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.

Paul Trijbits (head UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund)
(responding to criticism by Ewan and Tilda Swinton of the Council's film funding policies - the council initially refused to fund Young Adam)
Everybody's entitled to their opinions, however misguided, but this does look like a bunch of spoilt kids [who] have been given a drum set and they've got their hammers out and are whacking it. In most of these cases we are talking about people whose films did get made, and got made with substantial sums of public money. What's their problem? Independent, June 1 2003

Tilda Swinton (actor Young Adam)
(criticising the UK Film Council's decision not to fund Young Adam)
Neither Jeremy Thomas (the producer) nor Ewan McGregor, who wields a light sabre intergalactically, were enough to entice the Film Council to help make this film.Their concerns were that the 'commerciality' of the film might not compute. We who did thought them misguided. Independent, June 1 2003

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love)
I've been a fan of his forever and ever and ever. As an actress, it's such a joy to watch somebody who is always authentic and always raises the bar. What he chooses to do is so unpredictable. Ewan elevates the material and he elevates every film that he's in. Sun Newspapers, May 15 2003 (thank you Karen)

David Mackenzie (director Young Adam)
I think Ewan McGregor fans are going to see something a bit different. I think it's his first proper 'man' role. He'll probably be offended by me saying this but I think there's a difference from what he's done before. It's an adult film and it's got an adult complexity to it. Sunday Herald, May 25 2003

REVIEW - Young Adam
Young Adam is much less a murder mystery, or sordid love story, than it is an observation of the kind of outsider made famous by the likes of Camus, in France, or the Beat writers such as Kerouac and Burroughs in America. McGregor, in one of his best performances for a long time, plays the detachment to the hilt: Joe seems barely alive, his only activities (when not working) being reading and fucking. Sex for him seems to be more of a challenge than a pleasure. Channel 4 Film, May 2003 (thank you Roxanne)

REVIEWS - Down With Love

Zellweger, in particularly, takes the broad approach, walking with a flamboyant sashay and making big gestures. McGregor offers a more restrained - and effective - performance that more convincingly generates its humor and nostalgia. Jack Garner, Gannett News Service, May 14 2003 (thank you firingsquard)

Zellweger has no zing with McGregor, who seems uncomfortable in a stud role that, say, Hugh Jackman could have nailed. Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, May 14 2003

McGregor, however suave and handsome, doesn't have the manly heft of Hudson, though he does have an appropriately urbane quality. He's more Dean Jones (The Love Bug) than Hudson. Claudia Puig, USA Today, May 15 2003 (thank you ewanfan101)

Though they play types in the mold of Day and Hudson, Zellweger and McGregor have the wirehaired-terrier friskiness of Natalie Wood and James Coburn. It's pure pleasure to watch Zellweger and McGregor bound across a set with the swinger confidence of Frank Sinatra taking the stage of the Sands Hotel. Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 16 2003

Ewan McGregor, as the magazine writer and international playboy Catcher Block, embodies the ladies'-man myth, the sleek, lovable cad who is irresistible to all women, especially, it seems, airline stewardesses. He has Laurence Harvey's hair and walk coupled with a James Bond smirk. Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, May 16 2003

Gliding through it all with masculine glee is McGregor. As Catcher Block, the actor doesn’t waltz through his role so much as slide greasily. He’s a cad of the highest degree, a “woman’s man, man’s man and man about town” who’s so adorably charismatic that you find yourself rooting for his deception to work. In his razor-sharp houndstooth-check jackets and hipster sunglasses, McGregor doesn’t recall beefcakey Hudson so much as the kinetic young Tony Curtis, who could smile into the camera and cause women to melt into gooey heaps. The Portland Tribune, May 16 2003 (thank you ParisRouge)

"Down With Love" is the most exhilarating piece of old-meets-new moviemaking since "Moulin Rouge," and it's no coincidence that Ewan McGregor is at the center of both (…) the whole thing would be an empty, transparent exercise in style without an actor of McGregor's total commitment. He throws himself into the role of a suave ladies' man with a fearless abandon that Hudson never had. He's both sly and exuberant, calculating and uninhibited. He has no poses, no defenses, no worries that he'll look silly or full of himself. Place McGregor's blithe, womanizing journalist of "Down With Love" alongside his love-addled poet of "Moulin Rouge," and it's clear he's a rare and extraordinary performer, one who combines the old-school showmanship of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly with the emotional nakedness of contemporary Method actors. Ben Nuckols, Associated Press, May 16 2003 (thank you Gail)

McGregor sharks around agreeably, flashing his teeth at a game Hyde Pierce, but there's something uncertain about the performance, as if he can't find his footing. Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times, May 16 2003 (thank you xcbug)

