By Summer Rogers
Published: March 16, 2010

Writer/producer/director Roman Polanski releases his latest film after a five-year hiatus with his political thriller, The Ghost Writer.

Although Polanski has avoided the United States for the past 33 years (he was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1977), there is no denying he is a talented filmmaker; the Academy Award-winning director is known for his legendary films such as The Pianist (2002), Chinatown (1974) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968).

In The Ghost Writer, actor Ewan McGregor plays the title role of the Ghost, a ghost writer working on the memoir of ex-British Prime Minister, Adam Lang. While writing the memoir, the Ghost begins to dig deeper into Lang’s past and becomes entangled in a web of deceit and lies and the only way out is to discover the truth… or so he thinks.

McGregor has starred in over 39 films, including Trainspotting (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Big Fish (2003) and The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) and has a few projects already lined up for the future.

Recently, McGregor sat down with the Daily Titan to discuss the film, working with legendary filmmaker Roman Polanski and creating his phantom character, the Ghost.

Daily Titan: In Moulin Rouge! you play a “penniless poet.” in The Men Who Stare at Goats you play a journalist and in this film you play a ghost writer. Is there something that attracts you to roles where your character is a writer?

Ewan McGregor: I think the thing is that writers like to write about their writing. They really… like the world to know that it’s a really difficult and exciting profession, don’t you all? So do you all enjoy writing about yourselves and all? It is true; I’ve played a few journalists and writers.

DT: What was it like to work with Polanski?

EM: He’s an iconic man and a legendary director, so for an actor it’s quite nerve-wracking and exciting to meet him. He’s kind of two different men, I think. When you’re off set, he’s making you coffee and making sure everyone’s alright and then when you start working on the text or actually on the set, he becomes quite, um, direct. He’s very direct. His direction is not guarded or sugar-coated in any way; he’s really quit brusque almost with his direction, but the direction is always very interesting.

DT: How does Polanski’s directing style differ from other directors you’ve worked with, such as Tim Burton, George Lucas and Baz Luhrmann?

EM: I went through a process with him… we’re quite sensitive, actors, I think, and when we try something out, if it’s not considered to be good or right… Polanski wouldn’t worry about telling you that it was wrong, he didn’t do it to hurt your feelings, but I have to say, I realized very quickly that he was like that with everybody… I realized that it was not a personal thing, it’s just absolutely about his manner of how he directs.

DT: How did you create your character? Did you read the book The Ghost by Robert Harris or just the screenplay written by Harris and Polanski?

EM: I read the script first. There’s not a great deal of information about (the character) in the script or in the book. I think that’s purposely done on the part of Harris and then on the part of Harris and Polanski when they wrote the script. He’s called the Ghost and there’s kind of a ghostly quality to him; he’s in amongst all these people, but we don’t know very much about him. I didn’t feel like I needed much more than what was on the page and the script because they wrote him really clearly, I felt.

DT: What was it like working with actor Pierce Brosnan?

EM: Pierce is an actor I’ve always watched. There are a handful of actors you wonder if one day you will work with them and Pierce was always one of those. I’ve always enjoyed watching him. When Pierce arrived, we were… up near Poland and we had really bad weather problems in that we had really good weather and we needed really bad weather. So… because we had bad weather we had to shoot the scene in the private jet, which is really a big-long scene, it was a seven-page scene and Roman phoned up Pierce and said, ‘We’re thinking of maybe starting with that (scene) and is that okay?’ And Pierce said, ‘Yes, of course, that’s fine,’ and suddenly you find yourself in that little jet set, that’s quite fun to say, ‘jet set’ (smiles, laughs), and (Pierce) was on the jet set and having to wade through seven pages of dialogue with me and be directed by Polanski for the first time.

DT: You’ve sung in some of your films such as A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Down With Love (2003) and Moulin Rouge!(2001). Do you have any plans to do any musicals anytime soon?

EM: Oh maybe, I don’t know, I haven’t been offered one in a little while, but you never know.