Ewan McGregor on his childhood and being a parent himself
Published Aug 13, 2018 06:21 am
LOS ANGELES – The gracious British actor Ewan McGregor, 47, who won a Golden Globe Best Actor-Miniseries for his role as Raymond “Ray” Stussy in “Fargo” and who had his directorial debut in 2016 for “American Pastoral,” is portraying Christopher Robin in the Marc Forster-helmed fantasy comedy-drama, “Christopher Robin.”
Ewan McGregor (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/ HFPA)
Inspired by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh,” the live-action/CGI extension of the Disney franchise of the same name follows Christopher Robin as he has grown up and lost his sense of imagination, only to be reunited with his old stuffed bear friend, Winnie-the-Pooh.
Being a father himself, we asked Ewan how much of his childhood is maintained.
“I’ve had time to think about it and now that we’ve started to do press, I have thought a lot about this and about Christopher’s journey and what it might be. The thing that I keep going back to is my dad. I keep thinking about my father and thinking about his relationship with his dad and I don’t know why I don’t think about my mum, but I’m thinking about my dad because I think my father was born in 1941 and Madeline, our daughter in this film is probably born right about then.
“Then Christopher goes off to war and when he comes back she’s about seven and there’s a struggle, isn’t there? Christopher’s not close to her and probably in reality he wouldn’t be aware of that or care very much because at that time gentlemen just weren’t close to their children. That was the way of things. Of course, I’m so close to mine that it was quite difficult to play those early scenes where I was cut off from her which was quite awkward.
“My instinct was to be much closer to her than Christopher Robin should be. Marc was always pulling me back from that. But I’ve thought about my dad a lot and I’ve thought about how difficult it must’ve been to not have that, how lovely is that we do have that closer relationship with our kids now and what a shame that they didn’t then. But we’ve come quite a long way.
“Then in terms of holding onto your own childhood; I’ve always felt quite like that through various things. Through motorcycles and bicycles and adventures and music in a way. I feel like someone was asking about the weekend about doing nothing, because in this film Pooh talks about the best of doing nothing is that it often leads to the very best of something. I’m very like that on my days off on the weekend. I’ve always been a bit childish like that. I find myself doing different things that keep me feeling young anyway. Then now with my own kids, obviously doing that with them.”
So was there a time in his life where he said I am working too much and I need to spend more time enjoying life?
“Yes,” he replied. “I haven’t worked this year at all and that’s very rare for me. But yeah, I just decided not to work after ‘Christopher Robin.’ We finished this in November and I start my next project in mid-September. I’m shooting a film with director, Mike Flanagan. We’re doing the sequel to ‘The Shining.’ A film called ‘Doctor Sleep’ from Stephen King’s novel. So we start in mid-September and I finished this mid-November so I’ve almost have had a year off and that was just exactly for that reason.
Scene from ‘Christopher Robin’
“I felt like I needed to stop and have time. It’s been fantastic. For the first time in my life, I’ve been able to relax and enjoy. My time off has usually been limited to a few months maybe here and there, but always with something to go on to do and this time I stopped without having anything to go on to do. So I just actually enjoyed the time off, instead of feeling that it was running out. Often I would take a couple of months off, but I knew I had something to go onto so the clock was ticking away. But it’s good, it’s nice. It’s also just to recharge. Every now and again you need to recharge your batteries.”
Asked to describe his childhood, Ewan revealed, “I had a childhood very similar to Christopher’s. I grew up in a small town called Crieff, in Scotland. Crieff is built on a hillside and above that the town is this big woods called The Knock. I spent most of my childhood, really from a young age, up in those woods. I suppose when I was around nine-years-old I was into horse riding and the horse stables were up in those woods. So I would go ride horses there and work in the stables there for free rides. Then my mates and I would build dens up there and spend my summer holidays in those woods. We did exactly what Pooh says; I’d leave the house in the morning and I’d go off on my bicycle and meet my mate, Eric, and we’d go up into the woods and then I’d ride back home around six at night. I have spent all days out there. I’d go with a little sandwich or something. I don’t really know what we did, but it was fun.”
We asked Ewan, who has four daughters with ages that span from 22 to seven, what his daughters taught him about being more childlike.
“It forms everything in your life,” he answered. “Of course you learn from all your experiences and being a parent is the biggest one of your life. So yeah, I would say you learn very much from it. But your experience with each child is very unique anyway because they’re totally different people. They come out totally fully formed and with their own characters. But you learn most from your parents. You learn very much from the way you’ve been brought up. Good or bad you decide what you’re going to carry forward or not. I was lucky I had great parents and a nice set of moral guidelines from them.”
