Ewan McGregor Is Still ‘Blown Away' by “Trainspotting”, Recalls 'Mad' Rise to Fame After Movie Came Out 30 Years Ago (Exclusive)

Meredith WilshereSun, June 7, 2026 at 8:29 PM UTC

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Ewan McGregor in 'Trainspotting'Credit: Figment/Noel Gay/Channel 4/Kobal/Shutterstock -

Ewan McGregor recently rewatched Trainspotting and praised its timeless vitality and artistic impact

McGregor reflected on the film's cultural significance as a quintessentially British and Scottish success in the 1990s

A 4K restoration of Trainspotting was released in select theaters on June 5, 2026, for its 30th anniversary

Ewan McGregor is still very proud to be part of Trainspotting, which thrust him into international stardom in his 20s.

While catching up with PEOPLE ahead of the film's 4K rerelease in honor of the 30th anniversary, McGregor shares that he rewatched the film "not very long ago."

"It was shown somewhere, and I sat in and watched it, and I saw it on the big screen. I hadn't seen it for years and years and years," the 55-year-old says. "And I wrote to Danny [Boyle] afterwards, and I'm not in touch with Danny all the time, so it was a rare occasion, but I wrote to him just to say how amazing a film it was."

McGregor shares that, even decades later, he was "blown away by how good a movie it is."

"A lot of things that I would've made 30 years ago or 25 years ago or 20 years ago, they might have dated, or what was thought relevant then might not be relevant now in terms of cinema technique, but Trainspotting felt like it felt then," he adds. "It doesn't feel like it's lost any of its vitality at all."

Ewan McGregor in 'Trainspotting'Credit: Figment/Noel Gay/Channel 4/Kobal/Shutterstock

The Boyle-directed film is based on the seminal best-selling novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh and stars McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald. Trainspotting follows McGregor's Mark Renton, a man struggling with a heroin addiction, trying to clean up his act despite being immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene alongside his friends.

When recently watching the 1996 project back, McGregor says, "I just loved it."

"I think the characters are so amazing, and there's something just so right about all of it. The music, the words, the cast, Brian [Tufano]'s shots. Danny's an artist, he's trying to find the story," McGregor says. "He goes about it in a way that's almost lost now, in terms of having the actors explore a scene, and then feeling the scene, and then deciding how he was going to shoot that."

On working with Boyle, the Moulin Rouge actor says that the filmmaker "set the bar really high for me of what to expect, from the satisfaction that you can expect artistically from working as an actor with a director, and exploring a character through scenes and storytelling."

"I'm in awe of the fact that I got the chance to do it with him early in my career," McGregor adds.

It wasn't lost on McGregor that the film he and Boyle were making was quintessentially British, yet just so happened to resonate across the pond.

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"It was such a massive moment in time in Britain. What was nice was that it was an international success. We didn't make it to pander to America. We made it as a British film and really a Scottish film," he says. "We didn't shy away from the accents, or the violence, or the character, the humor that is so Scottish, so British — so Scottish really — the humor in it."

"The fact that we did that meant that it belonged to us in Britain. It was a hit, but it was our hit," he adds.

He notes that the film came at a peak time for British culture, thanks to the popularity of Oasis, Blur, Pulp and The Verve — and they "became the movie version of that."

Ewan McGregor in 'Trainspotting'Credit: Liam Longman/Figment/Noel Gay/Channel 4/Kobal/Shutterstock

"Me and Jonny Miller lived together with Jude Law at the time. We would go out like we were the Rolling Stones or something. We'd walk into clubs, and it was like we were a band; people would lose their minds, and it was mad that it was happening to us," he shares. "It felt amazing for a while. And then we had to spend many years coming to terms with it, I suppose, the fact that when people come up, and they call me Rent Boy, or Rents, or ... I love it because I know they were there and they were part of that time."

Despite having a long and storied career where he can be recognized for a multitude of projects, McGregor shares that "when someone mentions Trainspotting, it's nice, it's different."

Before signing onto the project, the actor had also worked with director Boyle and cinematographer Tufano on 1994's Shallow Grave. McGregor first gained critical attention in the UK for his role in the thriller, so he felt "really confident" signing onto another project and "never doubted" the success of Trainspotting.

"I also just loved Danny so much, and I had unshakable trust in him," he tells PEOPLE. "So I felt for sure, I don't know if I could have imagined it would've done what I did do, but at the same time, I never doubted that it wouldn't be a great film."

The film, which turned 30 on June 5, was released in select theaters in a 4K restoration, which was supervised by Boyle, in honor of the milestone anniversary.

McGregor admits the anniversary is "quite emotional."

"We were all so young when we did it, and I see that absolute commitment. Two of my daughters are actors as well now. And I see that passion in them that I remember from my early 20s, and I still love what I do, but I'm sure it's not the same somehow. It must have changed and aged as I have," McGregor shares.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”