Happy 50th, Ewan McGregor, an Eternal Sexpot!
Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 12:08PM 
Heartthrob Ewan McGregor hasn't aged a day, even as he turns 50 today.Everyone remembers their first movie star crush. Ewan McGregor wasn’t my first love, but certainly was an early obsession. Today on his fiftieth birthday, we celebrate a movie star who still hasn’t lost his good looks, effervescent glow and boundless energy.
Ewan McGregor was born on March 31st, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. In his nearly three decades of work as an actor, McGregor has been a swoon-worthy leading man, a Jedi, and, most importantly, a juicy snack. His performances have sparked the sexual awakening of so many millennial gay men and women, including yours truly. It helps when he either sings or gets naked in every one of his movies. He can do anything (except get that Oscar nomination that has eluded him for so long). True stars only get better with age, and Ewan is no exception. After the jump some of the thirstiest Ewan McGregor moments (NSFW)...
We wouldn't kick him out of bed.
The Ghost Writer (2010)
They say never sleep with the enemy. However, Ewan McGregor's ghost writer is too adorable not to fall for. We should give thanks for Olivia Williams for luring McGregor to bed so we can get a great shot of his beautiful booty.
He even gives puppy dog eyes to a talking puppy.
Beginners (2011)
Mike Mills' Beginners earned rave reviews for Christopher Plummer's Oscar winning turn as a septagenerian who comes out late in life. However, Ewan McGregor anchors the film with a soulful performance as Oliver, the sullen son of Plummer's Hal. Though he embarks on a relationship with Melanie Laurent's Anna, he has the most chemistry with Arthur, the Jack Rusell terrier.
How could you put that smile behind bars?
We were spinning for joy during McGregor's performance as bad guy Roman in "Birds of Prey" last year.
Couple of the year: 2020 editionBirds of Prey or the Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
He’s still got it. As a nightclub owner and mob boss, McGregor oozes smarmy charisma. You want to cuddle up with him just as much as you want to run from him. He’s the type of guy your friends warn you about. His smile wins hearts and breaks them instantaneously. Bonus Points: Can we get a spinoff where Roman and his henchman Victor get to live their truth and have a happy gay life together?
Is this a nod to "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with Jude Law?
Oh sorry, didn't mean to intrude.Being Friends With Jude Law (1997 - Current)
It’s always dangerous to have hot friends. There’s always the danger that they will show you up. Few people could out-hunk Ewan McGregor, but 2004 It-Boy Jude Law is one of the few who could. Still, these photoshoots of the two UK friends deserve to be resurfaced at any opportunity possible. Thanks to Jason Adams at My New Plaid Pants for chronicling the shoot and all thirsty topics around Hollywood’s leading men.
Not everyone can get magazine covers after playing an emaciated heroin addict, but Ewan McGregor isn't everyone. 
That's one way to get our attention.
Trainspotting (1996)
It takes a lot to make debilitating heroin addiction sexy. Leave it to Ewan McGregor to shatter our expectations, and look good doing it. He emerged as an up and coming star with his performance as Renton. With a shaved head and thin frame, McGregor still managed to fill the entire frame with his enviable charisma and livewire, frenetic energy. A star was born. Plus, if all else fails, take it all off and flash your goods.
All you need is love...when you see him blush like that.
Sparks fly when McGregor and Nicole Kidman are on screen together.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
How can you not fall in love with the beaming, idealistic Christian. When I first saw the movie, my eyes twinkled like Nicole Kidman’s when McGregor started belting “Your Song” and “Elephant Love Medley.” He leans into the melodrama, making us believe that “love is like oxygen” for his penniless writer.
Ewan and Nicole posing for photos for the cover of the "Come What May" dance mix.
Variety reunited the "Moulin Rouge" stars together in 2017 for a cover shoot.
Chemistry with Nicole Kidman, on and off screen (2001 - 2017)
Why did Moulin Rouge work so well? Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor had limitless wells of chemistry. Their star crossed lovers were the things of movie star dreams. This magnetism continued to apply to their photo shoots as well. No matter how much time passes, we love to see them in the same picture together.
Yep, he could ruin my lfie.
Lucky TildaYoung Adam (2003)
Tilda Swinton doesn't just have good taste in projects, she also has great taste in men. In David Mackenzie's crime drama, McGregor stars as a suspicious drifter named Joe who ends up working on a barge. While there, he embarks on an affair with his boss' wife, Ella (Swinton).
What would you write on Ewan McGregor's body?The Pillow Book (1996)
Ewan McGregor went full frontal not once, but twice in his first major year as a global star. He stars in The Pillow Book as Jerome, a British translator who becomes a literal object of desire for Nagiko (Vivian Wu), a woman with a body writing fetish. After seeing the movie, we can completely understand.
