Why Ewan has turned his back on Hollywood ... and forked out £2m to go back to his roots
It was a bustling Friday night in January at Mae Ping Thai, a Thai restaurant on Perth’s South Street, when a handsome man with a thick beard came in for dinner.
Owner Nongmay Buncharoen thought at once that his face was so familiar, he must be a regular.
‘When he came in I asked if he had been here before because I thought I recognised him,’ she later said.
‘He had a massive smile and giggled. He said: “No I’ve never been here before”.’
It was only later on, when a friend who had been sitting at the next table messaged asking if Buncharoen knew who she was serving, that the penny dropped.
The mysterious diner was none other than Ewan McGregor.
The film star’s £2million property in rural Perthshire
Happy couple Ewan McGregor with his wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead
The Carse of Gowrie property has been completely renovated
‘I thought he was maybe just from somewhere out of town because he had a strong Scottish accent,’ she said.
Out of town is right. For decades McGregor has lived on the other side of the world, making his home in Los Angeles with ex-wife Eve Mavrakis and their four daughters.
Now, however, after so many years away and with a new wife and son in tow, it would seem McGregor is finally reconnecting with his Scottish roots.
Last year, McGregor and his second wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead purchased a £2million home in rural Perthshire, and have spent the past 12 months lovingly restoring it.
For McGregor it is certainly a homecoming. He grew up in the town of Crieff, in Strathearn, where he attended the local private school Morrison’s and where his parents still live.
And since snapping up the property he has been spotted out and about in a number of local haunts.
In January, he was seen on Dundee Waterfront outside a street food van where he bought a coffee, a doughnut and a bagel (‘he was very nice and looks just like he does in the movies’, owner Chris Heather later reported), while later in the month he stopped by Perth double glazing firm Balhousie Glazing to thank staff for installing windows at his new home.
According to Jane Bertie, finance director at Balhousie, he was ‘friendly and very down to earth. He made time to talk to the staff.’
Then it was off to T Paterson Jewellers on Perth High Street and while it’s not clear whether he purchased anything, staff later said it was an ‘exciting day’.
Anyone would think McGregor was trying to blend in with the locals.
McGregor’s return to Scotland has certainly been a long time coming.
He left the country at 17 to go to drama school in London where he then settled following his breakthrough success in Danny Boyle films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, and hasn’t lived in the UK since 2008, swapping the English capital for the bright lights of Hollywood.
A bearded Ewan McGregor has recently purchased a property in rural Perthshire and plans to spend more time in his homeland
Ewan McGregor with his brother Colin
In a recent interview, McGregor revealed that a longing to reconnect with his roots – and his family – lay at the heart of his return.
‘I’ve lived in Scotland for less time than I’ve lived away from it, but I’ve never lost my love for it,’ he said. ‘I have a home there now.
‘I didn’t see my family for years during Covid, so when I got married to Mary here [in Los Angeles], they came over and my brother was in an Airbnb up the road. I’d never had that ability to just pop round to see him, because I’ve always lived away.’
The yearning to come back however, still took him by surprise.
‘I never saw it coming, it’s weird,’ the 53-year-old told Architectural Digest. ‘I spoke to [comedian and former American chat show host] Craig Ferguson about it, he’s moved back to Scotland, and when I called him up he told me, “Oh yeah, you’re just at that age. You just reach an age when it’s time to go home”.’
But there are clearly still mixed feelings there, particularly when it comes to the people of Scotland themselves. In March, McGregor told the Radio Times: ‘It was hard to leave Scotland. There’s a sense you’re turning your back.
‘People in Scotland to this day tell me to remember where I come from. I know where I come from!
I don’t need anybody to remind me. It’s this feeling of you’re not Scottish enough. I’m Scottish wherever I am in the world. I’m always Scottish.’
As if to hammer the point home, McGregor recently took part in a promo video for Perthshire alongside his brother Colin, a former RAF fighter pilot, for travel firm Expedia.
In the video they extol the virtues of the county, visiting The Hermitage forest, Fortingall Hotel and Ewe Bar near Aberfeldy, Taymouth Marina in Kenmore – run by their childhood friend, Eric Strickland – and Aran Bakery in Dunkeld.
‘I knew this would be such a lovely thing to do with him because it just gives us an opportunity to hang out together, which is not always the case when you’re both working and living in different places,’ McGregor said at the time.
The two even reminisce about their early days, climbing the hills of Perthshire.
‘As kids we’d sit on top of hills having hoofed all the way up there, get the sarnies out,’ said McGregor. ‘Then, it was a white roll with one lopsided cheese slice.’
