Ewan McGregor has detailed how starring opposite his eldest daughter Clara helped heal their relationship following his 2020 divorce from her mother.
McGregor, 55, fought back tears during an interview at the Edinburgh International Film Festival as he recalled working with 30-year-old Clara on the 2024 father-daughter road trip movie Bleeding Love. He was forced to pause as he described a painful time for his family following his divorce from his first wife, production designer Eve Mavrakis.
The Trainspotting actor was married to Mavrakis from 1995 until 2017. They share daughters Clara and Esther, and adopted daughters Jamyan and Anouk. They separated in 2017. McGregor went on to marry his second wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 2022, and their son Laurie was born in 2021.
McGregor said Bleeding Love, which Clara produced and co-wrote, brought them together in a story about reconciling during an American road trip. Clara asked him to play her father in the film.
"It was a very difficult time because I had separated from Clara's mum, and divorced from Clara's mum, and it was a very painful time," he said.
Emotional toll on family
"My children were very hurt, and Clara was very hurt," McGregor said. "And Clara was, I'm grateful for it now, she was very open with me and very vocal with me."
McGregor then paused as he became emotional. He told the audience he was sorry the moment took him by surprise. Finishing his thought, he said Clara had expressed her anger very well.
"And so when she told me sometime later, after a year or two, that she was writing a story about us, I was scared that it was gonna be something like that," McGregor said.
"And when I read it, it was so beautiful and moving, and about reparation of a relationship between a father and a daughter that hadn't fully happened yet between us."
Reconciliation on screen
He said the film was an important part of that for both of them, by being set together and telling a story about an estranged daughter.
"It's not autobiographical in any way but there are masses of elements in it that are," he added.
McGregor recalled a moment where Clara had to fully let her dad have it and really tell him what she thinks of him, saying things she had said to him in reality.
"When we did these takes I could just see that she was slightly reluctant to go there and the director, the lovely Emma Westenberg, said 'do you think we've got that?' I just went 'Clara, just let me have it. Do it'."
Social media comments
McGregor's candid discussion followed speculation in 2019 that Clara had aimed a vitriolic outburst at him in the wake of his split from her mother.
In January of that year, Clara posted a picture of Mavrakis relaxing on a sun lounger in a bikini.
The caption read: "My mother, ladies and gentlemen. 50 is the new 30 apparently." A fan commented about keeping her away from boyfriends, and Clara retorted: "Nah I keep her away from a***h*** men who leave my goddess of a mother."
Clara later denied the comment was aimed at her father, stating she was merely saying her mother deserves someone who is not one.
Previous tension
It was not the first time the eldest daughter had seemingly taken a pop at her father, who took up with his Fargo co-star Winstead after splitting with Mavrakis in 2017.
In July 2018, Clara left a pointed comment under a picture of Winstead at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars after-party shared by a fan account. She wrote: "Most beautiful and talented woman on earth? Oh man y'all are delusional. The girl is a piece of trash."
Clara later apologised for her remarks, saying it was not her finest hour.
McGregor has also worked with his younger daughter Esther in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. He has starred alongside Winstead in several productions.
Speaking at the "In Conversation with Ewan McGregor" event at Edinburgh's Central Hall, he said he never stopped being a dad or a husband while filming with his loved ones.
