In conjunction with his birthday today, Aref Omar lists some of the 46-year-old Scottish actor’s works
1. TRAINSPOTTING (1996)
McGregor shot to worldwide fame in this black dramedy directed by Danny Boyle about a group of heroin addicts in an Edinburgh skid row. To prepare for his role, McGregor read books about drugs and met a group of recovering heroin addicts in Glasgow. He also lost close to 12kg in two months to look the part. Although McGregor considered injecting himself with heroin to better understand his character, he ultimately decided against it. A long-awaited sequel, T2, was released early this year.
2. BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001)
The frantic confusion of a mission gone wrong during the Battle of Mogadishu is captured by director Ridley Scott in this war film based on the real events of the 1993 raid in Mogadishu, Somalia by the US military to capture warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom and Tom Hardy. McGregor plays the fictional character, SPC Grimes, although the role is thought to be based on the real-life Ranger clerk, SPC John Stebbins, who also had a liking for coffee and was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the battle.
3. MOULIN ROUGE! (2001)
It’s a flamboyant and dazzling jukebox musical film that could only be made by director Baz Luhrmann (he was also producer and co-writer).
McGregor and Nicole Kidman play a young English poet and a cabaret star, who fall in love with each other at the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France. During the elephant scenes, both McGregor and Kidman wore harnesses since they were standing over 18m off the ground.
4. BIG FISH (2003)
Tim Burton directs this fantasy drama about Ed Bloom, a former travelling salesman, who, while on his deathbed, relates tall tales of his eventful life as a young adult in order to mend his relationship with his adult son. Due to his facial similarities to a young Albert Finney (who plays Senior Ed Bloom), McGregor was cast as Young Ed Bloom. Helena Bonham Carter’s character is a decade younger than Mcgregor’s in the film. In real life, she is five years older than him.
5. THE ISLAND (2005)
This sci-fi action film directed by Michael Bay sees McGregor as a man trying to escape from a dystopian city that uses clones for organ harvesting and surrogate motherhood. Some of his actual character traits were incorporated into his role, like his penchant for custom sport bikes and his Scottish origin. During a running scene with Scarlett Johansson, McGregor tripped on the dolly track onto the tracking camera which was following them and injured himself badly.
6. STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)
In this third prequel to the classic space opera, McGregor reprises his role as Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has to stop his dear friend and fallen Jedi, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), at all costs. To prepare for their epic battle, McGregor and Christensen trained intensively in fencing and fitness for two months. The result is them duelling at actual speed during the film without any digital acceleration. McGregor also operated animatronic puppets of the infant twins, Luke and Leia, during certain shots of their birth scene, which led to the cast referring jokingly to it as “Foamy-Wan Kenobi”.
7. BEGINNERS (2010)
McGregor plays a man reflecting on the life and death of his father, while embarking on a romantic relationship with an equally-complicated woman, in this romantic dramedy. Apparently McGregor was not a dog owner prior to filming but decided to get a pooch during the shooting, which features a prominent canine character, and settled for a poodle he named Sid.
8. THE GHOST WRITER (2010)
An adaptation of the Robert Harris novel, The Ghost, this political thriller, directed by Roman Polanski, sees McGregor as a ghostwriter, whose life is in jeopardy after uncovering secrets from his work in preparing a memoir of a former British prime minister. McGregor’s character is simply listed as The Ghost in the film’s credits and the original novel doesn’t name him either. Because of this, the actor had apparently said that in his head the character’s name was Gordon McFarquor.
9. THE IMPOSSIBLE (2012)
McGregor and Naomi Watts play a couple with children in this disaster drama, based on the experience of Maria Belon and her family in Khao Lak, Thailand during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
10. SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (2012)
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, this romantic dramedy sees McGregor as a fisheries expert, who embarks on a journey of faith to make the impossible possible after he is recruited by a consultant (Emily Blunt) to help realise a sheikh’s vision of bringing the sport of fly fishing to the Yemeni desert. To fully portray his role as Dr Alfred Jones, McGregor had to learn the fine art of fly fishing.