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I Don't Like Being Told That's Where You, You Know, If You Walk On Set And Somebody Was "okay, You're Here And You're Going To Walk Over There On This Line." And My Reaction Is Always How Do You Know? How Do You Know That's What I'm Going To Do? How Do Any Of Us Know?

-Ewan McGregor

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I Don't Like Being

Ewan McGregor

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I Don't Like Being Told That's Where You, You Know, If You Walk On Set And Somebody Was "okay, You're Here And You're Going To Walk Over There On This Line." And My Reaction Is Always How Do You Know? How Do You Know That's What I'm Going To Do? How Do Any Of Us Know?

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I Would Tend To Be Drawn To Independent Cinema As A Viewer, Probably More Than The Big Blockbuster.

I'm Just Into Making Quality Stuff If I Can, With Interesting People And Good Scripts. But It's Very Important That It's About Something And That It Says Something. Otherwise, I Don't Know What The Point Is, Really.

When You Take The R Sound Out Of French Accent, And You Just Replace It With An R, It Sounds Mexican.

For The Actors, There's Something Very Important About That First Showing Of The Scene To The Crew, Becomes Like A Little Performance.

I Love Film People And Actors And I Am In The Right World Because I Am One Of Those People.

It's Impossible To Put Your Finger On What That Is Exactly Other Than Protecting The Environment That The Actors Get To Find The Scenes And Build The Scenes And Invest In Them. I Think That's Key And That's What I've Learned From All The Great Directors I've Worked With.

When I Would Knock About The Town In London, I Was Doing It With My Head Down, Walking Very Quickly And It Had Become The Norm For Me Because I'm Recognized There. And People Are Not Unkind But Occasionally There's A Sort Of British Who Do You Think You Are Sort Of, I Don't Really Think I'm Anybody. I Just Go About My Normal Day. But Sometimes You're Faced With That.

I Keep Waiting To Be Invited To The Hip Hop Party, I've Never Been. So If There's Anyone Out There Who Is Having A Hip Hop Party, I'd Like To Come.

Conservative's The Last Thing I Am.

I Love Exploring In A Rehearsal Room With Other Actors, Scenes And You Know, Stuff You Are Scared Of.

I Really Want To Play Princess Leia. Stick Some Big Pastries On My Head. Now, That Would Be Interesting.

Don't Worry About Telling Your Actor What To Do.

I Wanted To Go And Explore The World, I Guess. And I Suddenly Thought Well, I'll Just Do It.

I Remember In Shallow Grave I Remember A Few Times When We'd Only Have To Do One Take. But When You Did Have To Do More Than One, You'd Build On The One You'd Done.

I Fight Cynicism. It`s Too Easy. It`s Really Boring. It`s Much Harder To Be Positive And See The Wonder Of Everything. Cynicism Is A Bunch Of People Who Aren`t As Talented As Other People, Knocking Them Because They Make Them Feel Even More Untalented.

It Is Always A Nice Feeling When You Are Challenged By A Scene And You Walk Out Of Trailer And You Go On Set Going I Don't Know. And Then Half An Hour Later You're Walking Back.

Ultimately, You Have To Not Worry About People Thinking You Should Have Played Him Differently. You're The One Playing The Part So It Has To Be Yours.

I Don't Like The Idea Of Not Being Able To Knock About The Town, You Know.

I Like The Idea Of Being A Sculptor. Just Me Alone, Making Something - That Solitary Existence.

I Was Getting In Trouble At School. I Wasn't Happy. The School Was Very Much A School That Created People For Commerce And It Wasn't An Arty School.

There's Nothing Worse Than Shooting A Scene You Haven't Rehearsed.

Giving Kids Whatever They Ask For Is Disastrous Parenting. There's No Sense Of Something Earned. I'm Sorry, But When You're 12, You Don't Need A New Cell Phone Every Few Months Just Because A New One Comes Out.

Unicef Is Successfully Giving Children And Young People All Over The World Opportunities And Hope. Just Like The Ones We Met On The Long Way Down - Protecting Them From Exploitation And Giving Them Chances In Life.

When You've Got A Date On Your Calendar Saying That You Will Be Putting This In Front Of People In Four Weeks, That Will Get Your Nerves Good, Yeah.

I Find Politicians So Desperately Boring. I Don't Trust Them And Don't Believe In Them.

