Ewan McGregor Says It Was ‘Daunting’ To Play Jesus
The Scottish actor stars as the son of God in “Last Days In The Desert.”
Scottish actor Ewan McGregor has
played many beloved roles, but his latest may be the most iconic yet.
In “Last Days in the Desert,” a new film by
Colombian director Rodrigo Garcia, McGregor takes on the monumental task of
portraying both Jesus Christ and his nemesis, Lucifer — arguably two of the
most well-known figures of Western religion.
Ewan McGregor plays Jesus and Lucifer in “Last Days in the
Desert.”
Actors can usually tell within the
first few pages of a script whether it’s going to be a good fit for them,
McGregor said in a recent interview with The Huffington Post. When he began
reading the script for “Last Days in the Desert,” he recognized the
challenge and signed on right away.
The film, which hits theaters on
May 13, opens with austerity. A “holy man” roams the desert carrying little
more than a jug of water. He sleeps, walks, drinks, and gazes questioningly
into the distance.
Several scenes later, when Lucifer
reveals himself to Jesus in the holy man’s own form, the action begins.
“When [the script] arrived I had no
idea what it was about,” McGregor said. “Nobody speaks for first three or
four pages.”
Eventually, McGregor said he
realized who this “holy man” was and that he was being invited to play a
character who actors have been trying to capture on the big screen for decades. “I was totally
hooked in,” he told HuffPost.
In the Christian gospel, Jesus goes into the Judean Desert to fast and pray for 40 days
after being baptized by John. During this time, Satan tempts Jesus in a
series of three conversations, but Jesus resists his wiles. Garcia’s film
fleshes out this narrative by introducing an imagined chapter of Jesus’s time
in the desert.
We encounter Jesus, who is referred
to by his Hebrew name Yeshua in the film, toward the end of his 40 days when he
happens upon a family in the wilderness. He becomes enmeshed in their lives for
several days, hoping to remedy the internal conflicts between father, mother
and son. All the while Lucifer baits him, trying to distract him from his path.
Christian theology presents Jesus as equal parts human and
divine — a theme the film explores in the character of Yeshua.
Despite his excitement to play the
roles of Yeshua and Lucifer, McGregor said it was intimidating to play the son
of God.
“It’s daunting to be approaching a
piece of work where you’re playing Jesus Christ, very daunting. It took up most
of my thoughts in terms of the two characters.”
McGregor said he focused more of
his preparatory work on the Jesus character, reading everything about the
founding figure of Christianity that he could get his hands on.
“Many of the most recent books were
trying to disprove the ‘son of God’ nature of his life and were writing more
about who he might actually have been. [But] I was portraying Jesus who is the
son of God,” McGregor said.
Christian theology presents Jesus
as equal parts human and divine, which can present challenges to
filmmakers.
“I have no idea how you write God,”
Garcia said on a recent call with reporters. “So I focused on the human side.”
The human side of Jesus would undoubtedly be tired, hungry, and insecure after
40 days of fasting, the director said. And that’s the Jesus he tried to
depict.
“We were showing the human side to
him, exploring the human side of a young rabbi who is aware of the path that’s
been set in front of him,” McGregor said.
“When I started thinking about
those real human qualities about communicating with his father… I found him
there. I found a truth to those sides of his character. [But] I was always
mindful of that fact that I was playing Jesus whose father is God.”
Ewan McGregor, as Yeshua, chats with director Rodrigo Garcia
on set for “Last Days in the Desert,” shot by acclaimed
cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (far right).
The theological implications of the
film were not lost on McGregor or Garcia, though neither says he is particularly religious. At a recent
screening of the film at a church in Los Angeles, the church’s reverend said
that the character of Jesus had altered his feelings about the gospel.
McGregor’s Jesus is empathetic, frustrated and often confused — not the
infallible godhead we might imagine him to be.
When HuffPost relayed the
reverend’s sentiments to McGregor, the actor let out a deep exhale and said he
understood the responsibility that came with playing Jesus.
“You can’t approach something like
that without being a little freaked out by the nature of it,” McGregor said.
While he didn’t set out to satisfy everyone else’s expectations for the role,
the actor said he tried to do justice to Christian theology.
“I’m very proud that people are
responding to the Yeshua in this story in a way that makes them feel that it’s
the Jesus they recognize from their own imaginings of him,” he told HuffPost.
“That I’m very proud of.”
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