Latest / Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast / Episode 145: Part 2 of "The Obi-Wan Actors" - Ewan McGregor's Journey from Padawan to Jedi Master

Transcript

Episode 145: Part 2 of "The Obi-Wan Actors" - Ewan McGregor's Journey from Padawan to Jedi Master · Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello there. It's time for most things
• 0:02
  Kenobi. Hi everyone, Welcome to another
• 0:19
  episode of Most Things Kenobi, a podcast about Obi Wan Kenobi and
• 0:23
  all things Star Wars. I'm your host, Lauren.
• 0:26
  And I'm your host Leanne. And this week we are following
• 0:29
  up with part two of our series about the actors who play Obi
• 0:33
  Wan Kenobi. Last week we did Sir Alec
• 0:36
  Guinness and this week we are doing Ewan McGregor.
• 0:45
  How do we even start this one? There's so much to cover.
• 0:49
  I know the amount of material is overwhelming.
• 0:52
  I tried to like quickly rewatch just his scenes.
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  It's not possible to do it quickly.
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  No, no, no. You know, and our focus in these
• 1:01
  episodes is talking about what each of these actors brought to
• 1:04
  the table as Obi Wan in their portrayal of Obi Wan.
• 1:08
  And we said how very little time on screen Alec Guinness had
• 1:15
  comparatively to Ewan McGregor, who now has a whole last series
• 1:21
  on him being Obi Wan Kenobi. And truly, when I was thinking
• 1:27
  about it, his performance has gotten so nuanced and so good as
• 1:33
  time has gone on. Yes, I thought the same thing.
• 1:37
  Which kind of works with the fact that when we first see Obi
• 1:41
  Wan You and as Obi Wan, he's kind of in that padawan, not
• 1:47
  quite grown up, but grown up enough.
• 1:49
  And that's how he is in real life.
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  And he's aged progressively as Obi Wan has by the time he shows
• 1:56
  up in the Kenobi series. And it just works.
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  It's it's true. It's perfect.
• 2:01
  And I think as an actor he becomes better.
• 2:04
  Like, he was always a good actor, but Ewan McGregor went
• 2:07
  from being kind of like a heartthrob to like a fucking
• 2:11
  good actor, especially in like the last 10 years.
• 2:14
  So to to have him be kind of at his peak, I would say as an
• 2:19
  actor coming back to Obi Wan, that was really awesome.
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  I think it was the perfect timing for the story they wanted
• 2:25
  to tell. Oh, and he delivered.
• 2:28
  He delivered. I mean, he.
• 2:30
  By the time he's in Revenge of the Sith, his performance is
• 2:36
  excellent. I mean, say what you will about
• 2:38
  the damn dialogue, yes, but you know, when it comes down to him
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  and Ewan's fight, which we've dissected countless time, what
• 2:47
  did I say? You win, he.
• 2:49
  Fought himself, he fought he he did fight himself.
• 2:53
  He. Kind of, actually, yeah.
• 2:55
  He did OK, him and Hayden's fight, the duel is so good and
• 3:00
  then his lines afterwards, which is just so heartbreaking.
• 3:05
  It just the extension of it is continued in the Kenobi series.
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  Oh, to the next duel that he has with Vader.
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  And it's just so fucking heartbreaking.
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  And it's so good. It's very poetic.
• 3:19
  He's really taken you. I'm good.
• 3:22
  I'm like my grandmother. May she rest in peace.
• 3:24
  I can't keep the name straight. The character, the person, the
• 3:27
  actor, the he performs Obi Wan so, so perfectly.
• 3:34
  I don't know. I can't.
• 3:35
  I hate seeing him cry in any movie.
• 3:39
  I know, I know. Of course, he introduced his
• 3:41
  amazing sobbing skills back in Moulin Rouge.
• 3:46
  I just let me tell you something, my favorite you and
• 3:49
  movie of all time is Moulin Rouge.
• 3:51
  I still to this day listen to that soundtrack and belt out all
• 3:57
  of the songs that he sings. His singing voice is phenomenal.
• 4:01
  And the fact that he was not a trained singer.
• 4:04
  It's amazing. But Nicole Kidman kind of was
• 4:07
  thought of as a singer. And I'm sorry guys, but she's
• 4:10
  pitchy. Yeah, she is.
• 4:12
  I mean. Pitchy dog as as Randy says on
• 4:17
  What was that show? I can't even remember this show.
• 4:20
  The. Talent.
• 4:22
  No, that's the other one. Is it you?
• 4:24
  Don't know what I mean though. Well, my God, I forgot what?
