Ewan McGregor was arguably one of the few good things about the Star Wars prequels, doing his best Alec Guinness impersonation and generally having more fun than working with George Lucas comes off as being. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be enjoying the baggage that comes with it, at least if a recent interview is to be believed.
In an interview with Details magazine, he, uh, rather undiplomatically sums up his interaction with Star Wars ‘fans’:
I don’t have any experience with [Star Wars fans]. I’ve never been to one of the conventions. The people I meet are the f***ers who want me to sign Star Wars photos so they can sell them on the Internet or the people at premieres who are crushing children against barriers to get me to sign their f***ing picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi. They’re not fans—they’re parasitical lowlifes and f***ing wankers.
Obi-Wan Kenobi should have been allowed to drop more F-bombs. This is even funnier if you hear Alec Guinness delivering it in your head. Joking aside, kudos to McGregor for realizing those guys aren’t every Star Wars fan, but still. Ouch. Don’t ask him for an autograph, we guess. As for The Phantom Menace, well, he’s a bit more even-keeled, but it is rather telling what he says:
I watched it once, at the premiere, so I’m not in a good position to judge. They had a tall order, the three films I did. The fans waited so long and wanted to feel like they did when they watched the first film, but they were grown-ups by that time. I don’t mind the criticism. I’ve heard it to my face.
Elsewhere in the interview, he more or less admits he saw the movie wasted. And he didn’t pay to see it, so we guess he’s got a reason to be more charitable than we’ve been. We could still use a refund, George, if you’re reading. Clooney does refunds for Batman and Robin, after all, and it’s really the least you can do.
