Ewan McGregor plays a Man With No Name in his film, The Ghost – but don’t worry; he isn’t remaking any Sergio Leone classics. Instead he’s the ghost writer brought in to help a Tony Blair-like ex-Prime Minister write his autobiography in the new thriller from Roman Polanski. We talked to McGregor in London recently about his theories on his character’s name, playing in the rain and working with the controversial director…

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Step away from the motorbike Charley Boorman, for Ewan McGregor, your best mate and fellow adventurer, has his heart set on hitting the road with a new companion. “I’ve got a dog, Sid, and I’ve trained him to ride in my side car and I thought we could do a trip together!” says the Scottish actor sitting back in his chair, chortling to himself.

When Robert Harris, the author of McGregor’s latest project The Ghost Writer, described him as “both an everyman but also glamorous in a believable way”, he was right on the money.

Dressed in jeans, white T-shirt and a blue v-neck jumper, McGregor doesn’t exude charisma but there’s a likeability factor about him, which has earned him movie-star status.

After a sabbatical of sorts, which saw McGregor and Charley ride around the world twice, the 38-year-old is back on our screens, with his next two films out within a month of each other.

His movie career took off 14 years ago with his performance as the heroin-addicted Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting.

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Writer/producer/director Roman Polanski releases his latest film after a five-year hiatus with his political thriller, The Ghost Writer.

Although Polanski has avoided the United States for the past 33 years (he was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1977), there is no denying he is a talented filmmaker; the Academy Award-winning director is known for his legendary films such as The Pianist (2002), Chinatown (1974) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

In The Ghost Writer, actor Ewan McGregor plays the title role of the Ghost, a ghost writer working on the memoir of ex-British Prime Minister, Adam Lang. While writing the memoir, the Ghost begins to dig deeper into Lang’s past and becomes entangled in a web of deceit and lies and the only way out is to discover the truth… or so he thinks.

McGregor has starred in over 39 films, including Trainspotting (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Big Fish (2003) and The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) and has a few projects already lined up for the future.

Recently, McGregor sat down with the Daily Titan to discuss the film, working with legendary filmmaker Roman Polanski and creating his phantom character, the Ghost.

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While other actors may shudder at the prospect of on-screen nudity, Ewan McGregor embraces it, never turning down an opportunity to shed his clothes in the service of his art. In fact, one could reasonably posit that McGregor’s penchant for nudity, both full-frontal and otherwise, is the only consistent feature of his bafflingly varied film oeurve. While you’d be hard-pressed to predict what kind of film the Scottish-bred actor will make next (An indie classic like Trainspotting? A studio tentpole like The Island? A blink-and-you-missed-it debacle like Deception?), you can be reasonably assured that he’ll drop trou in it.

McGregor can next be seen in the Roman Polanski-directed political thriller The Ghost Writer, in which his pale British bottom makes a brief but memorable cameo. But the actor hesitates to label it “nudity,” as we learned in a recent interview:

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Yesterday during an interview with Ewan McGregor for Roman Polanski’s (whose name has been mysteriously missing from the synopsis, press notes and other promotional pieces – more on that later) The Ghost Writer, he briefly spoke about the rumor about Danny Boyle tackling a Trainspotting sequel. Although it might be fun to get the gang back together in their 40’s to see where they’re at, McGregor said he wasn’t interested for one very good reason….

Danny Boyle talked about doing a Trainspotting sequel with the guys in their 40s. Does that sound good to you?

McGregor: It doesn’t sound great to me because I didn’t hugely love the book. The sequel to Trainspotting, the novel, is a book called Porno and I didn’t think it was as amazing. The novel Trainspotting is quite an amazing book.

Would the sequel to the movie have to be “Porno”?

McGregor: It would be… I think that’s what they’re talking about.

How nice is it to hear that an actor doesn’t want to return to a guaranteed hit because the material isn’t that good?! That someone is finally saying, let’s not do a half-assed sequel just because!

In a world where all that we see are remakes and sequels, it’s nice to know that it’s not all about that, for many people in Hollywood it’s still about creating good work. And if you want to see good work, check out The Ghost Writer, we’ll have Ewan’s full interview popping up soon.

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