I'm Doing My Bit For The Women's Movement. The Women Have Always Been Naked In Movies, And Now I'm Just Desperate To Take My Clothes Off As Much As Possible.

I Wanted To Be An Actor Since I Was Nine Years Old.

Everyone Has To Understand What We're Saying To One Another And There's No Point In Me Thinking The Line Means This And The Person I'm Speaking To Thinks It Means Something Else. So There's A Certain Amount Of Analyzing Of Text That's Of Course Necessary.

As Fathers, We Know What A Force For Life Children Can Be. They Represent All Of Our Futures.

The Beautiful Thing About It Is That No Two Directors Or Actors Work The Same Way. You Also Learn Not To Be Afraid Of Discussion And Conflict.

My Heart Aches Completely, Every Hour, Every Day, And Only When I'm With You Does The Pain Go Away.

Seasons May Change Winter To Spring, But I Love You Until The End Of Time Come What May, Come What May, I Will Love You Until My Dying Day Suddenly The World Seems Such A Perfect Place Suddenly It Moves With Such A Perfect Grace Suddenly My Life Doesn’t Seem Such A Waste, It All Revolves Around You. And There’s No Mountain Too High No River Too Wide Sing Out This Song And I’ll Be There By Your Side Storm Clouds May Gather And Stars May Collide But I Love You Until The End Of Time

There Are People Who Are Younger Than I Who Are More Uptight Than I Am. It's Not Necessarily An Age Thing. I Mean Nobody Is Offering Me 20-year Old Leads Any More.

Once You've Agreed The Script, You Must Be Willing To Go As Far As It Needs To Go On Set.

I Was Spending A Lot Of Time In Trailers, You Know, On Film Sets Surrounded By Film People.

My Wife's French. I Mean I Speak A Bit Of French But I've Lived Amongst French, You Know, Most Of My Adult Life.

If You're Not Engaged In The Writing And It Doesn't Grab You Then You Just Don't Want To Do It.

If I'm Playing Music In Front Of People, I'll Lose Days To Nerves Like Really Wasted Days Of Just Like Being Terrified. And Then When I Get Out There, Generally Speaking, I Enjoy It Very Much. But It Seems To Be I Have To Accept The Fact That That's Just Part Of The Deal For Me. And I Can't Just Run On And Do It.

I Don't Think Having Separate Bathrooms Is A Key To A Successful Marriage, If You Love One Another.

I Was Quite Interested To Do Television Series And I Started Exploring An Idea Of A Longer Commitment, A New Idea, A New Tv Show That Would've Meant A Longer Commitment But I Opened My Mind Up.

I Find That The Acting's Getting Easier - With Experience, Everything Is More Instinctual.

A Tent, A Roll Mat, A Little Bit Of Food, A Bit Of Petrol In Your Tank And A Vague Idea Of Where You're Going And That's All You Need.

I Think Rehearsal Can Be Important If It's Done In A Way That Works. Often, Rehearsal Can Be A Waste Of Time.

I Was With A Friend Of Mine Recently Who Was Dying And While He Was Lying There With His Family Around His Bed, I Just Knew That Was It, That Was The Best You Can Hope For In Life - To Have Your Family And The People Who Love You Around You At The End.

I Won`t Buy Into The Hollywood Thing...i Want To Be In Good Movies.

Isn't Halle Berry The Most Beautiful Woman? I Have A Film I'd Like To Be In Her With. I Mean, I'd Like To Be With Her In.

I Certainly Have No Plans To Leave London. It's A Great Town.

I Think If You're Going On Thinking Oh, I Can Do This With My Eyes Shut, Then It's Probably Not The Right Thing To Be Doing, You Know.

Then I Left School At 16 And Worked In Perth Repertory Theatre, Which Was Quite Nearby Where I Lived. And I Worked There For About Six Or Seven Months, As Part Of The Stage Crew.

I Love Music And I Always Seem To Have A Tune In My Head.

I Am So Honoured To Have Been Given This Opportunity To Become An Ambassador. It's A New And Different Venture For Me And One That I Know Will Widen My Wider Perspective On Life. I'm In A Position To Use The Recognition From My Work To Do Something Really Positive For Children

The Other Two Things Are... Well, I Had A Huge Appetite For Old Black And White Movies On Bbc 2. At The Weekends They Used To Run Matinees, And The More Romantic The Better.

Black And White

The Script, I Always Believe, Is The Foundation Of Everything.

