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Interview: Ewan McGregor

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN directed by Lasse Hallström, written by Simon Beaufoy from the novel by Paul Torday, with Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked. An Alliance Films release. 112 minutes. Opens Friday (March 9). For venues and times, see Movies.


It’s the middle of the Toronto Film Festival, and Ewan McGregor is having a good day.

His new comedy, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen – a bit of fluff that casts him as a snippy salmon expert who falls for Emily Blunt’s diplomatic administrator while they’re both working with a Yemeni sheik on a pet project – has just had its world premiere to a packed and appreciative house.

At the premiere, the film was compared repeatedly to the classic Ealing Studios comedies of the 50s – movies that often featured Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers, whose arch attitude McGregor’s character seems to channel at various points in this picture.

“It’s true that it’s got that flavour,” McGregor says, looking far younger than his 40 years, “and I’m very pleased that it does, because I love those films. When I was a kid I was much happier watching old movies than kids’ TV, and I ended up watching all the old Ealing comedies.”

McGregor says he particularly enjoyed working on Salmon Fishing after a string of emotionally taxing pictures that included The Ghost Writer and Beginners because of his quick friendship with co-star Blunt.

“I mean, actors are always sitting in these rooms saying, ‘We had a lovely time,'” he acknowledges, “but we really did have a lovely time. Right off the bat we got on like a house on fire. It’s quite difficult to do any work with her, because we just laugh too much. Too much laughter.”

McGregor says their ease with one another helped in the early scenes where his and Blunt’s characters openly despise one another.

“There was a complete safety in being nasty to one another,” he says with that toothy grin. “She just thinks he’s such an idiot. Every time he walks out of a scene, she’s laughing she’s smiling because she thinks he’s such a twat. Because you’re safe with someone you like and are friends with, it’s easier to do that stuff.”

McGregor brings up his Beginners co-star Christopher Plummer as an example of another great working relationship.

“He plays,” he says about the eventual Oscar winner. “He’s living the scenes with you. And I fell in love with him, you know. He was my dad. It was difficult to play those scenes where he was getting sicker and sicker, because I really loved him.”

Interview Clips

Ewan McGregor on how Emily Blunt helped him find his character’s accent:

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McGregor on switching between big films and smaller films:

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McGregor on what he loves about actors and acting:

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normw@nowtoronto.com

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