Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive for rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2001 and the presenter was Sue Lolli.

My cast away this week is an actor, great talent accompanied by charm and self-confidence has carried him on a giddy journey from Perth Rep to Hollywood.

His feet, however, remain firmly on the ground. The star of train spotting, shallow grave and star wars will not be impressed by new woman magazines verdict that he's the seventh most fanciable man in the world.

Though only 30, he's already retired from the stage once. That was when he was five on the grounds that there was no point in acting until he could do it properly.

He's doing it properly now as anyone who's seen him acting and singing in his latest film, Moulin Rouge will testify, but he remains wary.

The bigger you get, he says, the more you're paid, the more it isolates you. He is you and McGregor.

Do you mean isolates you just on set when you're filming you and what do you mean in life in general?

I think in terms of your work, it's a big danger that you suddenly, you're in a big hit film like Moulin Rouge and then suddenly you're getting lots of scripts that are absolute garbage.

There's a sense that now you've done Moulin Rouge. Now you've really got to be a big star in America, which is something I've never been particularly interested in. It's never been my drive.

I've read that you've said that quite often, but is that true?

Absolutely true. The scripts I've been reading recently are big romantic comedies in the States and whatever, which is kind of a path that a lot of people go to to become a star in the States.

But doing a cookie American romantic comedy isn't anything to do with me.

So on that basis, then, who you are is somebody who likes being part of a, you like that ensemble playing.

I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I

do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I do very much. I play very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very

until I'm doing properly.

You really did think that?

I thought this is silly, and I wait till I'm doing properly.

And yet it was your dream to do properly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And never ever was going to do anything else.

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