• 4:28
  This amazing one, isn't it? Yeah.
• 4:32
  Oh my. God, Oh my God, what is?
• 4:35
  It I keep, I keep thinking, America's Got Talent, which is
• 4:38
  not American Idol. American Idol.
• 4:40
  Whatever, God, whatever. It's going to be a no for me,
• 4:45
  dog. Last week it was dementia.
• 4:48
  This week it's Alzheimer's. Listen, listen.
• 4:53
  Our brains, they struggle. It's been a long week and it's
• 4:58
  only Tuesday. Yeah, right.
• 5:01
  Yeah, well, I think that that Moulin Rouge.
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  I think he filmed it right after Phantom Menace.
• 5:09
  Really. I didn't know that.
• 5:11
  I think actually I have it reversed.
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  I think he did Moulin Rouge and then did Phantom Menace 'cause
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  there was some rumor that George Lucas bulldozed the Moulin Rouge
• 5:19
  set to build Phantom Menace. Yeah, that's sad.
• 5:25
  Yeah, I don't know if that's true, but that is a rumor I
• 5:27
  remember hearing back in the day, but.
• 5:29
  Well, I love, I love a lot of you in movies.
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  I mean, he's he's so varied he can go from drug addict to
• 5:38
  courting a courtesan to motorcycling his way as himself
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  across the globe. To Jedi.
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  From what I've heard, what Hayden has said is Ewan is
• 5:51
  nothing like Obi Wan Kenobi. Yeah.
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  I yeah. Which is a testament to what a
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  good actor he is, I think. Oh, I love watching.
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  Like the behind the scenes of him fighting, even for the
• 6:04
  Kenobi show. Yes.
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  Yeah. I just love these actors when
• 6:08
  they they duel with a lightsaber fake one.
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  I know, it's just so fucking. Good.
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  It's so good. It's never, it never gets old.
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  It really doesn't. Those are the parts of the movie
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  I would Fast forward to almost always.
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  I know he's good. He's really good.
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  He just, well, we were talking about Alec Guinness last week
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  and how it kind of set the bar for what Ewan would then bring
• 6:32
  to the films to try and be that younger version of Alec
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  Guinness's Obi Wan. And he does it.
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  I mean, it's he's really close. Even in Louis, it's kind of
• 6:45
  weird. Yes, they they say.
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  I don't know what it's called, but it's the triangle between
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  the eyes, the nose and the mouth that his is the exact proportion
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  of Alec Guinnesses like that. You could just overlap their
• 6:56
  faces and it would be almost the same layout like proportion
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  wise, which is pretty crazy. It is crazy but something I did
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  notice, like going back to watch everything.
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  He's really sort of immature in the first one.
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  Oh yes, Oh yes. Kind of snarky remarks and
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  doubting things. And you know, this isn't worth
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  my time and master. Why?
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  Why do we care? Why are we doing this?
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  You know? And then of course.
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  Exactly. When Qui Gon takes Anakin as
• 7:27
  Padawan, there's that moment which is actually it works for
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  him being immature. He's letting it show on his face
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  and he doesn't do that as much later in the.
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  I mean, it's not that he doesn't show emotions, but I think if he
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  has something negative that he's feeling, he's more likely to
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  control that a little bit more as he gets older and older.
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  But even like he says about Jar Jar, he's like, what's this?
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  Yeah, not who. Is this exactly, you know, what
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  is this? Which by this point in his age
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  and his time as a padawan, you would think he'd encountered
• 8:04
  other rare species. I guess they just wanted to show
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  very obviously that he was coming from a place of youth,
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  less polished. Yeah, and when Koi Gun says he
• 8:17
  still has much to learn, it's like, yeah, that's true.
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  He's also, he's extremely mature at the same time.
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  And I like that they showed that he's in that kind of
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  transitional stage. And I think Ewan portrays that
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  really well, 'cause sometimes he's got a twinkle in his eye
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  and he's being kind of sassy and funny.
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  And then he'll say something really insightful like when he
• 8:39
  told the the boss Gungan, who I can't remember his name now, God
• 8:43
  forgive me that like they had a symbiotic relationship with the
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  Naboo and that like whatever effects one is going to affect
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  the other. And you know, that was very
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  insightful for someone who had just called one of those people
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  or Gungans a thing, you know. So he has both sides and I think
• 9:06
  he does a great job portraying that in the first movie.
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  And I I do feel like in Phantom Menace we see a wider variety of
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  emotions from him, 'cause we see Stassi, we see annoyed, we see
• 9:21
  anger, even at the end when he's dueling with Maul.
