Ewan McGregor Gives Up the Ghost

Ewan McGregor talks about the perfectionism of Polanski, the charade of politics and being stuck in Russia.

You said that Polanski gave you “left-of-field comments” during scenes. Like what?

Tim [Preece], who played the character of Roy in the publishing house scene in the beginning, doesn’t want me to get the job, and the lawyer, Timothy Hutton, asks me: “Do you work out?” The Ghost says, “No, not really,” and he says, “That’s a shame, Adam likes to work out.” Then Tim has his line where he said, “Actually, I know a writer at the Guardian who uses the gym.” It’s a very funny line, we all liked it, and Polanski came in and went, “Be a little moved when you say that line.” We all looked at each other thinking: what does he mean? That’s a bit odd. So Hutton says, “That’s a shame, Adam likes to work out,” and then Tim said [in a melancholic, far-away voice]: “Actually, I know a writer at the Guardian who uses the gym,” and it was blinding. Nobody knew what it meant, or why it was genius, but it was fucking genius! He was full of little notes like that, that might be whims, might just be Polanski fucking around and thinking it might be fun, or notes of great genius. Maybe it’s both, I don’t know.

We talked earlier about manipulation in politics, but as this film superbly illustrates, the media isn’t without its share. How much faith do you have in the printed word?

I never have any idea what’s written after interviews because I don’t read them, so I don’t know. I’ve suffered from it in the past a little bit. It’s always the lines they choose to pull out and make big on the page. Years ago, I was doing this interview with a girl in L.A., and she was talking about nude scenes. I said, “Well, I do have a very big penis,” like, that’s why I don’t mind doing sex scenes. It was so obviously a joke, and in her piece she wrote it as a joke, and it was very clear. Then I think it was Elle magazine in Britain bought the interview. They had a big picture of me over two pages, and they pulled that line and put it as the heading to the whole piece: “Yeah, I do have a very big penis.” It looked like I really meant that, which is hugely embarrassing. So around that part, I stopped reading them. I also find with B-roll, or the making-of, or television interviews, I can’t watch them. I find them really embarrassing. So I do all this press, and then pretend that nothing happens to it. We have this chat, you go off, and I go off, and that’s it. It was just for our benefit. [laughs]

Like many Polanski films, this one takes place in an isolated setting. What’s the longest you’ve ever been trapped or detained somewhere?

I’ve never felt that I’ve been somewhere I didn’t want to be for long. The longest has been in my motorcycle travels. The border between Ukraine and Russia, I was there for about 14 hours, and we couldn’t move. We couldn’t go back because we had already left the Ukraine, and they wouldn’t let us into Russia. It felt like we might be at that border crossing for the rest of our lives. I took that as being the way it was, and it was a nice opportunity to sit down, take stock, look at the travelers, and watch all the dodgy people going into Russia. I was able to watch people in vans having their seats taken out and the stuffing pulled out of the seats. Then these big BMWs or Mercedes with tinted windows would pull in, the passport would be passed into the hands of the customs guard, go straight back in again, and through they would go with a trunk full of whatever. [laughs]

For your next motorcycle road trip, you’ll have a great traveling companion across South America: your dog Sid. After your own riding injuries, how are you keeping the little fella safe?

He’s in a sidecar rig. I’ve got a chest harness for him and two safety leashes off the harness, so he’s secured to two points and can’t jump out. And he wears goggles so his eyes aren’t damaged. Sid loves the sidecar. If I was to do a big trip, though, I would get the sidecar enclosed. I would put a windscreen and sides on it [because] he gets a bit annoyed with the goggles after a while.

“The Ghost Writer” opens today in New York and Los Angeles before expanding wide on February 26th.

[Additional photo: "Long Way Round," Elixir Films, 2007]

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