There's Very Few Directors That Know What That Rehearsal's For. And Often It's Just About Calming Down The Director. If He Could See It Or She Sees It, She Goes Oh, It's Going To Be Okay.

I Think You Know, To Not Open Your Mind To Television Is Silly Because There's So Much Good Work Happening On Television.

I Left Halfway Through My Third Year To Start Lipstick On Your Collar, Which Was The First Thing I Ever Did.

I Grew Up In A Very Small Town In Scotland, A Little Place Called Crieff Which Is Beautiful And It's At The Foothills To The Highlands. It's A Very Beautiful Part Of The World. It's A Small, I Suppose Quite Conservative Place.

No, I'm Putting It Away, Trying To Buy A House For My Family. The Goal Is To Use The Money To Move Into A Big House, So My Daughter Can Have A Garden.

Producing Good Stuff Can Be Quite Tough, And It Involves A Lot Of Frustration, But I Always Like Things To Be Jolly And Happy, And I Forget Thats Actually Not The Point At The End Of The Day.

The End Of The Day

I Believe That Unless It's A Scene Where I'm Alone, Then Of Course I Could Do What I Want But I Think Good Acting Is About What Happens Between People, Not On Your Face And My Face.

I'm Sent A Script. I Read The Script. If I Love It, I Want To Do It. And That's It I Don't Care Who's In It, How Much Money Is Behind It, Really To An Extent Who's Directing It.

Everything You Do On Set Is Directly Related To Your Imagination When You Read The Script For The First Time.

There's Something Very Self-conscious About A Writer Who's Addressing His Reader. Don't Do That.

I've Played In Pipe Bands In Scotland, And I've Always Played Guitars And Drums And Stuff.

I've Sort Of Done A Play Every Four Or Five Years I Guess If I Look Back In My Career. And I Think That's Good.

I Can't Know What I'm Going To Do Before I'm In Front Of The Lens. And I Think That Sort Of Makes It Exciting.

This Middle-budget Drama Movies Are Just Gone.

...as An Actor There`s Nothing Better Than A Great Moody Moment To Play With Nothing To Say. It`s So Much Easier To Do Because You Can Really Get Inside Your Head.

I Started Watching Golf For The First Time Yesterday. I`m Really Worried About Myself. I Was Actually Enjoying It.

Unicef Is Doing Amazing Things Here. They're Helping These Groups Of Kids To Be Mine Aware, And Using Drama And Workshops To Teach Children In All Of The Schools In The Area To Be Aware Of Mines And What To Do If They Find One, And If Somebody's Hurt, Not To Rush In - All Of The Essential Things That Kids Need To Know.

I Never Imagined It Wouldn't Work Out For Me. I Had That Absolute Certainty In Myself That Has Seen Me Through, I Think, And My Parents Were Absolutely Behind Me All The Way.

I Like To Dance, But It's Not My Weekend Activity. I'm Not A Clubber.

A Lot Of Parents Tell Their Children That If They Want To Be An Actor, That's Fine, But They Should Do Something Else First, So They've Got Something To Fall Back On. It Doesn't Work Like That, As Far As I'm Concerned.

There Is Some Really Good Crack When I Come Back Here. This Is Where I Learned To Swear.

I'm Not A Superhero Fan. I Don't See Those Films. I'm Not Interested.

I'm Fiercely Proud To Be Scottish.

I Don't Really Like To Know What I'm Going To Do Before I Do It.

It's Not My Job To Try And Alter The Director's Style - He's In Charge, And I'll Always Give Him My Trust.

If You Want To Produce Really Horrible, Obnoxious Kids, Say Yes To Them All The Time.

I Had Extra Thick Light Sabers Because Mine Kept Getting Bent. I'd Be Halfway Through A Fight And It Would Be Like 'oops, Sorry! Mine's Bent Again!

Then, One Day, When You Least Expect It, The Great Adventure Finds You.

Great Adventure

In Far Eastern Russia, There's Just Some Towns That Time Has Forgotten. I Guess They Used To Maybe Be Industrial Or Something That Are Now There's Just Lots Of Rusty Hulks Of Buildings And A Lot Of People Wandering Around, A Lot Of Alcoholism And Violence Because People Have Got Nothing To Do And No Work. Yet People Were Very Generous.

Wandering Around

I've Always Like Sort Of, As An Actor, I'm Drawn To Exploring How We Are As Human Beings In Given Situations And How We Act And How We React And What Makes Us Tick.