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  And that's that's a really rare thing to see on Obi Wan Kenobi's
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  face, so. And how?
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  How few times do we see that following?
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  We see a lot of it in Clone Wars, but still only certain
• 9:38
  moments, and it usually has to do with Maul.
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  Yes, right, exactly. He's the one guy that gets under
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  his skin and for rightful reason.
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  Every time. Yeah.
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  So is it. I think it's kind of interesting
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  that he shows so much emotion in Phantom Menace, because we had
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  just talked about Alec Guinness doing the total opposite.
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  Where he's his performance is really small and miniscule, and
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  I feel like Ewan's starts much bigger and I think as we get
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  more through like Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith
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  and then the Kenobi series, it's much more like Alec Guinness's
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  performance. Well, there's a time progression
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  there. So they got to they got to show
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  how he matured and how far or how much he matured.
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  And that's not even including Clone Wars Obi Wan, which we get
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  much more of right? And the same could be said for
• 10:29
  Hayden as Anakin. I mean, Oh my God, the writing
• 10:32
  in Attack of the Clones is so over the top to make him so
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  immature, right? It's so bad.
• 10:39
  Yeah, it's painful. It's just.
• 10:41
  You don't need to do all of that, but it does also contrast
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  Obi Wan's emotions. Where he's trying to stifle
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  Anakin, he's trying to rein him in.
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  He's often exasperated, you know, he's dealing with what's
• 10:56
  going on with Camino and all of the knowledge there, while also
• 11:00
  trying to wrangle an unruly, very adolescent acting Padawan
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  of his own. The whole thing is kind of very
• 11:08
  exaggerated, but it does show that we start to get to see the
• 11:11
  the general side of Obi Wan, the, the Jedi Knight that we get
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  a lot more of in Clone Wars. And by the time we get to
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  Revenge of the Sith, you know, he's really excelled.
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  He's he's got the we always talk about his costume, how it's
• 11:24
  buttoned up kind of tight by Revenge of the Sith.
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  It's a lot looser prior to that. That's 'cause he's buttoned up a
• 11:30
  little more and you get to see that and and Ewan does a
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  fantastic job with that. He's an eye actor, but he's also
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  like his subtle facial features can speak volumes, which is
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  something that Alec Guinness excelled at.
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  So I think Ewan, knowing this, had to really kind of bring that
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  to the table because Obi Wan is subtle at times in his older
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  age. For sure.
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  You can see how he goes from being kind of brash and kicking
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  with both legs out. You know, his like, signature
• 12:02
  move from Phantom Menace. Like you never see that coming
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  back as he matures. It makes sense.
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  I mean, that's how we are, right?
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  When we're teenagers we are goofier and definitely ruder,
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  probably most of us. And then you mature and you have
• 12:19
  life experiences and even your gestures can become more
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  reserved over time. So I think it was a very honest
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  and realistic portrayal and like really insightful too 'cause
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  Ewan was quite young doing all of that.
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  I remember the press junkets of Phantom Menace, and they're all
• 12:39
  so fucking young. Like, him and Natalie Portman
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  are so young. I mean, she's like basically a
• 12:46
  preteen, yes. And he's like a very young
• 12:51
  adult. And they had like that early
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  2000s, like clothing, the attire.
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  It's so bad. It's so bad.
• 13:00
  And like he, I'm pretty sure he was wearing like, eyeliners.
• 13:04
  Or like the. Goth 'cause that was like.
• 13:07
  That. Was the thing at the time.
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  Very scene, very Emo Myspace scene.
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  But he did it. He wore it well.
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  I mean, he can go from being a polished actor to whatever the
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  hell that was with like, safety pins keeping his shirt tail
• 13:25
  together. Like, you know, that whole shit.
• 13:28
  God, I love the early 2000s. That's so Ewan though, right?
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  Like he likes to go to total extremes both as characters and
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  then like I think once he's had to play a character, I feel like
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  he then like cleans the slate totally and goes the opposite
• 13:44
  direction in like his personal life.
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  So when he's all buttoned up for Obi Wan, then he goes like 1990s
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  Got. When he's not on set I.
• 13:56
  Actually, really. Like the eyeliner on him made
• 13:59
  his blue eyes pop, you know? He can pull off any.
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  He really could, really could. Oh God, I'm just God.
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  I'm just thinking of his movies and like all the different looks
• 14:11
  he's had. Seriously.
• 14:12
  And the like. The variety of the kind of
• 14:14
  character he can play from. Soft and vulnerable.
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  What's the one where his dad dies?
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  Oh my God beginners. That's it.
