Ewan McGregor

In a suite at London’s Claridge’s Hotel, Ewan McGregor is pulling a face of utter bewilderment as he ponders the relentless march of CGI. The man who once had to battle to keep a straight face while conversing with Jar Jar Binks gestures towards the poster for his rather more sedate new film Salmon Fishing In The Yemen. “I mean, what I don’t understand,” he sighs, “is why on earth they’ve decided to turn my trousers blue.” Back from filming the Lasse Hallström-directed rom-com on location in Morocco and Scotland, here he shares the acting advice he was given by the screenwriter Dennis Potter, his sartorial lessons from Neil Barrett and what cheating death on a motorbike taught him.