The primary time that Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shot a scene collectively, they have been in a tub, principally bare. McGregor, in a maximally unflattering wig, was sticking his intestine out so far as it will go.
“You have been simply attempting to be as grotesque as you can be,” Winstead mentioned affectionately.
This was on a latest afternoon within the chilly basement of a midtown resort the place McGregor and Winstead perched on a love seat, his jacket over his shoulders, his hand on her knee. They met in 2017, on the set of the third season of “Fargo,” co-starring as Ray Stussy, a hapless parole officer, and Nikki Swango, his grifter sweetheart. (McGregor additionally performed Emmit Stussy, Ray’s twin.) Two years later, in 2019, they filmed “Birds of Prey” however didn’t share scenes. They’re additionally each individuals within the “Star Wars” franchise — McGregor within the ’90s and ’00s movies and the more moderen “Obi-Wan Kenobi” sequence, Winstead in “Ahsoka” — although once more they didn’t share scenes. In 2021, Winstead gave beginning to their son. The subsequent 12 months, they married.
Now, they’ve reunited onscreen for “A Gentleman in Moscow,” which premiered Friday on Paramount+ and debuts Sunday on Showtime. An adaptation of Amor Towles’s novel, it stars McGregor as Rely Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a mustached aristocrat sentenced to accommodate arrest in a luxurious resort within the years following the Russian Revolution. Winstead seems as Anna Urbanova, an actress and the rely’s generally girlfriend. In some way, within the confines of the resort, they make a life.
In an hourlong dialog, in a resort considerably extra modest than Moscow’s Metropol, they mentioned claustrophobia, facial hair and the advantages and detriments of working with a partner. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
How did you become involved with “A Gentleman in Moscow”?
EWAN MCGREGOR It got here to me first. I liked the grand nature of the drama, the love and loss and romance. I really feel prefer it’s rarer and rarer to get an opportunity to play that stuff. On the coronary heart of it, it’s a few man who’s studying to be a husband and studying to be a dad and crawling out of his concepts of the aristocratic lifestyle to search out who he actually is.
MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD You had hinted, cheekily, that there was an incredible feminine character in there. Studying the e book, I simply thought, ‘Oh my God, what an incredible, juicy alternative that may be to play her.’ However I used to be very tentative as a result of the very last thing I wished was to attempt to win a task after which have any individual suppose I used to be attempting to get one thing out of being married to you. I simply wished to quietly say, “I believe it’s an incredible position if you happen to suppose I’m proper for it.”
Did you ever fear that it will really feel claustrophobic, capturing in these few resort rooms?
MCGREGOR It needed to really feel like that. It ought to really feel like that. It focuses a magnifying glass on these characters.
WINSTEAD That’s one of many nice issues about confined areas. As an actor, it’s thrilling as a result of there’s nowhere to go however into the phrases. It’s nice to know that’s going to be the main focus, reasonably than pyrotechnics.
Did you develop your personal mustache?
MCGREGOR I needed to. I couldn’t have a stuck-on mustache. I’ve had them prior to now they usually’re horrible to put on. You are available in within the morning, you’ve needed to shave and then you definitely put glue on that shaved pores and skin, which is [expletive] horrible. Then you definately stick it on and it stops you from transferring your face. The very last thing you need to be eager about while you’re performing shouldn’t be transferring. So I grew my very own.
Throughout the strike, I didn’t know once we’d be going again, so I simply grew a beard round it. Since you don’t desire a mustache in your actual life. I imply, you do if you happen to like mustaches, however I don’t.
Inform me about Alexander.
MCGREGOR He’s an aristocrat. He loved the excessive lifetime of his class at the moment. Then it’s taken away in the course of the revolution. He’s allowed to dwell, however the remainder of his class is destroyed. So he’s considerably misplaced.
And what about Anna? Is she a very good actress?
WINSTEAD Anna believes that she is. I do suppose she takes it very significantly. It’s one thing optimistic in her life that offers her a way of function. She does hold in there, even when she’s not at all times a star. That has to rely for one thing.
They’ve an outstanding meet-cute, when the rely tames Anna’s Russian wolfhounds. What’s their preliminary attraction?
WINSTEAD I immediately discover him very intriguing. The way in which that he handles my canine, it sparks a little bit one thing. Our repartee makes me additional intrigued. Then listening to about him and figuring out that he’s imprisoned on this resort, the thriller is fascinating to me as a girl who will get bored very simply by most males that I’m round. Over time, that results in a lot, far more.
It’s so beautiful how a lot time it takes. It’s a few years into their relationship earlier than they notice they’re in love. There’s one thing lovely about that gradual development. Particularly for Anna. She resists that feeling. However it hits her like a wave.
I perceive that you just didn’t know one another earlier than “Fargo.” However Mary, is it true that you just had a crush on him as a teen?
WINSTEAD The factor is, if you happen to have been a teen when “Trainspotting” and “Moulin Rouge” got here out, I don’t suppose you can not have an consciousness. However I didn’t have any posters on my wall. I wasn’t writing his identify in my pocket book.
Good, that may be creepy. What was it like working collectively on “Fargo”?
WINSTEAD We liked it.
MCGREGOR We did. It was superb writing. I really feel like there have been two reveals as a result of I performed the 2 characters. However our story line was superb. To play Ray and Nikki, what an incredible pair, what an incredible partnership, what an incredible oddball couple.
WINSTEAD I bear in mind assembly with Noah [Hawley, the showrunner] and my solely query was, “Does she actually love him?” And he was like, “Sure.” And that made it a lot extra fascinating, to play a grifter with a coronary heart, as tacky as that sounds. A lot extra enjoyable to have one thing actual on the middle of it.
Mary, earlier you alluded to a draw back of working collectively, in that individuals may suppose you have been supplied a task for causes apart from your expertise.
WINSTEAD After all, there’s at all times going to be one individual on the web who makes that remark, however I’m safe sufficient to not fear about that as a result of I do know the reality, which is that individuals need to work with me. Once we have been first collectively, I used to be up for a task in one thing that he was in. They have been apprehensive we’d convey some kind of drama to the set, which we thought was very humorous as a result of we’re not very dramatic individuals. However you need to let time take care of that. Now it’s clear that we’re a reasonably levelheaded couple, that we’re not going round smashing vases. Aside from that, it’s actually been simply upsides, which is that individuals who know us and like our work are glad and excited to place us collectively often, which is a very fortunate factor for us.
MCGREGOR There’s no draw back by way of truly doing it. It’s solely nice to go to work collectively, get to work collectively, come house collectively. It’s pretty much as good because it may very well be, actually.
What was it like working collectively this time?
MCGREGOR It made it a lot extra enjoyable to play all of the cold-shoulder stuff at the start of the story. After they’ve spent the evening collectively, she received’t communicate to him or take a look at him.
WINSTEAD Then the later stuff, when issues get deep, it was very emotional. I can’t speak about it with out crying. It was simply all there, which is a tremendous factor. It’s identical to, Oh, I’m right here in entrance of my associate. So I’ll simply let all these emotions wash over.
Did you want him with that mustache?
WINSTEAD , I did. I did for a very long time. However I did begin to miss his face beneath it.
Will you’re employed collectively once more?
WINSTEAD I don’t know.
MCGREGOR (concurrently) Sure!
WINSTEAD We hope so. It’s nearly discovering the proper lovely factor.