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  Oh, one of the best movies ever. And Christopher Plummer as like
• 14:28
  Ewan and Christopher Plummer actually look also very, very
• 14:32
  similar. So it made so much sense to cast
• 14:34
  them as Father and Son. He's so handsome in that movie,
• 14:37
  but it's so heart wrenching. The scene where, like, I think
• 14:43
  the woman moves out and he just puts his hands over his face and
• 14:46
  leans into the wall, I was like, that is such a real gesture.
• 14:50
  That is so real if I had a dollar for every time I did it.
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  I know, right? I know.
• 14:57
  I really like. I haven't done that personally.
• 14:59
  I don't even know how many times.
• 15:01
  It was something I noticed about his performance in Attack of the
• 15:05
  Clones That really stood out to me is his mannerisms are much
• 15:10
  more like Qui guns. Yeah, he kind of moves that way.
• 15:15
  He has like when he'll enter a room, especially with a hood,
• 15:18
  it's like that could be Qui Gon. And he's got the beard and the
• 15:21
  long hair. It's like he's channeling that
• 15:24
  part of himself more an Attack of the Clones than Ale Guinness.
• 15:28
  And I feel like by Revenge of the Sith, it's much more Alec
• 15:31
  Guinness than anything else. Oh, we could attribute that to
• 15:35
  him trying to find himself as as a character.
• 15:39
  Like Obi Wan's trying to find himself.
• 15:41
  Who do I want? Who I want to emulate My master,
• 15:44
  'cause I respect and miss him while also trying to navigate,
• 15:48
  you know, life in itself and become your own person.
• 15:50
  And then his own person is technically Alec Guinness's
• 15:53
  portrayal of what we want. So.
• 15:56
  Right, exactly how messed up is. That that's hard to do.
• 16:02
  It's just amazing and it's he did such a good job.
• 16:05
  I really appreciate the way that Ewan is a quiet actor.
• 16:10
  At times he can be pensive. I'm thinking ahead mostly to the
• 16:16
  Kenobi series, where at this point he's lived through
• 16:20
  everything we know from the Clone Wars, everything we know
• 16:23
  from the prequels, you know, and and he brought a quietness and a
• 16:30
  reserved amount of acting that really stuck out as OK.
• 16:36
  So we know as viewers the time gap that has taken place between
• 16:42
  everything. But as an actor, he's had X
• 16:45
  amount of years separated from being this character.
• 16:48
  So to credit him to come back into this role at a much
• 16:53
  different age for both the character and himself and
• 16:57
  knowing all of the shit that take that has taken place, that
• 17:00
  he wasn't a part of this. Most of it was animated and
• 17:04
  bring that this lived in you know hardened traumatized.
• 17:10
  We've said this last week and last episode.
• 17:12
  You know there's a quietness to him, a reflective way about him
• 17:17
  that I think he completely nailed and I don't even, I'm not
• 17:21
  even talking about the crying that took place when he and
• 17:25
  Anakin slash Vader had their had their moment where it was just
• 17:29
  his face and his eyes and the eyes Oh my God it's so good.
• 17:35
  It's a real testament to how far the character and actor has come
• 17:40
  since day one Phantom Menace. Yeah, I mean, if you were to put
• 17:45
  the last shot of him as Obi Wan next to the first shot of him,
• 17:49
  it would be a hell of a journey that character goes on.
• 17:52
  And we're not even talking hair, the hair journey alone.
• 18:00
  That's true. Like buzz.
• 18:01
  Cutting 2 flowy locks. And like I can handle the
• 18:07
  Padawan hair when it's not the wig.
• 18:11
  Oh, I know you. Know they brought him back in
• 18:13
  for the reshoots and they had that horrible wig.
• 18:16
  That's the wrong color. It's like the wig that he had to
• 18:23
  wear in the flashback scene in the Kenobi series with him and
• 18:26
  Hayden when they were, you know, in like the practice ring.
• 18:30
  That wig was so bad. It was so bad.
• 18:33
  He looked like a newswoman. We will forever call that
• 18:39
  lovingly the newswoman haircut. Oh my God.
• 18:47
  I really feel like Ewan thrives on the scenes that are agony.
• 18:51
  I think his best acting comes out when the character is in
• 18:55
  pain for some reason when he's smiling or goofy.
• 19:00
  Seems awkward, yeah. He is kind of like a trauma
• 19:06
  actor. He does really well with pain,
• 19:10
  which is great because that's Star Wars and you have to thrive
• 19:13
  in that environment. Right.
