We kicked off quarantine last year with a brand new 55″ 4k TV, and the first thing we watched was Long Way Up (2020), the third installment of Ewan McGregor’s road trip documentary with his best friend Charley Boorman. Filmed in 4k, the sweeping vistas of their South American motorcycle trip helped quell the travel bug while we hunkered down. Lately, we’ve been rewatching Long Way Up, because it’s so wholesome and bingeable, but it caused me to realize that we haven’t done a Man Candy Monday on Ewan, which is a damn shame, because in addition to just being a delightful human being, he’s been in so many fabulous historical flicks. So, allow me to rectify the situation!
Lipstick on Your Collar (1993)
The Scarlet and the Black (1993)
Being Human (1994)
I am reasonably certain this is Ewan McGregor, but every single image of him in this film is the worst potato quality. That costume looks pretty good, though. I remember seeing this film when it first came out, so I may need to revisit for the costumes…
Emma (1996)
WHY IS HE SUCH A BASTARD IN THIS FILM???
The Serpent’s Kiss (1997)
I somehow missed this and now I’m sad. I love me a good, angsty 17th-century flick.
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
This is one of those “OMG AMAZING COSTUMES” flicks that are unfortunately set after our 1969 cutoff date. Ewan McGregor plays the Iggy Pop to Jonathan Rhys Meyer’s David Bowie in Michael Stipe’s fictionalized retelling of the early 1970s glam rock era.
Nora (2000)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
You know you’re Gen X when you fell in love with Ewan in Trainspotting. You know you’re a Millennial when you fell in love with him in Moulin Rouge!. Fight me.
Down with Love (2003)
Much as I dislike Rene Zellweger, I think I need to revisit this flick. The costumes look fabulous.
Big Fish (2003)
STOP BEING SO PERFECT, EWAN. This film is gorgeous, and surreal, and he plays the young man version of the main character, reliving his life in beautiful stories.
Miss Potter (2006)
A biopic about Beatrix Potter. Clearly the early-2000s were all hard into Ewan and Rene, because you don’t get a second film with someone unless Hollywood thinks you have mad chemistry.
Amelia (2009)
I think Hilary Swank is cast pretty well as Amelia Earhart in this film. Ewan McGregor plays Gene Vidal, one of Earhart’s romantic partners.
Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)
Stop. Being. So. Cute.
Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
This was the movie that prompted me to remember that we hadn’t done a MCM about Ewan yet, because it’s referenced briefly in Long Way Up. Ewan says he had “fabulous hair” in this flick.
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
Ewan literally has a 3-second cameo in this film. I wouldn’t even know about this flick if it weren’t for the fact that I’m doing this post right now … The costumes actually look pretty decent, though!
Last Days in the Desert (2015)
Another movie about a mega famous white dude playing Jesus. This is my face: -_-
Jane Got a Gun (2015)
Why do I feel like they couldn’t get Daniel Day Lewis?
American Pastoral (2016)
I am sure this movie is Very Good, but I really have no desire to watch it.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
We had some quibbles with loved the the costuming in this film, but it’s Disney fantasy so…
Christopher Robin (2018)
A wholesome and whimsical story about the adult inspiration for Winnie the Pooh.
Halston (2021)
I started watching this and then kind of lost interest … But Ewan is very, very good as the iconic designer, and the show is complete early-1970s eyecandy.
Are you a Gen X fan of Ewan McGregor or a Millennial fan? Tell us in the comments!
The Pillow Book Ewan is my favorite, followed by Velvet Goldmine- that makes we, what, a goth?
Gen X here, I’ve loved him since Shallow Grave. I think my favorite of his frock flicks have to be Emma and Down with Love. And thanks for reminding me I’ve never actually watched Big Fish!
‘Big Fish’ one a best Tim Burton movies in my personal opinion. Hope enjoy watching it, if you get the chance. I’m still waiting for an opportunity to watch ‘Christopher Robin’ (aka “Winnie-the-Pooh” film)
Oh my goodness, ‘autocorrect’ did a job on my grammar and sentence construction😐 leaving complete words “out” (without me noticing it)…so sorry. Hope you still understand my comment 😅
I had SUCH a hard time with him in Emma. I believe he even panned his own performance, or at least his participation, in it. Love most everything else about the movie (and I really loathe Paltrow but I thought she embodied the self-absorption of Emma very well), but Ewan…just UGH.
Gen X but on the tail end: 1979. I didn’t see Trainspotting until my husband made me. I did love him in Moulin Rouge but first saw him in the tragic Star Wars I.
As far as I was concerned Ewan and Liam Neeson made it all worthwhile. Also Queen Amidala’s wardrobe and her handmaiden’s
YES!!!👍🏻 Totally agree 😍 .
