The 'Trainspotting' actor finds experimenting with drugs for on-screen roles 'really disrespectful' to the real-life people who are struggling with addictions.
- Sep 4, 2022
AceShowbiz - Ewan McGregor almost smoked heroin for real to get himself ready for his role in "Trainspotting". Shooting to international fame playing unemployed addict Mark Renton in Danny Boyle's 1996 movie, the actor has now revealed he didn't think he would be able to play a junkie successfully without dabbing in drugs himself - but changed his mind after meeting a number of people battling real life addiction issues in the run up to filming.
"At first, early on, I thought, 'How can you play a heroin addict without having taken it?' I was young and I thought, 'F*** it, just do it.' And also John Hodge, our writer, was a doctor, so I thought he could probably get us some and administer it so we don't die," Ewan explained on the "Smart-Less" podcast.
He went on, "I didn't do heroin and I've never done it but I did think about it. It did cross my mind and I did say to Danny (Boyle) 'Do you think we should do it?' I thought I'd do it with Danny I just wanted to get f****d up with Danny."
"But we didn't. Because, of course, as soon as we started the first thing I remember doing was meeting heroin addicts in Glasgow.' But it just really became apparent that that was a really disrespectful idea to the people we were working with."
Ewan went on to reprise the role of Renton in 2017 sequel "T2 Trainspotting". There's now a new "[tTrainspotting]" TV spin-off said to be in the works with Robert Carlyle reprising his role as Francis Begbie. The new series is said to be based on "The Blade Artist" by "Trainspotting" writer Irvine Welsh, who insisted he will be delighted to see Robert return to the role.
He told Deadine.com, "Begbie is Begbie and Robert is the long-term friend and collaborator who inspirationally brought the character to life with his incendiary portrayal. To say I'm excited at us reuniting creatively on this project is obviously something of an understatement."
