Interview with Leonard Maltin from the ETonline website
Young Obi-Wan Kenobi EWAN MCGREGOR tells us what it's really like to be in a 'Star Wars' movie!

Leonard Maltin: Now, what's the name of this new movie you're in again?
Ewan McGregor: I'm doing a movie called 'Eye of the Beholder'... (laughs) Oh, wrong press junket! Oh, 'Star Wars!'
Leonard: That's the one! What's the best part of playing Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Ewan: It's funny, because there are so many good bits about it. The idea of being in it in the first place, I met the casting director about a year and a half before we started filming, then met her a year again later.
Ewan: Then it was becoming a little more realistic, that it might actually be made. The nearer we got, the further down the line I got in the casting process, the more tantalizing it became.
Ewan: But just to be in it, and having been that little 6 year-old kid watching it in Scotland in '77 -- then to be on set with R2-D2 and stuff, every day there was a 'Star Wars' moment. "Bloody Hell" you say to yourself! "I'm in 'Star Wars!'" It was mad, and choosing my light saber, I got to choose my light saber handle.
Leonard: What kind of selection was there?
Ewan: Well, I'll tell you. We were fight rehearsing for about a month before the film started shooting. One day the props master arrived and said, "I'd like you to come and choose your light saber." I went, "Oh, okay!" So we were walking down there and I realized all the stunt guys were behind me, then I realized the documentary crew were following me, then I realized it was a really big deal!
Ewan: We went into the prop room, and there was probably 50 or 60 guys walking in props heaven, making 'Star Wars' stuff, just free reign. You could see how depressed these guys were when the job ended, because that was it! You're not making 'Star Wars' props anymore, you're back making cups of tea!
Ewan: So, we walked down there, and there was R2-D2 and I was screaming. It was like meeting a queen or something! And then the props guy came out with this big wooden box. Now I romanticize this meeting, I must warn you, but I remember it was this big wooden box with padlocks on it, which he unlocked. He said, "Are you ready?" And I said, "Yeah." He opened it up and there were like 9 or 10 different light saber handles. It was like going to buy a Ferrari and trying to choose which model you like!
Leonard: How where they different?
Ewan: There where all different shapes. I mean if you look in the film, you'll see thatLIAM NEESON's light saber handle is different shaped than mine. I, however, got the first choice, and I got the sexier one!
Leonard: Well, that handle was important of course, because that's all you had to work with, except your imagination, right?
Ewan: No, actually the one I chose is the one that hangs on my belt. We call it the hero light saber handle. So that's the one that you see on my belt. I don't want to blow it, but there are different forms of light sabers. There are the ones that you fight with, which is different than the one that hangs on my belt. But I don't want to tell you because it will spoil the magic!
Leonard: But when you're fighting you do have to use your imagination as well as your agility, right?
Ewan: No, when you're fighting, you're just fighting. The light sabers are built so that you can fight with them. There was a guy who had an amazing job -- he was on set making light sabers all day long! So he had this kind of mobile unit. The whole film was scattered with people who had jobs that I'd never seen before on a film. I've made a lot of films and I'm used to props, wardrobe, makeup.
Ewan: I'm used to the elements that make up a movie, but on 'Star Wars,' there were props, wardrobe, makeup, some guy over there doing stuff, some guys doing computer stuff, and all of these other guys that I've never seen before. But there was one light saber maker who had this light saber making unit that wheeled about. As you're fighting, they get bent and you have to have a constant supply of fresh light sabers!
Leonard: Thefight scenes are fantastic. They're really vivid and exciting -- a lot of work I would think.
Ewan: I worked really, really hard in my fighting, I really did. I worked with NICK GELLARD, who's just brilliant. He embraced the idea that we're looking back in time, so the 'Star Wars' films that were shot, we know the Jedi's are talked about in retrospect in a way. But they're dying out, at least in the three films that we've seen. And yet they're talked about in this way, that they were obviously some force to be reckoned with, so one of the ideas of the prequel is to go back and show what they were like, and how powerful they were. So that was a very important element for me, the fighting.
Ewan: I worked really hard with Nick and RAY PARK, who played "Darth Maul," and we worked and worked! When you're doing a fight like that, you can't think about what comes next. When you're doing a fight like that, you're so connected with your opponent, that it just flows. I hate myself for saying this, but it's the nearest thing to "the Force" that you could imagine!
Leonard: Are you a naturally athletic guy?
Ewan: Oh, yeah. In my personal life not really, but I'll do anything in front of a camera.
Leonard: So this really was intensive training for you.
Ewan: Yeah, but I thought after a couple of beers it was amazing what you could do with the sword. I found that was really quite inspirational for me!
Leonard: As I'm sure your comment will be to millions of others!!
Ewan: (laughs) Oh, dear!
Leonard: Who designed the haircut?
Ewan: Well, that was an interesting thing, because the hair cut came from artists' drawings. I don't know what they're called, but they come up with the...
Leonard: Conceptual drawings?
Ewan: Maybe that's the thing. So there was a couple of drawings of me, and we had several things we tried and they didn't work out. It was great because it became me, GEORGE [LUCAS] and Sue, who did the hair, sitting there trying different things, looking at different possibilities. The idea that we were supposed to be following didn't work, so it was like all of us chipping in.
Leonard: Did you like it?
Ewan: Yeah, it was fun.
Leonard: What did your daughter think when she saw you like that?
Ewan: Well, she came up -- she was very young at the time, maybe one-and-a-half -- and she just looked at me as she often does, like "what are you doing now?"
Leonard: The character gives off tremendous presence, great authority. How did George Lucas describe this character to you, to give you the sense of how to play it?
Ewan: Well, George was always keen to say that this was a character in development. Because a lot of the time I'd be just behind Liam here, or here... And George would say, "Now listen, this is a character in development, so by the time we get to the second movie..." And I always knew that was the case. But the way he described it was that he was an apprentice Jedi Knight, but he was very straight, very "by the book," and was frustrated by his master, who bent the rules.
(Leonard Maltin shows Ewan the 'Star Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure)
Leonard: This is supposed to be you. What do you think?
Ewan: Well, that's very interesting, isn't it!
Leonard: Hold it upto the camera so we can see you next to your action figure!
(Ewan does a side by side comparison)
Leonard:That's right!
Ewan:They're much more sophisticated than the ones I played with! But it does look like me! What I would suggest to everyone is that they buy this one! When you go to the shop, buy this one, or anything else that looks like me! Okay, thank you!
Leonard: Are you in any way prepared to deal with what may happen now, as the flood gates open?
Ewan: Well, everyone in the business knew I was doing it, and nothing that major has happened, and I've been working ever since on other things. I plan to carry on and do my work. I can't prepare myself for that which I don't know, so everyone keeps asking and putting the fear into me about it, but I can't know what's going to happen. If it means people will be camping outside my house, then that's a real pain in the neck. But if it means that I can do this, then go and do other work, do other films, then I'm in a really lovely, lucky position.
Leonard: Are you looking forward to playing Obi-Wan again?
Ewan: Yeah! I am, because I was so worried about getting it right the first time, that if I am pleased with what I see in the film, then I'll have less to worry about. I'll be able to concentrate more on the job at hand. I had a really great time making 'Star Wars,' there are great people in it. It's like being part of The Bible -- Oh! I shouldn't say that!
Leonard: Oh, no, it's not sacrilege, because that's how some people regard it. Some people think of it almost as a religious experience.
Ewan: It's just being part of something that's much bigger than just making a movie.

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