Qui-gon Jinn = The Jedi Master of My Dreams. :)
I fell in love with Ewan in A Life Less Ordinary.
I think that makes me a Xenial (or whatever the heck they’re calling us now)
Gen X and another Shallow Graver. But then, I was an extra in that as part of it was filmed down the street. They scouted to use our building int he second trainspotting film, but the neighbours were against it. (Have also met him in the pub, he is of course charming and gorgeous)
Moulin Rouge was big the year I was 17 and went to France on a school trip. It was big in France, too. But then I think that film’s at an advantage because my goodness, can that man sing.
Down with Love is sooooo worth a revisit.
I adore Down with Love!
I agree – it’s such a perfect little big of film candy!!!
I forgot about Down With Love! I share your sentiments regarding Renee Zellweger, but I remember enjoying it. David Hyde Pierce stole the movie as the “Tony Randall” character. :)
Yes!! 👍🏻David Hyde Pierce was made for that character that he portrayed in ‘Down with Love’. He fits in that time-periode so well👌🏻
I haven’t seen the 1993 Scarlet & Black but did enjoy the 1954 Claude Autant-Lara version. I must say I find it an… interesting choice in the ’93 version to have the ghost of Napoléon egging on Julien Sorel.
I watched “Last Days in the Desert” out of curiosity–because he plays both Jesus and Satan. It’s a weird movie but he’s very good in it.
I need to watch some more of these. I only made it through the first episode of Halston–again, Ewan McGregor’s fantastic, but the show itself wasn’t working for me.
Gen X here…but I HATED, HATED, HATED Trainspotting. That has as much to do with the disgusting movie as it does with the fact that I do not like stories related to drugs–cartels, addicts, the “system”–it’s just not my cup of tea when it comes to entertainment. Gotta go with Emma as my favorite. I love that version of Emma and Ewan was a perfect slimeball in it. Down with Love was OK, but to me it was one of those movies that didn’t really justify its existence to me. I was like, “Because Pillow Talk exists, I don’t know why this movie does….” Totally forgot that he was in Amelia, a good movie that deserves to be more widely seen. Other than that…like several others, I gotta give a shout out to Shallow Grave–not a Frock Flick–but very well done by Ewan and his co-stars! Also, he doesn’t really make me drool or anything, but I’m LOVING that look in Jack the Giant Slayer!! Fans self!!
What are you if you fell in love with Ewan as Obi-Wan Kenobi? A nerd?
All I can say is more! Give me more!
I was gonna say… General Kenobi all the way.
That being said, seeing Moulin Rouge as a stage musical made me appreciate Ewan a LOT more.
Gen Z? I guess
I’m a millennial and not at all into MacGregor as eye candy. I can respect the prolific career he’s had, but I’m more visually excited by Woman Crush Wednesday.
I’m not a millennial or Gen X’er, (I’m 76), but I LOVE Ewan. I fell for him in Moulin Rouge. By the way, author left out his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi!
Boomer here. Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, Moulin Rouge. And the buddy road trips. Salmon Fishing in Yemen is good.
A few days ago I watched a lovely 2014 Screen Actors Guild Foundation interview (on their YouTube channel) with Ewan McGregor.
At 1:03:39 Ewan talks about starring in (1996) “Emma”. In which he himself said he was terrible!! 😄 As his heart wasn’t in it. Especially his whole, Frank Churchill, wig story is 👍🏻😂 .
In stark contrast his hair in “Jack the Giant Slayer” is indeed 😍epic…it probably had its own trailor✌🏻😉.
But I’m clearly Gen X : with Danny Boyle’s (1994) “Shallow Grave” and (1996) “Trainspotting” being the first movies where McGregor really caught my eye👌🏻. Loved him in “Serpent’s Kiss”: great cast (Richard E. Grant Peter Postlethwaite and Greta Scacchi), costumes by Consolata Boyle and good setting, in which he portrayed a Dutch🇳🇱 garden architect.
Still Moulin Rouge!. I was a HS junior when it came out. My girlfriends saw it before I did and convinced me to come watch with them. We did our best to dress like the film’s courtesans (not easy in frigid Indiana weather with a limited budget) and saw it at the dinner & film theater. I had a ball.
Well, part of Velvet Goldmine is before 1969, so just post his mod suit, I guess.
Just remembered he isn’t really in the early part, only as a kid. Oh well.
Most of these hairstyles do him no favors. :P
I didn’t know he was in the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast! I just saw an exhibit of a bunch of Disney costumes and I have to say I was very disappointed in Belle’s iconic ballgown – they didn’t even embroider the decoration on the hem, it’s just painted on and the whole thing is very limp and deflated.