Zellweger continues the against-the-odds trajectory of her career with some deft comic work. Even so, the film is stolen brazenly by McGregor, sexier, funnier and more dashing than ever as a man who, as a song lyric over the closing credits tells us, "make(s) Dean Martin look like a Quaker." Assured, razor-cut and sneaky, he convinces as a rake, a naif and, finally, a romantic. It's a stardom-cementing performance. Shawn Levy, The Oregonian, May 16 2003 (thank you Brittyn)

To get anywhere near (Rock) Hudson's ebullience, confidence and sexual magnetism, poor li'l Ewan must work overtime. You never saw a face so busy: He's continually arching an eyebrow, pursing his lips, sucking in his cheeks, dilating his eyes up for warmth or down for cunning, concentrating on his timing. He's doing every Brit-actor thing he can think of, huffing and puffing. You just want him to cut the twinkle factor down to nil and relax a little. Stephen Hunter, Washington Post, May 16 2003

As Catcher, McGregor consolidates his ''Moulin Rouge'' gains and makes you forget about that stiff named Obi- Wan Kenobi; his is a loose-limbed, expertly controlled performance that's a delight to watch. Ty Burr, The Boston Globe, May 16 2003

McGregor is divine as Catcher Block and Zellweger plays her part to pouty perfection. Susan Walker, The Toronto Star, May 16 2003

Mr. McGregor has played so many heroin addicts, poster boys for nudity camps and general scuzzballs that it comes as a shock to see him freshly shaved, with short hair plastered down with slickum, dressed for a Seagram’s ad. Obviously he wants a new image, but he was pretty awful in Moulin Rouge, and as a hunky babe magnet in Down with Love, the miscasting overwhelms. Scrawny and pasty-faced, he’s no Rock, or even Tab. The effect of too many parties is self-evident. He may not be ready to exchange dance steps for 12 steps, but a copy of the Big Book and a six-pack of Diet Coke can’t be far behind. Rex Reed, The New York Observer, May 19 2003 (thank you ParisRouge)

McGregor, with his ropy slimness and Scots accent, looks to be attempting to channel early Sean Connery (including the line "Something [big] just came up," from an early James Bond film). Odd that he could be so convincing as the innocent in "Moulin Rouge," yet here, with the same huge fake moon hanging over similar penthouse apartments, and the same love-lust he needs to radiate, he can't get inside the character. Richard Corliss, Time Magazine, May 19 2003

Zellweger plays it gamely, and so does McGregor, who has perfected a superb skirt chaser’s walk—shoulders swivelling, a mixture of lunge and lounge. But both of them are set adrift by the movie’s discomforting demands, and only in the closing credits do they get to do what people do most fruitfully instead of sex, which is to make a song and dance about it. Who needs love? Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, May 26 2003

McGregor is hilarious from the moment he swaggers onscreen, capturing that caddish aura so many early-'60s swingers assumed in their effort to emulate Rat Pack cool. Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 2003 (thank you Paris Rouge)

David Mackenzie (director Young Adam)
I think he was very pleased to be working at home on a film that has adult morality and all of those kind of things and something that allowed him to do some acting against real people rather than a blue screen. He was a great supporter of the project all the way through and fantastic to work with. Unreel, May 2003 (thank you Karen)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
He's a great guy. There's a purity in what he does, and he won't compromise himself. I love that. And he's really clever. He always surprises me. He shows up and he always brings more to it than you think is on the page. Interview, June 2003 (thank you Deann)

REVIEW - Young Adam

Sex and death are not strangers, and the erotic tension between the new barge hand and the wife is magnetic. McGregor’s enigmatic journey is his best performance in years, even if it is mostly led by the stirrings below his belt. James Christopher, The Times, London, May 22 2003

Emily Mortimer (actor Young Adam - Cathie)
(about her intense and violent sex scene with Ewan)
It wasn't traumatising at all. It was exhilarating as we had to play the whole thing in one take. We got on very well and trusted each other. We had a feeling it was shocking and that was kind of exciting. Reuters, May 19 2003 (thank you Claude)

David Mackenzie (director Young Adam)
(about funding problems and filming delays)
All the cast stayed in and supported it. Ewan's been very loyal to the whole thing. The Herald, May 19 2003

Peyton Reed (director Down With Love)
Ewan has this kind of punk rock sensibility about him, where he's just game to try anything and he's a really, really brave actor. Punk rock is all about an energy and a vitality and an immediacy, and he as an actor has that… He has this intense sex appeal, and kind of this sense of danger. It's easy to imagine he's going to be one of those actors who's going to be around 40 or 50 years from now with a 'Sir' in front of his name. The Washington Post, May 18 2003 (thank you Gail)

