Ewan McGregor gunning for James Bond role

03-Aug-2005 • Casino Royale

Scottish actor Ewan McGregor has admitted he would love to be the next James Bond - if he could find the time.

The Scot claims getting 007's licence to kill would be 'brilliant fun', but would worry about the overall effect on his career - reports the Daily Record.

Star Wars actor McGregor, who is currently starring in futuristic thriller The Island with Scarlett Johansson, is the latest Hollywood favourite to express an interest in Bond.

Sin City's Clive Owen, Fantastic Four star Ioan Gruffudd, Daniel Craig of Layer Cake fame and ER's Goran Visnjic are among others tipped to replace Pierce Brosnan.

McGregor, Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, insists he hasn't been approached about the role but he said: 'I think Bond would be brilliant fun.'

'You'd have to look into precisely how much time it takes.

'With Star Wars, we did a three-month shoot and a couple of weeks of pick-ups so it wasn't an enormous involvement.

'But with Bond, I suppose it's a much longer shoot and there's a massive amount of publicity.

'I would worry about not being able to do any other work because I like to mix it up.'

Speaking to Dreamwatch magazine, McGregor also claimed that movie-making is not as glamorous as it seems.

Filming stunts for The Island with Sean Bean, Ewan was left hanging on cables for hours.

And he said: 'That's simply miserable because you're in a harness and it's extremely painful between your legs

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.