• 19:17
  And it's really funny, 'cause he seems like a really like jolly
• 19:20
  person in real life, like he's always seems ready to laugh.
• 19:24
  Yes, a little bit of a prankster.
• 19:26
  Yeah. So the fact that he's like the
• 19:30
  best when he is think of the You are my brother Anakin, like that
• 19:35
  is just it's such good acting. That whole sequence, like the
• 19:39
  the pain he's in, is just so well performed.
• 19:43
  The grief. The loss he's literally staring.
• 19:46
  Loss in the face. Loss of everything he believed
• 19:49
  in. Loss of a generation of Jedi and
• 19:53
  and multiple generations. The loss of everything he
• 19:56
  believed in. There's still Padme he's got to
• 19:59
  deal with because no one knows. Like, is she dead, is she not
• 20:03
  dead? Etcetera.
• 20:03
  He's got to take care of that. It's just the loss of his best
• 20:06
  friend, obviously. I don't know.
• 20:09
  He's probably thinking of Qui Gon in that moment, Of course,
• 20:12
  because that was his responsibility given to Obi Wan.
• 20:17
  Obi Wan was then responsible and all hell broke loose.
• 20:21
  So yeah, he summarizes it in one line.
• 20:26
  Just like Alec Guinness can do in one line, if you're a one
• 20:30
  liner, if you can steal it in one line then you get a plus
• 20:34
  from me. That scene now especially.
• 20:37
  And Oh my God, the Kenobi scene too.
• 20:39
  But. I can't even think of it without
• 20:42
  feeling sad. I was going to bring up in the
• 20:44
  Alec Guinness episode. Well, we talked about it in last
• 20:50
  week's episode, how he is doing the final duel with Vader and he
• 20:54
  dies, right? And he looks over at Luke and
• 20:57
  Leia. And now we have this knowledge
• 20:59
  of his relationship with Leia leading up to this from the
• 21:03
  Kenobi series. And just the way you know Ewan
• 21:08
  has children, but just the way that he interacts with this
• 21:12
  small girl. Yeah.
• 21:14
  It's so tender and wonderful and it shows the compassion and the
• 21:18
  kindness he has and and it you go back to like The Phantom
• 21:22
  Menace. What's this?
• 21:24
  What's that? You know?
• 21:25
  And it's like such a change. It's so true.
• 21:29
  Oh, what a great point. It's so true.
• 21:32
  I mean, he even says that Qui Gon says he's going to go get
• 21:35
  Anakin and come back. Obi Wan says I Why do I sense
• 21:39
  we've picked up another pathetic life form?
• 21:42
  And then he, you know, he he says.
• 21:45
  I've noticed. I've never noticed this before.
• 21:48
  There's all these times where he's like, the boy is dangerous.
• 21:51
  Master, why can't you see it? And Anakin's standing right
• 21:55
  there. Yeah.
• 21:57
  Obliviousness to to the needs of a child and then to, like you
• 22:02
  said, come full circle with Leia.
• 22:05
  And he wasn't. At first.
• 22:06
  He was really brusque with her and rough with her, and then he
• 22:11
  softened. And then there's a beautiful
• 22:13
  scene where she takes his hand. It's so I I just can't.
• 22:19
  It's so they're just wonderful together on screen.
• 22:24
  And it really is lovely that Leia got time with Obi Wan,
• 22:29
  'cause we all know that Luke did.
• 22:32
  Yeah. And it's really full circle with
• 22:35
  how she sends that message. And that's her first interaction
• 22:40
  with him after, you know, if you should ever need me.
• 22:44
  Oh God. God.
• 22:46
  Yeah, that. I think the scene with them
• 22:50
  together in that transport truck and they're sitting in the back.
• 22:54
  I think it's one of my favorite moments in all of Star Wars and
• 22:57
  I I'll never forget the first time watching it, just first of
• 23:01
  all captivated by how good the acting is from both of them and
• 23:05
  to have it be filmed like just close-ups.
• 23:08
  So it's very private and intimate between these two
• 23:10
  characters. But then what he was saying also
• 23:13
  at the same time when she says are you my father?
• 23:16
  And he said I wish I could say I was, but I'm not like he didn't
• 23:20
  have to say that. He could have just said no, no,
• 23:23
  I'm not. Right.
• 23:24
  You know, right. He loved those kids.
• 23:27
  He didn't even have to meet them.
• 23:29
  Exactly. Fuck, he loved.
• 23:34
  He loved their parents. So he had a deep respect for
• 23:37
  Padme. And Once Upon a time he did for
• 23:40
  Anakin too. And it goes back to Qui.
