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| source: Ewan McGregor Is Enjoying Smell Of Success - The Daily Record
Quote: Ewan McGregor Is Enjoying Smell Of Success
Feb 1 2008 By Lindsay Clydesdale
HE'S famous for a film scene that saw him crawl inside the worst toilet in Scotland but Ewan McGregor's latest role has him smelling infinitely sweeter.
The actor, recently seen in TV shows, Long Way Round and Long Way Down, and who first shot to fame in Trainspotting, is launching an aftershave.
After successfully establishing a Hollywood career as a man's man who shuns the spotlight, his move into the fragrance market is a surprising one.
Dressed casually in black jeans, a faded T-shirt and baseball boots, he doesn't look like your average movie star. Away from film sets, he doesn't act like a pampered prima donna either.
His 20,000-mile bike trip from London to New York with best pal Charley Boorman, highlighted his love of roughing it.
"There's something that appeals to the little boy in us that you can go out and not wash for weeks on end," he laughed. "On the Long Way Round, we had 14 nights in a row camping in Mongolia, which was the longest stretch not having a shower."
Thankfully, he's smelling much better when we meet and even with abushy beard, grown for his stage role as Iago in Othello, there's no mistaking the Scots pin-up underneath.
Ewan's also surprisingly lean but this is a man who never seems to sit still.
His road trips took him through dozens of countries and away from his home and young family for several months at atime.
This year, there are also seven films in various states of production, from the soon-to-bereleased Incendiary, about the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack in London, to his portrayal of Bonnie Prince Charlie in The Great Pretender.
But it is his love of motorbiking that has opened up a whole new world of adventure and travel.
And following the success of his motorbiking travelogues, he's currently planning a third trip. The thrill is in being back in control of his life.
"The first bike trip I did properly was when I was filming Moulin Rouge in Australia," he said. "We had a five-day Easter break. It had been a very, very long shoot. I had a motorcycle out there and, in this break, I got a little tent, stuck it on the back of my bike and took off.
"I had no idea where I was going. I just headed north-west out of Sydney and rode for two-and-a-half days that way, then turned around and rode back.
"It was my first experience of that kind of freedom and all the decision making was back. When you're an actor on a set, you don't really have to decide much for yourself.
"They say, 'We'll pick you up at 6.30, you'll be doing these scenes, you'll have this for your lunch and we'll take you home at that time'. So you don't really decide much.
"Then, when I was on this bike trip, I was in charge of everything, where I ate, where I stopped, what direction I was travelling in."
Ewan believes the trips he's made away from the cosseted, fake environment of film sets have made him a better actor.
"We've taken things to the extreme, Charley and I, in that we've gone to some really remote, out-of-the-way places, some really poor, sad and forgotten places like the towns and forests in Russia," he said.
"I think acting is all about human beings and the danger about becoming a successful actor is that you're exposed less and less to the real world because you kind of withdraw. So I think it's good to go out there and remind yourself of what you do."
The shoot for the Davidoff Adventure aftershave commercial took place in Brazil and, although the rain and mist led Ewan to remark they could be filming in Scotland, when the weather cleared, the beautiful scenery took his breath away.
"I'd always wanted to go to South America and I've always felt that the next motorbike trip will be there, but Charley's got other ideas," he said. "He wants to do a diagonal trip to Australia via Asia and all sorts of places, so we'll see who wins."
He decided to do the adverts for the aftershave because they latched on to the spirit of his road trip shows.
"The concept of the films for Adventure was about a guy travelling on a motorcycle and that seemed to be right," said Ewan.
"The success of Long Way Round is because it appealed to people's sense of exploration and adventure and that's something I'm really proud of, as opposed to a lot of the other telly around that seems to be about people literally being locked in aroom for weeks and weeks on end."
Ewan, 36, is originally from Crieff in Perthshire but has settled in London with French wife Eve and their children, Clara, Esther and the little girl they adopted from Mongolia, Jamiyan.
"I was really sad to stop travelling and on Long Way Down, when we travelled from Scotland to South Africa, if it hadn't been for my kids, I would have been quite happy to turn around at Cape Town and ride back up the west side of Africa," he said.
"I'd heard a lot about Africa getting under your skin, people have talked about feeling really comfortable there and a sense of belonging, which was profound. I really found that in Ethiopia."
While being a parent has curbed his wanderlust, it's also motivated him to support charities caring for kids and to become a Unicef ambassador. "One of the great parts of my life now is working with Unicef from our experience on Long Way Round," he said.
"I've looked after CHAS, the Children's Hospice Association of Scotland and I always will do. I think they're phenomenal.
But we wanted a global charity to help and I've been touched by what Unicef have done all over the world."
Despite his CV boasting everything from Star Wars and Moulin Rouge to Miss Potter and his latest role as Iago in Othello, being a celebrity seems to be the role he's least comfortable with.
"The trips I've done can't help but change you, for sure," he said. "But I don't feel I live acelebrity life. I didn't come back to be swanning around at huge glamorous parties in London. I don't go to those parties. Really, Ijust come home."
Davidoff Adventure goes on sale on February 20.
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