DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230083
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  129 lines

THE FORCE IS WITH HIM WITH THREE "STAR WARS" PREQUELS ON HIS PLATE, ACTOR EWAN MCGREGOR IS A STAR FOR THE MILLENNIUM

EWAN McGREGOR is a Scottish lad who has kept his burr and a pass-the-ale kind of don't-give-a-hoot air.

``Celebrity is the big big wind over here, I guess,'' he confided, with a suggestion that he's naively taking you into his confidence. ``In London, they don't care unless you're a rock star. But one thing is certain, I'll never live in Los Angeles, if I can get away with it, and I can.''

If you haven't heard of 26-year-old Ewan McGregor yet, stick around. You will.

The force is with him. After five small-budget, critically acclaimed movies in the past year, he's now set to star as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (the Sir Alec Guinness role) in the three upcoming ``Star Wars'' prequels.

He's the biggest Scottish movie import since Sean Connery. His ``Star Wars'' movies will be released in 1999, 2001 and 2003 - making celebrity inevitable into the next century. Sworn to secrecy about the ``Star Wars'' stuff, he would rather talk about his latest film, prophetically called ``A Life Less Ordinary.'' It's a romantic comedy in which he plays a fired janitor who kidnaps the boss's daughter, Cameron Diaz.

It opens Friday and is the product of his friends - director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew MacDonald and writer John Hodge - the same team that created the controversial druggie movie ``Trainspotting.''

``These are me friends,'' he said. ``Danny is the best director I've ever worked with. I hope to be in every movie they make. I'd turn down any of these bloomin' multimillion-pound things if it meant conflicting with something they wanted me to do.''

That brings up a hint of possible discord in the ``Star Wars'' galaxy. ``Well, I wanted very much to do it, of course. I know it's a legend and all that. I was 6 years old when I saw the first one and my uncle, Uncle Dennis (actor Dennis Lawson) was in all three `Star Wars' movies. He was Wedge, the only X-wing pilot to survive, other than Luke Skywalker.''

McGregor doesn't mention any names but he points out that ``there are directors who tell me where to stand, what to say and all that. I mean, they tell me to walk to this point, say the line, and look in that direction. I think `How do they know what I'm going to do?' That type thing is not why I became an actor.'' He's obviously referring to the formulaic method necessary for filming a sci-fi epic as big as ``Star Wars.'' The special effects, which it will take another two years to complete, will be the real star.

``A Life Less Ordinary'' was another thing. The part of Robert, a down-on-his-luck janitor, was written specifically for him but, even though it is his first Hollywood venture, it is decidedly British in tone and decidedly low budget.

The crew planned to shoot in North Carolina, but director Boyle changed his mind. ``It was foggy there and rained a lot,'' Boyle said. ``They kept telling me this is where `Last of the Mohicans' was shot, but all I saw was fog.''

He settled, instead, on Utah - Mormon country.

McGregor bemoans the fact that there were no pubs there and that the moral status was such that he felt as if he were in another world. ``After all, this was a British crew,'' he said. ``We were used to going to a local pub for a pint of ale after work. But I've been quoted as saying a lot of bad things against Utah. I'd like to apologize. It was an all right place to work, if work is all you were to do.''

McGregor is not only comfortable appearing nude in movies, he seeks out such scenes. He was naked in ``Trainspotting'' and in Peter Greenaway's ``The Pillow Book.''

``I don't mind showing me bum, or whatever. What's the difference? It's the character up there, not Ewan. For `The Pillow Book,' I had to arrive at 4 o'clock in the morning and lie around naked for hours while they put all these pictures all over my body.''

In ``Trainspotting,'' he played Renton, the most vocal of the heroin addicts and the one who was so obsessed that he dived down Scotland's filthiest toilet in what may go down in movie history as the dirtiest scene.

``A lot of guys have taken it as their personal obsession,'' he said. ``It speaks to their way of life, hanging around, waiting for something to happen - more than just drugs.''

McGregor met his wife, a French production designer named Eve Mavrakis, on the set of a British TV show in which he was playing a rapist. He claims it was love at first sight. They were married in France in a ceremony he admits he didn't understand. ``All I said was `Oui' and I'm not sure I said that at the right time. But after the ceremony, we gave a party that lasted a week.''

He has a 2-year-old daughter named Clara Mathilde. The family travels with him on each of his movie sets, but he admits, ``I like to go out. My wife likes to stay home, but it works out. But she's asleep when I leave to go to the movie set, and I often don't get back till late that night. I think differences work out. Maybe people who are the same shouldn't really live together.''

In ``A Life Less Ordinary,'' he plays a different type of screen hero - the hapless, hopeless goof-up who is a particularly inept kidnapper.

``Most actors want to play macho roles,'' director Boyle said. ``Ewan loves showing a weakness. Our test audiences show that Americans love a guy who appears to be a loser, if he isn't really a loser. That's the persona Ewan conveys.''

The theory is that American women are going to want to mother him, take care of him, hug him.

From age 9, growing up in the rural town of Crieff, Scotland, McGregor wanted to be in movies.

His father taught gym at a local boarding school, but McGregor quit school at 16 to work at a theater, where he pulled the curtain. He went to London to a drama school but quit in the third year to take a role in a TV serial.

``Shallow Grave,'' an el cheapo Scottish movie, was a surprise breakthrough (and even got a booking at Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach). He played a wisecracking newspaper reporter who promotes a plan to hide a dead body and keep the money that was found on it.

Of ``Brassed Off,'' the warm-hearted romance that had a long run locally, he said, ``I liked the politics of it. It was saying something for all those poor guys who worked in mines.''

He wasn't as enamored of his part in ``Emma,'' based on the Jane Austen novel. ``I never read the novel and I wasn't really committed to it. I don't think I was very good in it.''

Awaiting release is the thriller ``Nightwatch,'' which Miramax pictures has been holding for over a year. He plays an innocent accused of murder. ``I think they're waiting for one of my really good movies to come out and they'll release that after it.''

He's finished ``Velvet Goldmine,'' in which he plays an Iggy Pop-style rock star, and begins work soon on ``The Rise and Fall of Little Voice'' in which he plays the love interest of a misfit-girl who becomes a big-voiced singing star.

In between nonstop outside projects, he'll be making a ``Star Wars'' film every two years.

You get the feeling Ewan McGregor isn't impressed. ``It's me job,'' he said. ``It's something to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: 20th CENTURY FOX

Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz..

MIRAMAX

McGregor's role in the gritty ``Trainspotting,'' pictured, is a long

way from the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, whom he'll play in the ``Star

Wars'' prequels. KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW

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