‘I’m always Scottish!’ Ewan McGregor slaps down patriotic criticism after ditching UK for America
Ewan McGregor recently defended his reason as to why he left Scotland at the age of 17 to kickstart his career before moving permanently to the US.
McGregor has starred in some of the biggest films in the industry including Moulin Rouge! Trainspotting, Star Wars and Doctor Sleep.
He was born and raised in Perth, Scotland and from a young age, his parents encouraged him to leave school and pursue his acting goals rather than be unhappy.
To succeed, he packed up his life and began the road to stardom, but some have slammed the star for leaving his Scottish roots behind – something he had fiercely defended.
“I left Scotland at 17 to go to drama school in London. I haven’t lived in Britain since 2008, I’ve been living in the States.”
“It was hard to leave Scotland. There’s a sense you’re turning your back. People in Scotland to this day tell me to remember where I come from.
“I know where I come from! I don’t need anybody to remind me. It’s this feeling of you’re not Scottish enough. I’m Scottish wherever I am in the world. I’m always Scottish!,” he told Radio Times.
McGregor recently returned to live in Scotland after splashing out more than £2million on a mansion in his home town.
The 18th-century country retreat has more than 18 acres of land and gardens and is just a 35-minute drive from Crieff where the star grew up.
Records show that McGregor bought the Category C-listed 10-bedroom property last May and comes with a gates lodge and courtyard of outbuildings.
Last year, he opened up about missing Scotland and told the Comic Con exhibition in Edinburgh last year: “What I miss the most about Scotland, is of course my family.
“My mum and dad and my brother (Colin) and his wife Sarah and my nephew and my niece. I miss the landscape. I miss the air in Scotland. I miss the smell of rain, the smell of the green and the colours of Scotland.”
He recently revealed that he will scale back his acting career to spend more time at home with his wife and son.
The Christopher Robin actor added he is “very much in love” with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and their two-year-old son Laurie – explaining he doesn’t want to spend long periods away from them.
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McGregor’s upcoming project sees him take on the role of Count Alexander Rostov in the new Netflix series A Gentleman in Moscow.
Rostov is deemed an unrepentant by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.
Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors.
Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.