Ewan McGregor (Photo courtesy of Janet R. Nepales/ HFPA)
Inspired by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh,” the live-action/CGI extension of the Disney franchise of the same name follows Christopher Robin as he has grown up and lost his sense of imagination, only to be reunited with his old stuffed bear friend, Winnie-the-Pooh.
Being a father himself, we asked Ewan how much of his childhood is maintained.
“I’ve had time to think about it and now that we’ve started to do press, I have thought a lot about this and about Christopher’s journey and what it might be. The thing that I keep going back to is my dad. I keep thinking about my father and thinking about his relationship with his dad and I don’t know why I don’t think about my mum, but I’m thinking about my dad because I think my father was born in 1941 and Madeline, our daughter in this film is probably born right about then.
“Then Christopher goes off to war and when he comes back she’s about seven and there’s a struggle, isn’t there? Christopher’s not close to her and probably in reality he wouldn’t be aware of that or care very much because at that time gentlemen just weren’t close to their children. That was the way of things. Of course, I’m so close to mine that it was quite difficult to play those early scenes where I was cut off from her which was quite awkward.
“My instinct was to be much closer to her than Christopher Robin should be. Marc was always pulling me back from that. But I’ve thought about my dad a lot and I’ve thought about how difficult it must’ve been to not have that, how lovely is that we do have that closer relationship with our kids now and what a shame that they didn’t then. But we’ve come quite a long way.
“Then in terms of holding onto your own childhood; I’ve always felt quite like that through various things. Through motorcycles and bicycles and adventures and music in a way. I feel like someone was asking about the weekend about doing nothing, because in this film Pooh talks about the best of doing nothing is that it often leads to the very best of something. I’m very like that on my days off on the weekend. I’ve always been a bit childish like that. I find myself doing different things that keep me feeling young anyway. Then now with my own kids, obviously doing that with them.”
So was there a time in his life where he said I am working too much and I need to spend more time enjoying life?
“Yes,” he replied. “I haven’t worked this year at all and that’s very rare for me. But yeah, I just decided not to work after ‘Christopher Robin.’ We finished this in November and I start my next project in mid-September. I’m shooting a film with director, Mike Flanagan. We’re doing the sequel to ‘The Shining.’ A film called ‘Doctor Sleep’ from Stephen King’s novel. So we start in mid-September and I finished this mid-November so I’ve almost have had a year off and that was just exactly for that reason.
Scene from ‘Christopher Robin’
“I felt like I needed to stop and have time. It’s been fantastic. For the first time in my life, I’ve been able to relax and enjoy. My time off has usually been limited to a few months maybe here and there, but always with something to go on to do and this time I stopped without having anything to go on to do. So I just actually enjoyed the time off, instead of feeling that it was running out. Often I would take a couple of months off, but I knew I had something to go onto so the clock was ticking away. But it’s good, it’s nice. It’s also just to recharge. Every now and again you need to recharge your batteries.”
Asked to describe his childhood, Ewan revealed, “I had a childhood very similar to Christopher’s. I grew up in a small town called Crieff, in Scotland. Crieff is built on a hillside and above that the town is this big woods called The Knock. I spent most of my childhood, really from a young age, up in those woods. I suppose when I was around nine-years-old I was into horse riding and the horse stables were up in those woods. So I would go ride horses there and work in the stables there for free rides. Then my mates and I would build dens up there and spend my summer holidays in those woods. We did exactly what Pooh says; I’d leave the house in the morning and I’d go off on my bicycle and meet my mate, Eric, and we’d go up into the woods and then I’d ride back home around six at night. I have spent all days out there. I’d go with a little sandwich or something. I don’t really know what we did, but it was fun.”
We asked Ewan, who has four daughters with ages that span from 22 to seven, what his daughters taught him about being more childlike.
“It forms everything in your life,” he answered. “Of course you learn from all your experiences and being a parent is the biggest one of your life. So yeah, I would say you learn very much from it. But your experience with each child is very unique anyway because they’re totally different people. They come out totally fully formed and with their own characters. But you learn most from your parents. You learn very much from the way you’ve been brought up. Good or bad you decide what you’re going to carry forward or not. I was lucky I had great parents and a nice set of moral guidelines from them.”