8:15 pm - 01/05/2013
Ewan McGregor says being part of the Oscar buzz makes you a "player". The Scottish actor stars alongside Naomi Watts in The Impossible, a film based on one family's experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Despite realising that winning an Academy Award would be a great honour, the 41-year-old claims there are downsides.
"Of course it would be nice to win one. I won't deny that, but it's not necessarily that you want to win awards," he explained to Total Film.
"Just by being in the chatter about it puts you in a place where - sadly - people in the American system then go, 'OK'. It makes you a player, in a way, and that's a shame. But in a way, I want to be a player. I want to be considered for good roles and stuff. If it helps to that end, that's great."
Ewan's role in The Impossible is certainly a powerful performance which could see him earn a nod when the Oscars nominations are announced this month. The star admits he was a little reluctant to take on the complex part at first.
"When I heard about The Impossible, my first reaction was, 'Should people be making a film about [the Indian Ocean tsunami]?’" he revealed.
"Our goal was just to be really honest and truthful to their story. My biggest fear was that you felt like we were using the tsunami as some kind of dramatic backdrop to the story. That would be unforgiveable because of the people that lost their loved ones there."
Source.
Ewan McGregor: I want to be Oscar player
Ewan McGregor says being part of the Oscar buzz makes you a "player". The Scottish actor stars alongside Naomi Watts in The Impossible, a film based on one family's experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Despite realising that winning an Academy Award would be a great honour, the 41-year-old claims there are downsides.
"Of course it would be nice to win one. I won't deny that, but it's not necessarily that you want to win awards," he explained to Total Film.
"Just by being in the chatter about it puts you in a place where - sadly - people in the American system then go, 'OK'. It makes you a player, in a way, and that's a shame. But in a way, I want to be a player. I want to be considered for good roles and stuff. If it helps to that end, that's great."
Ewan's role in The Impossible is certainly a powerful performance which could see him earn a nod when the Oscars nominations are announced this month. The star admits he was a little reluctant to take on the complex part at first.
"When I heard about The Impossible, my first reaction was, 'Should people be making a film about [the Indian Ocean tsunami]?’" he revealed.
"Our goal was just to be really honest and truthful to their story. My biggest fear was that you felt like we were using the tsunami as some kind of dramatic backdrop to the story. That would be unforgiveable because of the people that lost their loved ones there."
Source.
Is the issue that they didn't tell the stories of the Thai people, or that throughout the story they didn't show any Thai people? If its the latter, isn't that actually realistic? They were in a heavily tourist area, mostly likely brought to a hospital/area where all the tourists were probably brought. The family seemed to have no contact with ANYONE except for very briefly. The story of the family is pretty miraculous and does make a good movie. I'm sure there are others out there, but it is an interesting story for sire.
I understand that people want to see a movie from the Thai perspective and maybe one day that will exist (doubtful that it would be a larger movie bc even Ive read interviews that the reason they chose an English family was to get the budget to be able to do the movie justice. Thanks Hollywood). There ARE movies/docs out there, they just don't have the release that this movie does. I think its easy to blame the film/actors but it's sort of the shitty world that exists in where a good portion of people in the western world would not care to see a movie from the Thai point of view.
I dunno. I get why people are upset but I like to have actually seen the movie before I made judgement. Now that I have, it makes a bit more sense (as I stated above, little contact with anyone not just the Thai people). I would love to see more films about different perspectives. We'll see if it ever happens
Edited at 2013-01-05 07:52 pm (UTC)
It's mostly people who are stamping their feet at the fact that if you don't 'whitewash' a film, it won't make money, and hating the fact that nothing is going to stop that from happening any time soon in Hollywood. Sure, you can argue until you're blue in the face about whether it is right/wrong/accurate etc, the fact is Hollywood makes movies to make money. Making the story about the white family is what will make the money, period.
But this positive article from a survivor who saw the film might help you consider if you want to see it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/film
One of my fav comments has been about the fact that they got white, english actors to play a spanish family when they could have hired Penelope and Javier to do it, but speak English. How is that any better? How would that make any sense, a spanish family speaking english to one another?
I completely understand the frustration that a non-western film can't make it big in Hollywood. It is a solid film with great acting and good storytelling. I think if the movie was just telling stories of the tsunami and ONLY focused on white tourists, yes huge problem. But for me, I always saw it as ONE story of ONE family.
same
But then so many also fail to realized all Spanish people don't look the same when they complain that neither Ewan or Naomi look like a Spanish person. I mean hell if you go back far enough Katherine of Aragon looked NOTHING like the typical Spanish person because of her English heritage down to her strawberry blonde hair.
There are SO many stories that have come out from this disaster, and so many more than have yet to be told. This is just one of them. It sucks how, like you said, this story basically got told because it was able to get the funding. But it really bugs me how people are hating on everyone involved in it.