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The first time that Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shot a scene collectively, they have been in a tub, largely bare. McGregor, in a maximally unflattering wig, was sticking his intestine out so far as it could go.
“You have been simply making an attempt to be as grotesque as you would be,” Winstead stated 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 are additionally each members within the “Star Wars” franchise — McGregor within the ’90s and ’00s movies and the more moderen “Obi-Wan Kenobi” collection, Winstead in “Ahsoka” — although once more they didn’t share scenes. In 2021, Winstead gave delivery to their son. The subsequent yr, 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 Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, a mustached aristocrat sentenced to deal with arrest in a luxurious resort within the years following the Russian Revolution. Winstead seems as Anna Urbanova, an actress and the depend’s generally girlfriend. Somehow, 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 cherished 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. At the center 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 seek out who he actually is.
MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD You had hinted, cheekily, that there was an important feminine character in there. Reading the e-book, I simply thought, ‘Oh my God, what an important, juicy alternative that will be to play her.’ But 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 person suppose I used to be making an attempt to get one thing out of being married to you. I simply wished to quietly say, “I feel it’s an important function when you suppose I’m proper for it.”
Did you ever fear that it could 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, fairly than pyrotechnics.
Did you develop your individual mustache?
MCGREGOR I needed to. I couldn’t have a stuck-on mustache. I’ve had them prior to now and so they’re horrible to put on. You are available 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 stick it on and it stops you from shifting your face. The very last thing you wish to be eager about if you’re performing is just not shifting. So I grew my very own.
During the strike, I didn’t know once we’d be going again, so I simply grew a beard round it. Because you don’t desire a mustache in your actual life. I imply, you do when you like mustaches, however I don’t.
Tell me about Alexander.
MCGREGOR He’s an aristocrat. He loved the excessive lifetime of his class at the moment. Then it’s taken away throughout 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 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 objective. She does dangle in there, even when she’s not at all times a star. That has to depend for one thing.
They have an outstanding meet-cute, when the depend tames Anna’s Russian wolfhounds. What’s their preliminary attraction?
WINSTEAD I immediately discover him very intriguing. The means that he handles my canines, it sparks a bit of 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 attention-grabbing 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 understand they’re in love. There’s one thing lovely about that sluggish development. Especially for Anna. She resists that feeling. But it hits her like a wave.
I perceive that you simply didn’t know one another earlier than “Fargo.” But Mary, is it true that you simply had a crush on him as a young person?
WINSTEAD The factor is, when you have been a young person when “Trainspotting” and “Moulin Rouge” got here out, I don’t suppose you would not have an consciousness. But I didn’t have any posters on my wall. I wasn’t writing his title in my pocket book.
Good, that will be creepy. What was it like working collectively on “Fargo”?
WINSTEAD We cherished it.
MCGREGOR We did. It was superb writing. I really feel like there have been two exhibits as a result of I performed the 2 characters. But our story line was superb. To play Ray and Nikki, what an important pair, what an important partnership, what an important 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, “Yes.” And that made it a lot extra attention-grabbing, to play a grifter with a coronary heart, as tacky as that sounds. So far more enjoyable to have one thing actual on the middle of it.
Mary, earlier you alluded to a draw back of working collectively, in that folks would possibly suppose you have been provided a task for causes aside from your expertise.
WINSTEAD Of course, there’s at all times going to be one particular person 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 folks wish to work with me. When we have been first collectively, I used to be up for a task in one thing that he was in. They have been nervous we might deliver some kind of drama to the set, which we thought was very humorous as a result of we’re not very dramatic individuals. But you must let time cope with that. Now it’s clear that we’re a fairly levelheaded couple, that we’re not going round smashing vases. Other than that, it’s actually been simply upsides, which is that individuals who know us and like our work are completely happy and excited to place us collectively sometimes, which is a very fortunate factor for us.
MCGREGOR There’s no draw back when it comes to really doing it. It’s solely nice to go to work collectively, get to work collectively, come house collectively. It’s nearly as good because it could possibly 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 firstly of the story. After they’ve spent the night time collectively, she gained’t communicate to him or have 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 an incredible factor. It’s identical to, Oh, I’m right here in entrance of my accomplice. So I’ll simply let all these emotions wash over.
Did you want him with that mustache?
WINSTEAD You know, I did. I did for a very long time. But I did begin to miss his face beneath it.
Will you’re employed collectively once more?
WINSTEAD I don’t know.
MCGREGOR (concurrently) Yes!
WINSTEAD We hope so. It’s nearly discovering the appropriate lovely factor.