Might the pair be angling for a brothers in arms style TV series travelling the length and breadth of Scotland, just like McGregor’s motorcycle series Long Way Round with his friend Charlie Boorman, where they traversed South America?
Or is McGregor merely trying to convince his fellow Scots, and perhaps even himself, that Scotland is once again home?
Certainly, it’s a long way from the lavish £4million pad he once shared with his ex-wife Mavrakis.
A stunning mansion in Los Angeles’s Brentwood, next door to the house once owned by Marilyn Monroe, it’s where the couple chose to settle when they moved to Los Angeles in 2008 with their then young family.
The former couple share four children together: Clara, 27, Jamyan, 23, Esther, 22, and Anouk, 13, all of whom speak with American accents, and all of whom still live in LA.
Following their messy break-up – not long after the pair called it quits in 2017, McGregor was spotted getting extremely cosy in public with Winstead – he moved into an LA bachelor pad while the children stayed in the family home.
His former wife was said to be particularly upset by the new relationship given that she had invited Winstead to their home a few months earlier when it was revealed the two stars would be working together on Fargo.
And his daughter Clara was also riled, describing Winstead on social media as a ‘piece of trash’, comments she later said she regretted.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that in the early days of their courtship McGregor brought Winstead to Scotland, away from the media scrutiny and the family ire.
In November 2017 the pair were spotted in various locations in Argyll, including Arisaig, where they dined at the Old Library Lodge restaurant with rooms, before heading over to the Isle of Skye.
The couple married quietly in April 2022 in an outdoor ceremony in Los Angeles, a year after the birth of their baby son, Laurie.
His arrival would appear to have helped heal the rift between McGregor and his daughter, with Clara posting on social media alongside a picture of herself cradling the newborn: ‘Welcome to the world little brother.
Congratulations to my Dad & Mary, this is the greatest gift.’
But while McGregor revels in a new young family and introduces them to his homeland, not all has been plain sailing at the actor’s new Scottish pad.
Earlier this year he came under fire after he was accused of carrying out ‘unauthorised’ works at the 18th century C-listed mansion.
A formal proposal for a number of renovations, which the application states have already been completed, has now been submitted to Perth and Kinross council, including the installation of CCTV cameras, roof repairs and renovating parts of the property’s vast interior.
Agents stated the reason for the work being completed ahead of submission of the application was that it was ‘carried out in advance of applicant moving in’.
‘It was evident that the previous owners had not decorated the property for some time,’ said the agent, McKenzie Strickland Associates.
‘The paintwork was generally yellowing, and wallpaper was peeling in several areas due to water damage from blocked gutters, etc.
‘Therefore, most of the works carried out at the house were decorative, including painting, wallpapering and sanding floors.’
Land Registry documents show the actor bought the mansion in the Carse of Gowrie area in May last year for £200,000 over the asking price.
Since then, McGregor has been granted permission by the council to erect a replacement garage and create a new master bedroom and bathroom suite.
Given the works have been completed, it sounds as though McGregor and family might be moving in any day now.
Meanwhile, McGregor’s career is going from strength to strength.
After his critically acclaimed role in Fargo, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2018, he won an Emmy award for his portrayal of the eponymous fashion designer in the Netflix series Halston, then returned to his Star Wars role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a well-received mini series.
Earlier this year, a film written by his daughter Clara and starring the father daughter duo was released, to mixed reviews it must be said.
Now McGregor is starring in the Paramount+ series A Gentleman in Moscow, adapted from the bestselling novel by Amor Towles, a historical thriller about a Russian count sentenced to indefinite house arrest in a luxury Moscow hotel.
It also stars Winstead as his sometime lover – the couple used an intimacy co-ordinator for the show’s sex scenes despite being married because, said McGregor, ‘it’s odd to be naked in front of people’ – and has garnered a string of five star reviews.
Does all this Hollywood success mean McGregor might not be spending as much time in Scotland after all? Don’t count on it.
In a recent interview he revealed he missed the ‘smell of the rain’ in Scotland (and there’s certainly been no shortage of that here so far this year), and that he and his brother were considering taking their mother to a favourite cottage, complete with in-house catering, in Nethy Bridge for her 80th birthday celebrations this year.
In fact, while McGregor’s love story with Winstead has clearly dominated the past few years of his life, it may be that the other true love of his life is his homeland.
In the travel video with his brother, one clip sees him driving across the country gazing in awe at the landscape saying: ‘I think whoever made the world started with Scotland, [and they] got it right.’
Spoken with all the zeal of a returning expat.
