Actor Ewan McGregor might not be a Jedi in real life but he’s certainly trying to be.
McGregor first appeared as Qui-Gon Jinn’s apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, in 1991’s “The Phantom Menace.” He reprised his role throughout the prequel series which cumulated in him killing off his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen).
Fans will get a glimpse of what happened between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy in the upcoming Disney+ live-action “Star Wars” series called “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” The six-episode limited series is set to debut on May 25, 2022 – exactly 45 years after the first film in the Skywalker Saga – “A New Hope” – hit theaters.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Emmy-award-winning actor joked about trying to use the Force in real life.
Is Ewan McGregor A Jedi In Real Life? He’s Trying!
When asked if he had ever done a Jedi mind trick on anyone in real life, the Halston actor replied,” Not really.”
“I mean, I’ve been accused of doing it here and there by people who are trying to be funny, but, no, I don’t think so,” he admitted. “I’ve seen TV hypnotists and stuff… where they actually get people to believe something that’s not true by the way they say things. But, no, I don’t have those skills.”
However, he admitted that he still tries to use the Force to open automatic doors.
“I do it with doors!” he admitted. “I like to do that with automatic doors just for my own amusement.”
“I always do a little Jedi move for the doors and I have occasionally been caught doing it,” he added. “You know, like at the supermarket or something when I’m wheeling my trolley out and I do a little…” He acted out the hand movement again, but unfortunately, no objects went flying around the room.
“It’s just always for my own [amusement], because it makes me laugh, but occasionally I’ve been caught doing that, and that’s kind of embarrassing,” he confessed. “It’s difficult not to, isn’t it? It’s fun. If the timing is right, it feels very powerful.”
The only thing better than Ewan McGregor using the Force to open automatic doors must be watching him do it in person!
Ewan McGregor Revisits His Obi-Wan Kenobi Hairstyles
Everyone knows that Ewan McGregor has fantastic hair and Entertainment Weekly did a deep dive into his different haircuts in each movie.
For “The Phantom Menace,” McGregor said that they wanted his hair to be short.
“I think they were looking for something in a military sense or in the world of monks that there’s some sort of hairstyle sacrifice in order to be a Jedi,” he recalled. “I guess to become a Jedi you have to give up the idea of being married or there’s some sort of monk-like qualities that are similar.”
“What I didn’t like very much was when we came back, there was always a period of time after the main shoot where we came back to do some reshoots. And for episode 1, it was six, seven, eight months after the principal photography, we had to come back and I was doing something else and I couldn’t cut my hair,” he continued. “And so they made a wig that was a short hair wig, which is the worst kind of wig. If you’ve got a wig and it’s long hair, you can disguise the fact that it’s a wig, but when it’s a short hair wig, it’s a nightmare. I’ve seen some clips of both episode 1 and the reshoots from episode 2 where you’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
“And then for episode 1, not only did I have to wear it for the reshoots, and it’s usually just a little shot here or there for reshoots. And most people don’t really notice it. But some bright spark decided to put me on a poster in the wig!” he added. “They picked an image of me from the reshoots and I saw myself in this huge poster in the wig. And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding? You couldn’t find a still of me when from the real shoot?’ Unbelievable. I don’t know who that was, but I’d love to meet them one day and just say, ‘Are you f—ing kidding me about that?’”
For “Attack of the Clones,” McGregor sported the “Jedi Mullet.”
“It could be in some second-degree way a little cool, but not really,” he said. “It was very mullet-y and sort of quite inspired pretty much by the Bee Gees, I think really. Jedi Bee Gees. So yeah, I didn’t like it very much, but I guess there’s some sort of progression. Hayden had to go through a similar sort of progression with his hair where it’s shorter when you were Padawan, then longer at the back.”
For “Revenge of the Sith,” they were leaning more towards a Sir Alec Guinness hairstyle.
“We were looking at pictures of Alec Guinness in episode 4 and we were definitely trying to bridge that gap. We thought, this is the last we’re going to see of Obi-Wan Kenobi before he’s Alec Guinness. And so we’re sort of moving in that direction,” he explained. “We put some graying in here. We grayed up the beard a little bit. And it was a much shorter haircut. I think the episode 2 haircut was meant to be like warrior, and the episode 3 haircut was meant to be more master, teacher. So I think my idea was definitely to try and get closer to Alec Guinness. It was to try and show that that’s where I was headed.”
In his most recent series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” McGregor revealed that it’s “a longer haircut.”
“I think it’s a man who’s been not looking after himself so much, and I wanted a much more sort of unkempt look where Obi-Wan starts at the beginning of that story, he’s pretty hopeless,” he explained. “He’s without hope, he’s without faith and he wanted this sort of hair and beard to represent that. So it’s much less groomed and longer.”