• 23:42
  Gon and Luke and Leia are so intertwined with Obi Wan's past.
• 23:50
  What does Anakin tell Ahsoka in the series?
• 23:52
  Like she's part of a a lineage. It goes all the way back, like
• 23:57
  all the way to Qui Gon. Yeah, beyond that, 'cause it's
• 24:01
  Yoda too. Is part of that right?
• 24:04
  Yoda Dooku? Yes.
• 24:07
  Am I remembering that correctly? So the point here is, is Ewan
• 24:11
  brings all of this to the table. Yeah, I mean to it's so complex
• 24:17
  for if you, if you just watch it for entertainment, fine, it's
• 24:20
  entertaining. But if you think about what he
• 24:22
  had to do as an actor from a young age to where he is now,
• 24:25
  also kind of tying together Alec's performance plus Clone
• 24:31
  Wars emotion, and it's a lot. It's really sad.
• 24:37
  Obi Wan's story is so sad, and there is that sadness in Ewan's
• 24:42
  face pretty much throughout most of the films I can.
• 24:46
  I can think of the moment where they're sitting at Qui Gon's
• 24:48
  Pyre and Obi Wan turns to little Anakin, you know.
• 24:53
  And there's a there's a almost there was a reluctance.
• 24:58
  But he accepts that this is his fate now.
• 25:01
  And we talk about this when we talk about Obi Wan all the time
• 25:03
  is that he accepts his fate and goes forward with it.
• 25:07
  Whether it's protecting Luke, protecting Leia in a in a sense
• 25:12
  it's just so painful. His His story is so wonderful
• 25:19
  and so painful. Yeah, but there's also so much
• 25:23
  levity that he brings. You know, yeah.
• 25:27
  When when people are like, what's your favorite OB One line
• 25:29
  from the prequels? Like I cannot pick.
• 25:31
  There are so many that bring a smile to my face.
• 25:35
  It's true. Yep.
• 25:37
  And that are memeable. Memeable all the way, even the
• 25:41
  the non memeable ones. Yeah, So he brings a lot of
• 25:45
  charm to the character and swagger.
• 25:50
  A lot of. Swagger.
• 25:51
  Which he needs to have, yeah. You have to believe it when he
• 25:55
  commands people, which I think Ewan McGregor could probably
• 26:00
  command anyone to do anything and they would obey.
• 26:04
  Especially in that white Clone Wars armor, which we have not
• 26:08
  seen him in yet. We've gotten Anakin, we've
• 26:11
  gotten Hayden in Clone Wars armor.
• 26:13
  Next up is God. It has to be Ewan in Clone Wars
• 26:18
  armor. I was waiting for him to be in
• 26:20
  that flashback scene, but we didn't get it.
• 26:21
  That's fine, That's fine. I'm happy.
• 26:24
  I'm satisfied. I really am.
• 26:27
  I just want to see you in in the white armor, you know?
• 26:30
  Oh, I just think of Point Reign. I know I'm fast forwarding the
• 26:33
  next week when we talk about James Arnold Taylor and the
• 26:36
  Clone Wars Obi Wan. But you have to believe that
• 26:39
  what we see in the prequels before we consider the Kenobi
• 26:43
  series, what we see in the pre prequels and then jump to what
• 26:47
  we see in the original trilogy, that everything in between is
• 26:50
  believable too. So the sequence of these actors
• 26:55
  makes it difficult to almost build a character because you're
• 26:58
  starting backwards then jumping So and they all kind of have to
• 27:05
  work together I believe to represent one another, and it
• 27:08
  becomes a tangled web of Obi Wan.
• 27:11
  Yes. Oh my gosh.
• 27:12
  It's like the the meme. It's always sunny and.
• 27:16
  Yeah, the wall of intersecting lines of trying to yeah,
• 27:20
  Palpatine's wall. Yeah, exactly.
• 27:24
  But it's Obi Wan and the different actors trying to keep
• 27:27
  some sort of what's the word. Cohesion.
• 27:30
  Cohesion. See.
• 27:32
  It's they're trying to keep some sort of cohesion between all of
• 27:35
  the various time frames, actors, ages, experience levels, and
• 27:40
  they're all still basing it off of elegantness.
• 27:43
  And then they all add a little something personal to it, so it
• 27:48
  just the character just keeps on becoming embellished more and
• 27:53
  more, and it's probably why he's one of the best characters ever.
• 27:57
  Absolutely. And I was going to say we don't
• 28:00
  really see Obi Wan's smile until Ewan gives Obi Wan his smile.
