SUBMITTED BY Fred Hill

June 24, 2001 —

Here is an interview by Katie Couric from "The Today Show" with Ewan McGregor from Friday June 24th. 2001. The main topic of the interview is about his new movie 'Moulin Rouge,' however there are a couple side topics an of course they have a few lines about 'Star Wars.' Thanks Squrik for getting this transcript.

KATIE COURIC, co-host: There was a time back in the golden era of Hollywood musicals when even dramatic actors occasionally took a turn singing and dancing. The new movie musical "Moulin Rouge" is true to that tradition, with--with stars Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor proving that they can in fact carry a tune.

(Clip shown from "Moulin Rouge")

COURIC: Ewan McGregor plays a poet in Paris, caught up in the Bohemian world of the Moulin Rouge.

Hi, Ewan, how are you?

Mr. EWAN McGREGOR: I'm very good, thank you.

COURIC: When you hear yourself--see yourself sing, do you think, 'Hey, I'm pretty darned good'?

Mr. McGREGOR: Yes, I do actually.

COURIC: You do? Well, I know that--I read that you absolutely adored singing.

Mr. McGREGOR: I love it. I love it. I've always sung all through my childhood, and I used to sing in choirs and things at school. And--but--but when we started doing work on--on "Moulin Rouge," we--we worked--I worked, you know, every day for four--and we'd rehearse for four months, which is a huge amount of time to rehearse for a movie.

COURIC: Right?

Mr. McGREGOR: But every day, we would be singing--Nicole and I would be singing with each other or s--I'd be singing on my own, and then we would--we started recording the music for the--for the playback while we did the movie, and I just loved it. I loved it.

COURIC: And it was so--the songs you got to sing were so great.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah.

COURIC: I mean, they must have been tunes that you sort of listened to when you were a teen-ager.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah. I loved them.

COURIC: I mean, Elton John's "Your Song." I mean, there are a million of them.

Mr. McGREGOR: That's right. That's right.

COURIC: They're so memorable that everybody remembers hearing.

Mr. McGREGOR: That's right. Yeah. And the hi--one of them is "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music."

COURIC: I know. That made me laugh.

Mr. McGREGOR: Which is one I--I never imagined I'd be singing in a movie.

COURIC: Were you at all intimidated? I know that you and Nicole--when I spoke with her, she said that you actually did some of the singing and dancing live...

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah.

COURIC: ...that you didn't pre-record it and lip-sync like...

Mr. McGREGOR: That's right.

COURIC: ...is sometimes done.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah. Well, what we did was to enable us to try and capture perfection, if you like, because we wanted the music to drive the story forward. We wanted the music to tell the story, so we wanted it to be the best it could be. So we pre-recorded all--or I think most of the singing so that we could then use it as playback on set. We did quite a lot of it live on set, and we--we did some of it in post production. So with the th--from the three different sections, you know, we could put it together and try and get the best.

COURIC: Are you serious about thinking about maybe blowing off your movie career and cut and album...

Mr. McGREGOR: No.

COURIC: ...or is that a joke?

Mr. McGREGOR: That is a joke. No, I would never do that because I love acting. I love my job too much, you know? But I...

COURIC: But would you like another role that ma--that enabled you to sing?

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah. I think wha--what I'm doing is I'm continuing to record songs with the--with Marius De Vries, the man who--who did all the music for "Moulin Rouge," and we'll--we'll carry on until we've got a bunch of stuff, and then we'll see. We might do something with it, but I don't know. I saw U2 last night in New York...

COURIC: Yeah?

Mr. McGREGOR: ...in New Jersey...

COURIC: Oh, you must be tired.

Mr. McGREGOR: ...and they were amazing. Don--that--when I see something like that, I was--watching Bono--going, 'Oh, I want to do that.'

COURIC: Well, you know, there are a lot of actors who do a little rock star thing on the side.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah.

COURIC: Maybe you could.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah. I know--yeah.

COURIC: I'll be--I'll play the tambourine in your band.

Mr. McGREGOR: OK. Yeah. There's two of us then.

COURIC: Yeah, exactly. All right, tell me a little bit about Christian, the idealistic...

Mr. McGREGOR: Right.

COURIC: ...young, romantic poet, and what--and why he is in the Moulin Rouge...

Mr. McGREGOR: Right.

COURIC: ...and how he finds himself there?

Mr. McGREGOR: Well, he's--I think he came--he came from kind of money background in England, and the film starts as he arrives in Paris, and the--through a couple of flashbacks, we see that he's kind of left--left his family, left money--money behind. He's not interested. And he wants to find poetic ideals. He wants to live the life of a Bohemian and become a writer although he's never written. He is--he doesn't know if he's got anything to write about, but he knows he believes in four things: beauty, freedom, truth and love. And he immed--as soon as he arrives, he meets Toulouse Lautrec and a crazy bunch of Bohemians who are fantastic actors and mad in the movie and then gets swept up and taken to the Moulin Rouge where he meets and falls in love with Satine.

COURIC: Which is such a great--great scene when...

Mr. McGREGOR: Oh, yeah.

COURIC: ...when he sees her for the first time, and she's singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." I hope--do we have time for the roll cue, you guys? I hope so. But anyway, you fall in love with S--Satine...

Mr. McGREGOR: I fall in love with her.

COURIC: ...you try to keep your relationship a secret...

Mr. McGREGOR: Yes.

COURIC: ...from the duke--this is complicated...

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah.

COURIC: ...who's financing the production of the play that you've written but he's got eyes for Satine as well. Does that explain it?

Mr. McGREGOR: That's good. Yeah. Better than I could ever have explained.

COURIC: Oh, by the way, I'm sorry, let's take a quick look at the scene.

(Clip shown from "Moulin Rouge")

COURIC: Ah, the intrigue. Are you disappointed it's not, you know, making box office records, but it's a modest success?

Mr. McGREGOR: No, I'm not disappointed, because I think it's doing--it's doing really pretty well for--for--for a musical, which scares people off...

COURIC: Right, but it really is finding an audience...

Mr. McGREGOR: ...but it's made a dent, you know?

COURIC: ...right?

Mr. McGREGOR: It--it certainly is, yeah. And the people that have seen it, love it, and go--I think you should all go and see it because I think it's fantastic and wonderful fun.

COURIC: Well, there you go.

Mr. McGREGOR: It's a real treat, you know, but I think it's made its mark. It's making a dent in other larger summer films, you know?

COURIC: Well, I loved it. I had a great time seeing it...

Mr. McGREGOR: Good. Well...

COURIC: ...and I--as I said earlier, I thought it was so daring and creative, and you don't see much of that...

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah. No, it's quite an amazing piece. Yeah.

COURIC: ...in the movies these days. Anyway, we're going to see a lot more of you because you're in "Star Wars: Episode II." You just finished Ridley Scott's movie. You're taking a break now.

Mr. McGREGOR: Yeah.

COURIC: Have a great summer, enjoy your time off.

Mr. McGREGOR: Thank you.

COURIC: Ewan, nice to see you.

Mr. McGREGOR: Nice to see you. Thank you.

COURIC: It is 7:46. We'll be back right after this.