A Quote by Ewan McGregor

For the actors, there's something very important about that first showing of the scene to the crew, becomes like a little performance. — © Ewan McGregor
For the actors, there's something very important about that first showing of the scene to the crew, becomes like a little performance.
Working crew made me realise that the actors are a very small part of a very big machine, with each part being vital to make the show work. It so important to remember that it's not about you, it's about the show, and working crew hammered that point home to me.
Music is very helpful, not just for the actors, but the whole crew and myself. It gives you the tone of the scene. Everyone is focused on the tone of the scene when we are shooting, and we are having an emotional reaction to the music immediately.
But when there were certain moments or scenes that required a very specific nuance or performance, I myself would act out the scene or the sequence and that would inspire the actors. Of course, I can't really express emotions on camera, but I was very active in showing a certain action or a blocking for an actor. I would also participate in certain stunts myself and because of that, I would get bruises or cuts on my knees and elbows.
The Ramones were a great bunch of guys. They were very quiet, very shy. They were a little in awe of the filmmaking process, probably because we started at 7 a.m. I do remember the very first day of shooting, I met them and did the scene in the bedroom where Joey sings to me, and they were all scattered around my bedroom in my little fantasy scene. That was the first scene we shot of the movie. That scene is kind of a strange way to start a movie. "Okay, get undressed, and these weird guys in leather jackets and ripped jeans are going to sing to you."
There's a way in which I feel like, when you're on an enormous film and there's an enormous crew and there are three cameras and there are like 20 setups for every scene, first of all, it's very... I find it very intimidating. And it's also sort of deadening in a way.
As actors, you have to keep showing variety in performance, as people are lazy to think about you in a different way.
I like to think in camera, but at the last minute the most important thing is that there is something happening between the actors. But good actors can have a lot of scenes going around them but sometimes it sort of helps the performance because it takes their mind off of who they are supposed to be.
The great thing about first-time actors is that they listen. If you say something in a scene, they were listening to it. They weren't thinking about the return line.
I love actors. Part of that is my theater background and being a writer who cares about performance. Actors have usually chosen their profession because they have a dream of doing it and they want to express something about the world. That's the same thing that I have with writing. Most of the good actors get into it for those reason, rather than for reasons of fame or fortune, or anything like that, and that's where I'm coming from, as a storyteller.
In the past, I didn't speak up about the issues concerning the film crew. I was busy memorizing my lines and trying to maintain the continuity. But I've come to realize that it's really important for us, as actors, to encourage the crew and create the perfect atmosphere so that they can bring out the best in themselves.
I love actors and I understand what has to happen within a scene. Any scene is an acting scene and actors never act alone, so there has to be an interchange. If it's a dialog scene, if it's a love scene, it doesn't matter because you need to establish a situation.
I feel like I'm doing something that's worthwhile. I feel like I'm showing something other people haven't shown. I don't get to talk to the people who I photograph, I just go, along, banging away. So I don't really have a relationship with them. A lot of people think it's very important. I don't. It's like love at first sight. I have an impression when I see somebody, and I have an idea of who they are, or what they are.
Your crew becomes your family and you trust the director and the other actors on the set, and it's a very safe place.
The actor's relationship to the crew is really a big dynamic that influences everything. When actors are assholes, it becomes problematic. When actors are great and sensitive and prepared, it makes a huge difference.
Every day, every scene, you were like, "My god. I'm doing a scene with Brian Cox today and then I'm onto a scene with Stephen Rea." For us young actors, I think we were all very, very star-struck and impressed by the caliber of everyone who came out.
Because of the way that I work with the actors and because a scene is not in this rigid and literal interpretation of something written, I can constantly change stuff, which means I can get a scene absolutely perfect, and then when we go to shoot it, the requirements of the shot mean it would be useful to extend the dialogue or take a line out or swap things around. So the camera doesn't serve the action. The action serves the camera. That's important. So it becomes more and more organic and integrated.
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