I'm Not Really A Blockbuster, I'm Not A Member Of That Audience Really.

I Think Theatre Reminds Us What We're Doing As Actors, Because Every Night And Every Matinee Day, You Have An Audience Telling You What's Working And What's Not. And That's Very Good For Us As Actors To Hone Our Skills.

I Love Skiing, Scuba Diving And Hang-gliding.

I Want To Wear Skinny Jeans When I'm In My 70s. Why Not? Who Cares?

You Would Never Dream Of Going On To Play A Scene In Front Of An Audience At Least Without Having Rehearsed It. But You Do Somehow In Front Of A Camera.

No, No I'm Not, No, But I Just Think... When People Are Naked It Tells You A Lot About Their Relationships.

There's Something That Happens Where You Go, If You're Lucky, Goodness Me, From Film To Another Film To Another Film. And You Can Sort Of Feel That If You Step Off That Treadmill, It Might All Go Horribly Wrong And You Might Never Be Employed Again, You Know. And I Suddenly Thought That That's Not Necessarily The Case. And I Also Thought We Make Drama As Actors About People In The World And That If You Are On That Treadmill, You Start Making Films About Other Films.

I've Never Worked With An Acting Coach, No.

I Got Married Because I Fell In Love With This Woman. I Had A Baby With Her Because We Wanted To Have Children. But That's Not Because Of Some Philosophical Ideal At All, No.

At School There Was No Acting To Be Had Other Than School Plays Which I Did Now And Again.

Mainly I Was Able To Perform With Music - I Played The French Horn, I Would Sing, And I Was A Drummer In The Pipe Band. So I Think It Was A Way To Show Off.

When I Moved To London, You Could Park Your Motorcycle In The Pavement, On The Sidewalk. We Would Stay Here And Just Leave It And Go About Your Business. But Now Something Was Sort Of Encroaching In London. There's Cameras Everywhere. You Can't Do Anything. You're Not Allowed To Be In A Group.

He`s Quite Extraordinary With His Moves And Spins. I Think He Was A Baton Girl In A Past Life [on His Co-star Hayden Christensen].

What Matters Most With Any Regimen, Whether It's To Lose Weight Or Stop Drinking Or Smoking, Is Your Willingness To Seek Help And Your Desire To Say 'no More.

I’ve Always Been Really Uninterested In Politicians And The Acts Of The Houses Of Parliament, Or Government As An Idea. But I’m Interested In Politics In That I’m A Member Of The World, And I Have Strong Feelings Of Right And Wrong, But I Can’t Get Into The Ins And Outs Of It.

It's Important, That Spirit Of Youth, And When You're 16 That Can Get You Kickstarted.

It's Just Fantastic To Go Out And Meet People In The World And Get To Really Remote Places.

I Especially Love My Moto Guzzi.

If I Want To Do The Kind Of Work That I Like To Act In, I Need To Open My Mind To It.

As A Child I Was Taken To The Pantomime Or The Theatre And I Would Always, Always Fall In Love With Somebody On The Stage. And Want To Have Sex With Them.

Falling In Love

I Don't Do Things Lightly, I Don't Take A Job Then Just Phone It In, I've Never Done That.

I Don't Want To Make Decisions About What I'm Going To Do Before I'm Doing It Because I Base My Acting Off My Partner And Off The Other People In The Scene.

I'm A Father Of Four Girls And I Know Very Much About The Relationship Between A Father And His Daughters.

I Loved Being In Trainspotting And Having To Dive Into The Filthiest Toilet In Scotland.

I Worked As A Waiter When I Was 15 And Got A Chance To Appreciate Good, Simple Food. There's Nothing Better Than A Boiled Egg With Toast.

I Wanted To Make Sure That I Was Making Films About The World. So I Thought Well, I Should Go And See It. I'm Spending A Lot Of Time In - We Call Them Caravans In Britain.

Success Is Tricky To Deal With, Both Professionally And In Your Personal Life.

Of Course I Voted For Him. He Wasn't A Politician; He Was A Craze.

My Feeling About Seeing The World Is That Its Going To Change You Necessarily, Just The Very Fact Of Being Out There And Meeting People From Different Cultures And Different Ways Of Life.