He winks, my heart melts.
How can you watch this gif and not smile?Down with Love (2003)
Few movies pump pure seratonin into the mind quite like Peyton Reed's romantic comedy, Down with Love. Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor do their best Doris Day-Rock Hudson as an advice columnist and playboy that fall in love. Romantic entaglements are joyously fun in this light, effervescent and charming romp. More than anything, McGregor gets the sex appeal that old school movie stars used to have to exude. It's all about the power of suggestion. Let's just say we buy him as a winking lothario and just wish he would pick us up at a club.
Curt Wild stands apart as McGregor's sexiest and wildest performance.
Name a more beautiful couple. I'll wait.
Okay, yes, you deserve a standing ovation.Velvet Goldmine (1998)
The main character of Velvet Goldmine is Todd Haynes himself. The writer/director paints a beautiful, sumptuous and grand portrait of the queer, pop, punk scene of the 60s and 70s in England. The entire cast inhabits the tone that gets continually heightened by Sandy Powell's clothes and Christopher Hobbs production design. We spend the most time with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' Buddy Slade and his ascent in the music business thanks to his bewitching voice and Bowie-esque androgeny. The only person to truly gobsmack him is the ferile wild child, Curt Wild (McGregor). Once the two start collaborating, the sex appeal is off the charts. McGregor is larger than life in the role, fully realizing his star potential as both a matinee idol and a live wire liability. It's thrilling work that, yes, once again involves him stripping down.
What is your favorite Ewan McGregor performance? Which one is his sexiest? Let us know in the comments below.
Reader Comments (25)
Ewan in Moulin Rouge is my favorite. I was totally gobsmacked by that movie. I watched it for the first time a few years after it debuted. Totally in love with Nicole and Ewan, with a throbbing (pun intended) for Ewan's character, who was pure and had a lovely singing voice. (Someone told me that all the singing was dubbed, which I don't believe. Does anyone know for sure?). In addition to the wonderful singing, there was dancing too. I have watched the climax, when Ewan goes back to Nicole, dozens of times. Meanwhile, excuse me while I go watch it again.
He is absolutely FABULOUS in DOCTOR SLEEP. That speech he gives when he is accepting his chip at the AA meeting is heartbreaking stuff. When he finally reunites with Wendy at the end, is also another sublime moment.
rrrich7 -- the singing was not dubbed. That's Ewan and Nicole's voices you're hearing. but they probably lipsynched to their own playback while filming (since that's how most musicals are filmed... especially ones with lots of dancing)
bhuray -- i haven't seen that one but heard such mixed things.
Impossible to choose. Much easier to pick least favorites, least sexy (American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor).
He was, is, and always will be my number one. And if you have doubts, watch one of his "Long Way" motorcycle docs. No one can hide who they really are being filmed for months (his friend Charley certainly can't). At the worst moments during their difficult journeys, he remains kind, funny, sexy, and generous. Swoon.
He's ridiculously talented, charismatic, and good looking. His Christian is a musical performance for the ages, and one where he skillfully shares the screen with Kidman rather than hogging it. Even if I don't love the film he's in, I don't think he's every given a bad performance.
I hope we'll get to see him get a late-in-life Oscar coronation like Christopher Plummer, another talented and insanley attractive man that the academy refused to recognize until he was grey.
the only thing I have with the always excellent Ewan, is that he stole Renton's role from his friend Ewen Bremner - who had been playing him on stage - but it had the consequence of Bremner giving us TWO Oscar-worthy portrayals of Spud in both Trainspotting films. So, yeah, I love both Ewan and Ewen... which are one of my favorite actors bromances in film history, by the way...
I always give him credit for being A-OK with being naked more than any other A-list actor.
He's a one man musical tour de force in MR and snubbed for Sean Penn.
Great post! Looking at his work laid out like that, he might be my favorite actor. Love him in everything. He even exited the Star Wars prequels without any "foul stench."
I LOVE him in Begginers. He's one of my favorite actors, first saw him in Big Fish, a movie I adore. Hope he gets some awards love some day.
No Oscar love, amazingly, but he'll be one of those guys who, when he starts getting the meaty old guy roles will start nabbing nominations like Christopher Plummer. I've steadfastly avoided getting Disney+, but when that Obi Wan series starts, I'll be sorely tempted.
The best Ewan nude story is really about Colin Farrell. Farrell was going to do a nude scene in a movie at the beginning of his career (A Home at the End of the World I think) and it ended up being cut from the theatrical release. Farrell wasn't really disappointed since he apparently overheard some of the crew talking about the scene and the word was "Well, he's no Ewan McGregor!"
