Ewan McGregor has admitted that he used to show his kids the traumatic toilet scene from Trainspotting “for a laugh”.
The Scottish actor was 25 when he starred in Danny Boyle’s 1996 film about a group of friends living in poverty and struggling with addiction in Edinburgh.
In one of the film’s most infamous scenes, Ewan’s character is forced to use “the worst toilet in Scotland” and imagines himself climbing into it.
Speaking at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic on Sunday (2 July), the 52-year-old actor was asked about his relationship with daughter Clara, 27, who is also an actor.
“I wasn’t there when Clara watched Trainspotting for the first time,” he told Variety.
“But I did used to show my kids the toilet scene. Just for a laugh. It’s a unique situation, perhaps, for a father to be able to show his children footage of him going down the toilet.”
However, he was there when Clara first watched Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, which Ewan also starred in opposite Nicole Kidman.
“I have a memory of showing Clara Moulin Rouge!, however. I think she was 9 years old,” he said.
McGregor was 25 when he filmed ‘Trainspotting'— (Miramax)
“I put it on, and then I hear this wailing and crying. I rushed in, asking if I should switch it off and she went, ‘Noooo!’”
Ewan has five children, four of whom he shares with ex-wife Eve Mavrakis.
The couple separated in 2017, with the Scottish actor now in a relationship with his Fargo co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The pair welcomed their first child in 2021 and married a year later.
Ewan and Clara were in the Czech Republic for the premiere of You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder, a new film in which they star as a father and daughter.
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Last year, Ewan reprised the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars spin-off series named after the character.
Speaking around the TV show’s launch, however, he admitted that he’d considered turning down the original Star Wars prequel trilogy because they were too mainstream.
“It came right after that Trainspotting period and by that time I was so full of myself,” he said.
Joking about his mentality at the time, Ewan said he thought: “I am Danny Boyle’s actor. I am f***ing urban grunge. I am the Oasis of the British movie industry.”