• 28:05
  Yeah, that's true. There's smirking from Alec
• 28:09
  Guinness. But it's not the same as like
• 28:11
  someone showing joy. That's different.
• 28:13
  Is the word Yes. And Hewan brings that light.
• 28:19
  The light in Obi Wan forward, I think yeah.
• 28:23
  True joy. Absolutely.
• 28:25
  In the eyes, in the smile, his body language, Which is why it
• 28:29
  makes it so much more difficult to watch the fall of it all and
• 28:33
  then the repercussions afterwards of the fall.
• 28:37
  When we get to the Kenobi series, I mean, but then you
• 28:39
  know the final scenes of the Kenobi series.
• 28:43
  He is smiling, which is a testament to the character of
• 28:46
  Obi Wan that he will always persevere and persist against
• 28:49
  all odds. There's always something to
• 28:52
  smile about. Tomorrow's a new day.
• 28:54
  Take one day at a time, and Obi Wan's always done that very
• 28:58
  well, which is why we fucking love him.
• 29:03
  Exactly. I couldn't visit it better
• 29:05
  myself. And the hair, right?
• 29:08
  You one's got fantastic hair, whether it's the buzz cut, the
• 29:12
  BG mullet, or the more refined Gray tips in Revenge of the
• 29:16
  Sith. Oh yeah, the slightly longer
• 29:18
  version in the Kenobi series. All of it's fabulous.
• 29:21
  Some less fabulous than others, but it's pretty fucking
• 29:24
  fabulous. You can't deny that Ewan
• 29:26
  McGregor brought sex appeal to star.
• 29:29
  Wars. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:30
  The way he fights in Attack of the Clones during that ring.
• 29:34
  The the circle, the fighting with all the Jedi, the bugs.
• 29:40
  Oh, you know, the gift. Ovary exploding stuff there.
• 29:47
  Oh yeah, yeah. We can't.
• 29:56
  We both just like, drifted off. Yeah, OK.
• 30:00
  So we talked a lot about, you know, Ewan's performance as Obi
• 30:02
  Wan, but he is in film after film after film after film.
• 30:09
  We mentioned Moulin Rouge, so if you had to pick one or two of
• 30:13
  your favorite non Star Wars UN performances, what would they
• 30:17
  be? Oh.
• 30:18
  Man, that's really hard question.
• 30:20
  It really is. I love beginners.
• 30:24
  I I think that movie is perfect and he's so good at it.
• 30:29
  He also is really good, though in this very obscure film, Last
• 30:35
  Days in the Desert, it was actually about Jesus, which is
• 30:40
  not what I would ever have picked Ewan McGregor.
• 30:42
  I would Jesus and Ewan McGregor. I would never put those in the
• 30:46
  same sentence. But he looks like Obi Wan in
• 30:48
  that film, so it's OK, right? He does.
• 30:52
  He really does. And people took footage from
• 30:54
  that when they did fan edits for Obi Wan in the desert all the
• 30:58
  time. But his performance in that is
• 31:01
  fucking mind blowing. It's so good.
• 31:04
  And I never pictured Ewan McGregor the entire time like I
• 31:08
  didn't. You know when you're watching
• 31:10
  Tom Cruise, you're always aware you're watching Tom Cruise.
• 31:13
  As much as I love Tom Cruise, but I feel like that with Ewan
• 31:17
  sometimes. I'm always just aware that it's
• 31:19
  you. I didn't totally forgot it was
• 31:21
  him. It was such a good movie.
• 31:24
  And then for like a light movie, I love Down With Love.
• 31:27
  I really love that. Movie.
• 31:28
  That movie is just so much fun. The the design, the costumes,
• 31:32
  the time period that it evokes. I just love that.
• 31:35
  Yeah, it's a really fun movie. I I I do enjoy that one.
• 31:39
  There's a great outtake from it too, where he's like, who am I?
• 31:42
  And someone else? Says Obi Wan.
• 31:43
  That's true. Yeah, that's true.
• 31:49
  What about you besides Moulin Rouge?
• 31:51
  Oh, Moulin Rouge is #1. Always and forever.
• 31:54
  But I really like Trainspotting, but even more so.
• 31:59
  I loved Trainspotting too, because he's older.
• 32:02
  Oh, I never saw the sequel. It's really good.
• 32:04
  The the original characters come back, they reprise their roles.
• 32:08
  It's actually quite a good performance because of the
• 32:13
  positions that all these characters are now in having
• 32:16
  grown up, you know? But it's so kind of iconic,
• 32:20
  Ewan. But I really do enjoy his
• 32:22
  performance in those. I also OK.