Dan Jinks (producer Down With Love)
We needed somebody who on the one hand could be very macho so women would love him and guys could feel incredibly comfortable with him, but he also had to be a really, really good actor to do this kind of stylized piece and be completely committed to it. I don't know that there's a better looking guy who's as good an actor as Ewan. We really feel like we hit the jackpot with him. I think people who see the movie are surprised. They expect Ewan to always be great because he's always great, but he played a character in this film that he had never played before and the performance is just tremendous, I think. Hollywood Reporter, May 16 2003 (thank you Gail)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love – Barbara)
I like Ewan. We've been friends for a long time, and I've been his fan for even longer. We were like kids playing a really intense game of T-ball on the team together. You know, just concentrating to get the hits, to get the run. And then when it happens, jumping for joy--literally. We were like dumb little kids clapping our hands every day. It was ridiculous. We laughed so much. He comes up with funny things you just don't expect, and you've got to tighten your appearance the best you can not to crack up and ruin the scene. There were scenes where we were holding hands and I think I squeezed the blood out of his fingers trying not to laugh. E!online, May 14 2003 (thank you starboardfrannie)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love – Barbara)
(about Here’s To Love, the end-title song she recorded with Ewan)
It was never intended. Ewan McGregor was wailing around the set saying, 'Should we do a song? Don't you think we should do a song?' The film has such energy to it that it just seemed natural. Finally they gave and did it. ABCNews, May 15 2003 (thank you Ewan rocks webmistress)

REVIEWS - Young Adam

Joe is part existential outsider, part Jack-the-lad who regards sex as a way of defying the society he so dislikes. As portrayed by McGregor, in a donkey jacket, with hair swept back, he looks a little like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. This is certainly one of McGregor's strongest performances. He plays Joe as a brooding, curiously detached figure, who seems to be at a remove from his own life. Whether trying to seduce Ella, witnessing the murder trial that he himself has triggered, or cheating on Ella with her sister, he rarely displays more than a flicker of emotion (…) Like the author who created him, Joe isn't easy to warm to. The irony is that McGregor somehow renders the character sympathetic in spite of himself. Just as in Trainspotting, you end up rooting for Joe... whatever he does with the custard. Geoffrey Macnab, Independent, May 16 2003

Strongly cast, with an especially fine perf by Ewan McGregor as an amoral drifter caught up in a couple's passionless marriage (…) McGregor is tops as Joe, underplaying the character's opportunism without ladling on the charm. Derek Elley, Variety, May 16 2003

It will startle devotees of Ewan McGregor's recent matinee-idol persona. McGregor, in arguably his most vivid and complex performance since Trainspotting, will certainly help Young Adam's box-office profile (…) The acting is uniformly powerful and subtle (..) While McGregor's well-coiffed dapper appearance may not entirely fit the 1950s scene, his curiously blank charisma works to deceptive effect, keeping us guessing about Joe's personality, which veers unpredictably between charm and outright, uningratiating abjection. Jonathan Romney, Screen International, May 18 2003 (thank you Sessan)

Ewan McGregor gives one of his most complex and mature performances to date as Joe, a young man living and working on a barge with Les (Peter Mullan) and his wife Ella (Tilda Swinton). Stephen Applebaum, The Scotsman, May 19 2003 (thank you Specs)

(Mackenzie, the director) does extremely well by the efforts of his highly capable cast -- in particular, the truly dynamic duo of Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton. It's hard to think of two less-inhibited actors working today, and although their scorchingly vigorous sex scenes will no doubt help sell the picture, the stripped-bare purity of their performances leaves a lasting impression long after the titillation factor wears off (…) Returning to his Scottish indie roots after firmly establishing himself in such big-budget fare as "Moulin Rouge" and the past two "Star Wars" pictures, McGregor makes for a perfect noir antihero, while Swinton, ever the chameleon, once again disappears effortlessly into a character who proves to be anything but predictable. Together they set off considerable sparks. Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter, May 19 2003

Ewan MacGregor gives his best performance in ages. Sukhdev Sandhu, Telegraph, May 19 2003


I have a large number of Down With Love reviews that I will post shortly. So much Ewan, so little time!

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
I think that he's phenomenal; he inspires me. He always takes it to another level. He's always original and he always has integrity. The choices that he makes are made from a very pure place, and he always surprises me as an audience member. NorthJersey.com, May 14 2003 (thank you Barbara)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
(after Ewan told a reporter about having once unsuccessfully put insincere moves on a woman)
Can I say this about Ewan McGregor? I have never seen this man be anything but completely compassionate. Honestly. And if that's what it took to learn it, to have some girl shut the door on you and never come back again before you found out that we would love you just the way you are, I'm glad it happened. USA Today, May 13 2003

Peyton Reed (director Down With Love)
What the character of Catcher Block needed, besides incredible good looks, was that crazy charisma that Ewan has. You can feel the eyes of every woman in sight on him. Ewan also has a strong ‘edge’ – a real sense of danger – that was perfect for Catcher, who is a player and playboy … a kind of James Bond without the espionage. Twentieth Century Fox press kit, movieweb.com (thank you Gail)

