Ewan McGregor brings directorial debut to Edinburgh

Feature by The Skinny | 25 Oct 2016

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor will attend a gala screening of his directorial debut, American Pastoral, in Edinburgh presented by Edinburgh International Film Festival

This just in: Trainspotting and Star Wars star Ewan McGregor is heading to Filmhouse on Wed 2 Nov with American Pastoral, his first effort behind the camera. 

Based on the novel by Philip Roth, McGregor also stars in the film as Seymour “Swede” Levov, a once-legendary high school athlete who is now a successful businessman married to a former beauty queen. Being that this is a Roth story, you can probably guess that there’s plenty of turmoil going on beneath this seemingly idyllic life.

The cast McGregor has assembled is impressive. The Perth-born star is joined by Jennifer Connelly, who plays Seymour’s wife; Dakota Fanning, who plays his runaway daughter; and there are also roles for Orange is the New Black’s Uzo Aduba and the ubiquitous David Strathairn.

This gala screening is presented by Edinburgh International Film Festival, with whom McGregor has long history. His first appearance at EIFF was in 1994 for Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, and he has attended EIFF with other films, such as Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine (1998), David MacKenzie’s Young Adam (2003) and Perfect Sense (2011), and most recently for Rodrigo Garcia's Last Days in the Desert, in which he plays both Jesus and the Devil.

“We are delighted to be working with Entertainment Film Distributors and Ewan McGregor on this special Edinburgh International Film Festival Gala of American Pastoral,” said EIFF artistic director Mark Adams. “Ewan is a great supporter of the festival, and talked with enthusiasm about making his directorial debut with the film when he was with us in 2015, so it is a real pleasure to welcome him and the film back to Edinburgh.”

Tickets for the gala screening are free and can be booked from 11am tomorrow via Filmhouse’s website. (Customers are limited to four tickets each).

Once you’ve your ticket, there’s the question of what to wear. We recommend taking a leaf out of Michael Shannon’s book. Here's what the Midnight Special star wore when he rocked up to the world premiere of American Pastoral at Toronto International Film Festival:


If you can pull it off, we recommend similar sartorial daring.

We also hope to see McGregor back in Edinburgh in a few months' time for the premiere of Trainspotting sequel T2, which is pencilled in for a 27 January release date.