was any potential in this particular instance, but I know that feeling from the past of 'Yeah, oh God'. So in a way you have to de-sexualise them otherwise you're a goner. The Sunday Herald, July 14 2002


Frederick Pyne (actor, former president of the UK actors union Equity)
People like Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor are very good at supporting the rights of the lesser known in the profession. The Times, July 13 2002

Temuera Morrison (actor Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - Jango Fett)
Ewan was lovely, we had a great time together. I got a great scene with him where he's trying to get some information out of me and I don't want to let him know too much. It's like a poker game showdown scene. The old staring down-one-another (moment). We got on quite well, and went down to Sam Neill's place one night and got the guitars and the ukulele out. Ewan's not bad on the ukulele. He loves to sing of course...(laughs) He killed me in Moulin Rouge, though! Dreamwatch Issue #94, August 2002 (thanks UNLVR)

Anthony Daniels (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones - C3P0)
But it is strange to meet people playing roles that have been touched by other people, to meet Ewan McGregor as Alec Guinness. He's just terrific.
Do you see any of Guinness in Ewan McGregor?
I think he's his own person. I think in this one it became clear to me that Ewan has decided to make the part his own. He gets to do fun things as well. What a nice guy. Star Wars Insider, #56

These reviews were actually posted on July 2, 2002 but I am testing the new blog...

Black Hawk Down (2001)
The most disappointing performance comes from Ewan McGregor, who never completely loses his Scottish accent and oversells his part as the wide-eyed company go-fer thrown unexpectedly into battle. Stephen F. Hayes, The Weekly Standard, January 18 2002

Nora (2000)
McGregor's charm seeps through, however hard he tries to surpress it. There is no sense of an extraordinary mind at work here, but then the Joyce of this movie is not the literary innovator, so much as the on-again-off-again lover. Inside Out

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
The camera occasionally catches Ewan McGregor, as Neeson's apprentice, plainly telegraphing the worry that he might have allowed some part of his face to move. Greg Burk, L.A. Weekly, May 21 1999

Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1998)
This is a perfect project for Ewan. This is where his heart is. Doing small films, small plays. It was perfect that he should pick something that's not glamorous, that has a point, has a social point, that's about some real people. It fits perfectly into his sort of psyche and sensibility of what attracts him. Baz Bamigbove, Ewan McGregor: From Scotland to the Stars (video), 2000 (thanks Amy)

Little Voice (1998)
McGregor will be virtually unrecognizable to fans accustomed to his usual cocky, charismatic roles. Here he imparts absolute believability and sweetness as a sensitive, tongue-tied young man with a passion for homing pigeons and a crush on LV. Jean Oppenheimer, Los Angeles New Times, December 3 1998

Velvet Goldmine (1998)
This surreal musical pastiche swathed in satin and boas certainly boasts one of the maximum-volume supporting performances of the year as Ewan McGregor dives head first into his part of Iggy Pop-ish American rocker Curt Wild. Half rabid mutt, half mad imp, he rages from the stage with sparkles on his sweaty chest and his pants around his ankles. He's sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll personified. Susan Wloszczyna, USA TODAY

Wild, stitched together from the mythologies of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, is a walking tragedy - talented, fuckable, doomed - a muse ripe for the picking. McGregor exudes both fury and an impossibly sad romanticism, making even dopily romantic lines ("The world has changed 'cause you're made of ivory and gold - the curves of your lips rewrite history") go down sweetly. Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly, November 6 1998

These quotes were actually posted to the site on July 2, 2002 but I have a new blog that I will now use to post the updates and I want to test it, so...

Nigel Havers (actor)
(talking about the death of the “toff” actor)
Maybe that's why so many Scots actors want to play English parts, you know, like that Carlyle chap and, what's his name... Ewan McGregor. It's outrageous when you think about it. I would never dream of playing a Scot; it's an absolute scandal. Aberdeen Press and Journal, April 2000

Robert Carlyle (actor Trainspotting – Begbie )
(about The Beach – Ewan was replaced with Leo DiCaprio)
I did that for Danny. I hadn’t wanted to be bothered and I did not know that Ewan had been dumped at the point. I was miffed about that and would not have done it if I had known. Sunday Herald, August 13 2000

Nadia Sawalha (actor Sleeping with the Fishes)
You can see there's something about him the minute you lay eyes on him. He's dead cool. Ewan McGregor: A Force to be Reckoned With (Laura Jackson), 2000 (thanks Amy)

John Millar (journalist)
What really sets Ewan McGregor apart is that he must also be a contender for the title of Britain's most personable, friendly and charming young man. On the many occasions I've met McGregor, I can't recall a shadow of a frown ever crossing his face. Invariably, he has been enthusiastic, entertaining, and, above all, great company. He comes across as a man who loves life, doesn't take himself too seriously and gets an enormous kick out of what he does best - acting. And there's no doubt when he's chuffed about something, because his face lights up. S-2 Magazine, May 12 2002 (thanks Amy)

Cameron Diaz (actor A Life Less Ordinary – Celine )
He's really amazing. He's such a natural actor, and he makes it look so easy. He's just a good guy. He's a right lad, he is, and we just have a good time together. You know, he's not afraid of his feminine side. Ewan McGregor: From Scotland to the Stars (video), 2000 (thanks Amy)

Margaret Morrison (journalist)
I've seen him at premieres, I saw him at Velvet Goldmine in Edinburgh. He was having a good time. He was wandering about with a bottle of beer in his hand, like an ordinary guy. He didn't spend his entire time in the VIP room. It was a separate room for him and his entourage. Well, his entourage when he's at home tends to be his mum, his brothers (sic), family members. He's a natural guy. Ewan McGregor: From Scotland to the Stars (video), 2000 (thanks Amy)

Tim Roth (actor)
I'd like to work with Ewan. I met Rufus Sewell the other day, he was very nice. I just wanna work with good actors. I don't want to deal with that starry bullshit. UK Elle Magazine, September 1998

Daniel Broch (managing director Everyman Cinema)
We are very lucky to have some good supports, one of them being Ewan McGregor and his wife, Eve, who are very keen to develop saturday morning cinema for kids. We run that in conjunction with Eve, although Ewan turns up quite a lot as well. It is basically a saturday morning film with a workshop afterwards. The kids make stuff and it’s on the walls of the foyer now. It’s proving very popular. It’s slightly different films then is readily available for kids now. We have just done ‘Oliver’, ‘Bugsy Malone’, you know that type of genre. www.cine4.co.uk, date?