Morag Rhodes (pr coordinator Children's Hospice Association of Scotland)
(on the filming of a fundraising commercial for CHAS)
On the morning of the shoot, there was an air of quiet anticipation, as the night before everyone was told that Ewan McGregor was coming to make a short film at Rachel House for Pearl & Dean’s 50th Anniversary. When Ewan arrived it was just like a reunion of old friends, lots of laughter and excitement and interest in the filming. www.pearlanddean.com, May 2003 (thank you Roxanne and Georginita)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
For seven years, I've been going, 'Where's Ewan McGregor? What's Ewan McGregor doing? Is he making this? Is there a girl? What kind of girl? Can we make that happen? We've been acquaintances for a long time, but I've been his fan for even longer. We were literally like kids at recess — dumb, dancing in place and clapping our hands after the scenes. I cannot wait to go find something else to do with him. TV Guide, May 12 2003 (thank you Candlefairy)

Martin Compston (actor)
I love the way he's always loyal to British films. The only advice he gave me was don't sleep with the director. As it was Ken Loach, it wasn't in my plans anyway. Sunday Mail, May 11 2003

Peyton Reed (director Down With Love)
I love the idea of seeing him with slick hair and a tuxedo, looking like (Cary) Grant. He's not afraid to mix up his roles. USA Weekend Magazine, May 1 2003 (thank you Alyse)

Charley Boorman (actor The Serpent's Kiss)
We met [making] the film "The Serpent's Kiss" in 1997 and both had newborn children at the time. We had play dates and had a great time. We were in Ireland, and we took our families all over the place. I'm not surprised that he's having such a good time in the South (filming Big Fish). He likes to get out and experience everything with his family. USA Weekend Magazine, May 1 2003 (thank you Alyse)

REVIEWS - Down With Love

Hollywood seems to have found its new Cary Grant in McGregor, who scored as an idealized heartthrob in "Moulin Rouge" and backs that with a pitch-perfect rendition of a vapid playboy rating a comeuppance. Jack Matthews, New York Daily News, May 8 2003

In ''Down With Love,'' McGregor, speaking in his natural Scottish accent, plays Catcher as a real-world Austin Powers with straighter teeth and better clothes. It's hilarious to see a movie's male sex symbol define cool by the way he rolls on his spandex stay-up socks, and McGregor, who has so much heart that he puts feeling into his jokes, is wonderfully charming as this toxic bachelor with no idea that his ways are on the way out. Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, May 7 2003 (thank you Cara)

Unlike Day and Hudson, who inhabited their characters with an effortless charm, Zellweger and McGregor appear to be straining for effect, conveying little of the natural sexiness of their predecessors. Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter, May 8 2003

Zellweger and McGregor are constantly mugging in a tiresomely self-aware way. David Rooney, Variety, May 6 2003

The Hudson-Day roles are taken up by Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger, unflappable veterans of the recent campaign to revive the movie musical. They demonstrate together, as they did (separately) in "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago," a thoroughly charming immunity to embarrassment. They also remind you that the real Rock Hudson and Doris Day flourished in the days before personal trainers, Diet Coke and the Atkins Diet turned Hollywood into the land of ropy biceps and flat tummies. Mr. McGregor's wiry, wolfish energy is more like the young Sinatra than the bulky, slow-moving Hudson, but never mind. His high-flying playboy, a magazine writer named Catcher Block, is a lithe Lothario, a woman's man, a man's man, a man about town. A. O. Scott, New York Times, May 9 2003 (thank you Mary)

Jeri Ryan (actor Down With Love)
Here's the role: can you go make out with Ewan McGregor for three days? Alright, twist my arm! It's a tough gig. Extra, May 7 2003 (thanks Specs)

David Mackenzie (director Young Adam)
(Ewan is) one of the few significant British stars. The Scotsman, May 4 2003 (thank you Claude)

Peyton Reed (director Down With Love)
You can watch Ewan across the parking lot and see the eyes of every woman on him, what more could I ask for (in a leading man). US Weekly, May 12 2003 (thank you OnlyEW)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
Ewan McGregor was a hoot. I love that man.... There is nothing he can't do. And, I have to admit, he is so dreamy in his little suits. He was great. But I have to say, I think my little pink suits, and hair flips are the cat's meow. I can't tell you how much fun I had doing this movie. Let me tell you, it ain't a bad life, boys and girls. Famous (Famous Players Theatres magazine), May 2003 (thank you Cora)

Renee Zellweger (actor Down With Love - Barbara)
I really can't rate how well Ewan and I came to achieving the chemistry (Rock Hudson and Doris Day) had, but I know we had a great time. He was my partner in crime on the set. It was a joyful experience, and I hope people will feel that way when they see the film. We could all use a little joy right now. Good Housekeeping, June 2003 (thank you MrsObiWan)