• 32:24
  I also love beginners just because it's painful and
• 32:27
  beautiful and everything but Doctor sleep.
• 32:31
  Oh, I haven't seen that yet. Really.
• 32:33
  As a Stephen King fan. I've heard it's really.
• 32:36
  Good. It's pretty good.
• 32:37
  It's not like my favorite, but I do love it because I'm a Stephen
• 32:43
  King fan and it kind of just comes with the territory that
• 32:46
  you have to kind of watch it. You have to watch it.
• 32:50
  So. But wasn't he in Winnie the Pooh
• 32:54
  or something? Didn't you watch that?
• 32:57
  Christopher Robin I forgot about that I.
• 32:59
  Haven't seen that and I can't because I'll cry because I love.
• 33:02
  I grew up on Winnie the Pooh and yours, like my favorite
• 33:07
  character ever, Winnie the Pooh. I I can't watch it though,
• 33:12
  'cause I will cry. I know you said it's charming
• 33:14
  and and you know, but I know I know myself.
• 33:18
  Yeah, no, you do cry. You're supposed.
• 33:20
  To I know, but I don't you. Definitely.
• 33:23
  You definitely cry. But I also laughed so hard in
• 33:28
  that movie. It was so funny and like because
• 33:33
  of Jim Cummings. That's a huge.
• 33:35
  Part of it and and all the animals like Ewan is not the
• 33:38
  Comic Relief. Although there is a really,
• 33:40
  there is a really funny scene where he's afraid to speak to
• 33:43
  his neighbor and I'm like, that is me, That's how I act.
• 33:46
  Oh, I don't, but I have to talk to people.
• 33:49
  I don't talk to my neighbors either.
• 33:50
  Isn't that weird? I don't know.
• 33:52
  It kind of puts you on the spot. You can't escape your neighbors.
• 33:54
  So if you. Yeah, So I I oh man, I love that
• 33:59
  movie. And is it Hayley Atwell?
• 34:02
  Is that her name? She plays his wife and she's the
• 34:05
  one who's from The Avengers. She's Peggy Carter.
• 34:08
  Oh yeah, absolutely. She's beautiful.
• 34:10
  Yes. Peggy Carter.
• 34:11
  Yes. Steve Rogers Girl.
• 34:13
  Yeah, she's gorgeous and she's. So.
• 34:16
  She's they're just really great together.
• 34:17
  Really. Yeah.
• 34:18
  She plays his wife. I'll be damned.
• 34:21
  I love her. Yeah.
• 34:22
  Oh, and the daughter? I'm just sorry, pardon my
• 34:26
  trivia. The daughter in Christopher
• 34:28
  Robin Nguyen's daughter is Mon Mothma's daughter in Andor.
• 34:32
  Oh yeah, and. I was like, wow, you went from
• 34:36
  being very sweet to a huge bitch.
• 34:39
  Yeah, well, there's diversity. It runs in the family, right?
• 34:44
  Oh my gosh. There's so many good human
• 34:46
  moments and he's so good in all of them.
• 34:48
  But he's our he's our Obi Wan for this chapter anyway.
• 34:52
  For better or worse, Yeah, yeah. All right, we answered.
• 35:01
  Now it's your turn to answer. What is your favorite non Star
• 35:04
  Wars Ewan McGregor movie? I we know it's hard.
• 35:07
  It is. If you can't pick just one, pick
• 35:10
  a few and just let us know. Tell us which one and why?
• 35:14
  OK, well, continuing in the Obi Wan Kenobi actors series, we're
• 35:20
  going to Clone Wars next and we're and we're talking James
• 35:25
  Arnold Taylor, one of our personal favorites, a friend of
• 35:28
  the show. And we're going to talk about
• 35:31
  what he brings to the table as Obi Wan.
• 35:34
  And he's got a lot of material, seven seasons plus.
• 35:40
  One I guess also the micro series too.
• 35:42
  Yeah, yeah. And Lego Obi Wan also.
• 35:46
  Yeah, and I mean countless countless other voice acting
• 35:50
  characters that are not Obi Wan. So this talented man will be the
• 35:54
  subject of next week's episode, so please join us back here.
• 35:58
  Thank you so much for joining us here on the Most Things Kenobi
• 36:01
  Podcast. We appreciate every single one
• 36:03
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• 36:06
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• 36:09
  well, head over to The Most Things Kenobi Patreon.
• 36:12
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• 36:15
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• 36:17
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• 36:20
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• 36:22
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• 36:25
  to Most Things kenobi.com. So until next time, Myspace
• 36:29
  Twin, may the Force be with you. Always.