Ewan McGregor calls posing for fans' selfies 'a soulless thing'
Ewan McGregor says he moved away from the U.K. to the U.S. because he’d grown so tired of people asking him to take “soulless” selfies with him.
During an appearance on the Sunday Sitdown podcast, the Scottish star recalled how it got so difficult for him to travel around London without fans shoving cameras in his face, he made a habit of “walking very fast” and keeping his “head down” whenever he’d venture outside alone.
“I don’t want to have to not walk down the street,” the 48-year-old explained. “There are some places where it is easier to do than others. It got harder for me in London, and I don’t live in London anymore ... maybe as a result.”
The Star Wars actor was quick to note that he’s “always happy” for people to approach him out in public — if they want to discuss his work, that is. But he finds the impersonal nature of spending just one second with someone, just so they can take a photo and post it on social media, rather meaningless.
“You stand and you take the photograph and they’re happy and off they go. It’s a soulless thing. There’s no exchange of anything,” McGregor said. “Before it used to be, ‘Oh I saw you in that movie.’ Even if people didn’t like something, especially in Scotland, I’d get, ‘That movie you were in was s***, by the way.’
“At least there was some sort of exchange,” he laughed. “But that’s turned into just the selfie now.”
McGregor can currently be seen on the big screen in comic book movie Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey opposite Rosie Perez, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, real-life girlfriend Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Messina and Margot Robbie.
In the film, he stars as Roman Sionis, a suavely dressed bar owner-turned-mobster who goes after Robbie’s titular anti-hero.
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