I`ve Got A Black Woolen Hat And It`s Got Pervert Written Across The Front Of It. It`s The Name Of The Clothing Label. And I Was With My Wife And My Baby At The Supermarket And I Didn`t Think. I Just Put My Hat On Clara`s Head, Because It Was Cold. And The Looks. I Couldn`t Figure Out Why I Was Getting Death Looks. And Then I Realized My 10-month Old Baby`s Wearing A Hat With The Word Pervert Written On It And These People Were Like, `there`s Satan! There`s Satan Out With His Kid!` And Then I Made A Point Of Her Wearing It Every Time We Went There.

I Think My Home Is In That Sort Of The Part Of Cinema That's Disappeared Is Where I Lived, That Sort Of Mid-budget You Know, Drama. I Suppose That's What I Am Known For.

I'm Always Interested In Playing Different People, In Different Situationsit Doesn't Matter To Me Whether Someone Is In Love With A Man Or A Woman. I Find The Idea Of Love And Romance Interesting. I'm A Sucker For It. I Like Playing Someone Who's Falling In Love Because I Like The Sensation Of It. People Do Extraordinary Things When They're Falling In Love.

Falling In Love

I Have Worked With A Lot Of Great Directors But My Favorites Are All Entirely Different From One Another. They Don't Go About It The Same Way.

Starting With A Party Scene For 600 Cast And End Up Singing On Top Of A Giant Elephant...does It Get Any Better Than This?

If You're Suddenly Doing Something You Don't Want To Do For Four Years, Just So You've Got Something To Fall Back On, By The Time You Come Out You Don't Have That 16-year-old Drive Any More And You'll Spend Your Life Doing Something You Never Wanted To Do In The First Place.

I Trained In The Theatre And I Love The Theatre. I Get Such A Thrill Seeing Anything In The Theatre.

I Love Acting And Don't Find It To Be Very Hard. I Recognize When I've Nailed It, And I Can Be Very Proud Of Myself.

I Love Romance. It Goes Back To The Films I Watched As A Kid.

Above All Things I Believe In Love.

You Know, An Audition Usually Is You Come In And Read The Scene And If You're Lucky, You Get To Read It Twice.

I Was Forced To Make The Decision Between Art And Music Which Are The Only Two Things I Liked As Opposed To Being Able To Do Them Both Because That's What I Was Interested In.

I Don't Like Being Told That's Where You, You Know, If You Walk On Set And Somebody Was "okay, You're Here And You're Going To Walk Over There On This Line." And My Reaction Is Always How Do You Know? How Do You Know That's What I'm Going To Do? How Do Any Of Us Know?

I Hate The Word Celebrity. I'm Not A Celebrity, I'm An Actor.

I'm Sometimes Asked 'can You Lose The Accent?'and I Say 'no, But I Can Put On Another One'.

I Would Encourage You As A Screenwriter To Trust Your Story And Don't Make Notes For The Actors Or Don't Make Notes For The Reader.

I Was Born In '71, So I Remember Bits Of Glam Rock On 'top Of The Pops' Toward The Late '70s, But I Had No Idea What Kind Of World It Was. I Didn't Like The Music, Either.

People Are Incredibly Rude About It Sometimes. Like "what? You're Married?" Strange Reaction To Have. Proves What People's Ideas About Marriage Are. "we're Having A Baby." "what?" As If It's The End Of The World. Of Course, It's The Start Of A Brilliant World.

I Played Music All Through School And I Kind Of Performed That Way.

I Was Determined To Make Working With Unicef Not Just Something That I Did On The Trip But Something I'd Do For The Rest Of My Life

A Million Pounds Sounds Like A Lot Of Money Now That I'm Saying It. But In Terms Of Moviemaking, It's Not A Lot Of Money. And Yet You Can See What Can Be Done With That, With The Talent Of A Great Cinematographer And Great Director And Actors.

The Thing About Parenting Rules Is There Aren't Any. That's What Makes It So Difficult.

Actors Don't Like To Read What They're Supposed To Do.

I'm Just Looking For That Moment To Drop My Jedi Knickers And Pull Out My Real Light Saber.

I'm Not Really Attracted To Action Sequences, Because My Experience Is That It's Quite A Slow Process To Shoot Them, And Often We're Not Involved As Actors.

I've Been Waiting Nearly Twenty Years To Have My Own Light Saber. Nothing's Cooler Than Being A Jedi Knight.

I Don't Pay Much Attention To Career Or What Other People Think. I've Always Been Quite Arrogant.

From There I Did A One Year Theatre Acting Course In Fife, And Then Three Years Of Drama School In London.

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