I absolutely adore him . When i was in drama school he was my role model. He still is one of my favorites of his generation. I'm torn between his Kurt Wild in Velvet Goldmine - my favorite film of 1998- and his beautiful , sensitive turn in Beginners. As for the sexiest, i could say all of them , but i'll give the edge to Velvet Goldmine . Dearest Ewan ....MY GIFT IS MY SONC, AND THIS ONE 'S FOR YOU ....
Awards might finally arrive now that he's officially old.
Velvet Goldmine isn't a great movie but an enjoyable one though I can understand why David Bowie and some of his glam rock luminaries had issue with it. Ewan was great in the movie. Moulin Rouge is his crowning achievement and... why didn't he get nominated for an Oscar for that film?
@Tom. I heard a VERY different story. What I heard (not saying it's true, but I heard (read) it someplace) was that Colin Farrell is SO well endowed that the audience gasped at an advanced preview and started whispering amongst themselves ("can you believe it?" "Who knew?" etc.) It threw everyone out of the film for several seconds and so they cut the shot out of the film.
@M.T. I read the same story regarding Colin Farrell's appendage and the rationale for cutting the nude scene: there were concerns that it might upstage Colin's performance and walk off with the nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I know many were disappointed when the excised FOOTage did not appear as a bonus feature on the dvd/blu-ray release. Of course, Farrell's leaked sex tape did provide the curious with an opportunity to verify whether the scene would have been too distracting and pulled audiences out of the story. Rex Reed had this to say in his review of the film:
First, A Home at the End of the World was infamous for Colin Farrell’s full-frontal nude scene. Then it was notoriously overpublicized for not showing Colin Farrell’s full-frontal nude scene. The bottle-raising, rabble-rousing, never-shaving Irish renegade who comes across as a New Age Robert Blake, addressing the issue on television, has been joking, “Without that scene, the movie is three inches shorter.” Hardly worth the fuss, I say. If all that’s missing is three inches, then the point is a flaccid one, if you know what I mean.
My favorite Ewan MacGregor is I Love You Philip Morris. His delicate little southern flower stole the show. Just his reaction when he finds out Jim Carrey (also excellent) has beaten up the guy keeping them up all night making a racket. "Why that's the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me!" still cracks me up
My favorite performance is Velvet Goldmine and his sexiest performance is all of them.
Gael Garcia Bernal and Ewan McGregor are the sexiest male smiles.
I just adore him, have had a huge crush on him since Shallow Grave, love that he's talented, ridiculously handsome and make such bold choices, my favorite ones are: Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, Velvet Goldmine, Moulin Rouge! (unforgivable Oscar snubb here), Beginners, The Impossible ( Oscar snubb alert number 2). Also have a soft spot for Down with Love & Doctor Sleep. With Ewan it doesn't matter the quality of the film Star Wars, anyone ?) he always delivers and never phones it in.
I really enjoyed his directorial debut , American Pastoral, strong performances everywhere in a unique combination of enlightening, frustrating, inspiring and depressing film.
I too am a big admirer of Ewan McGregor in the films mentioned above. His Renton is a towering achievement but I also like other films of his that were not discussed much such as Nightwatch, Shallow Grave, Big Fish, The Island, A Life Less Ordinary, The Ghost Writer, Brassed Off and Little Voice.
Shout out to Ewen Bremner's electric performances as Spud in the two Trainspotting films.
He should have been Oscar-nominated in Moulin Rouge!, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary and The Ghost Writer.
I'd add that probably Ewan and Ewen should have 2 Oscars each, right now... Ewen for both Trainspotting films (Supporting in the first, Lead in the 2nd) and Ewan one as Supporting for "I love you, Phillip Morris" (Carrey should have won Lead), and another one for "Velvet Goldmine"... and PLENTY of nominations (both Trainspotting, Moulin Rouge!, The Impossible...)
Loving the love in the comments for The Impossible. His scene on the phone was A++++. Should have been an easy Oscar nom.
Yummy, then and now. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't really start crushing on him until I saw him in...yep...the otherwise-misbegotten Star Wars prequels. I already knew who he was from Trainspotting, etc., but previously found him a bit scruffy and scrawny for my taste. Seeing him cleaned up and ready to kick ass caused me to give him another look, and I've never stopped loving him since.
(I had a similar "awakening" to the charms of Viggo Mortensen following the Lord of the Rings movies - something about a man in a cloak with a sword, pick your Freudian interpretation.)
Oh, and I remember when I found out he and Jude Law were roomies and thinking who wouldn't want to be in *THAT* sandwich!