Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor does not have fond memories of the wig he had to wear for reshoots of The Phantom Menace.
“I remember the idea of it being short,” McGregor said of his Phantom Menace hairstyle to Entertainment Weekly. “I think they were looking for something in a military sense or in the world of monks that there’s some sort of hairstyle sacrifice in order to be a Jedi. I guess to become a Jedi you have to give up the idea of being married or there’s some sort of monk-like qualities that are similar.”
McGregor was able to use his own hair during principal photography but had to wear a wig for the reshoots several months later. The actor was working on another project and was unable to cut his hair to the typical Padawan style of short hair and a braid. “And so they made a wig that was a short hair wig, which is the worst kind of wig,” McGregor recalled. “If you’ve got a wig and it’s long hair, you can disguise the fact that it’s a wig, but when it’s a short hair wig, it’s a nightmare. I’ve seen some clips of both Episode I and the reshoots from Episode II where you’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?'”
Usually, reshoots cover just a few scenes so McGregor thought that the wig wouldn’t be noticed. “But some bright spark decided to put me on a poster in the wig!” he said. “They picked an image of me from the reshoots and I saw myself in this huge poster in the wig. And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding? You couldn’t find a still of me when from the real shoot?’ Unbelievable. I don’t know who that was, but I’d love to meet them one day and just say, ‘Are you f—ing kidding me about that?'”
Luckily for McGregor, no short hair wigs were required when he returned to Star Wars to film Obi-Wan Kenobi. The show is set roughly 10 years after Revenge of the Sith and finds the Jedi Master “rather broken.” McGregor says Kenobi is, “faithless, and beaten, somewhat given up.”
According to series writer Joby Harold, the show will find a way to bridge the gap between the emotional Kenobi of Revenge of the Sith and the calmer Kenobi of A New Hope. “That was the story that I wanted to understand — what had happened to Obi-Wan between the guy that Ewan had brought to life and the guy that Sir Alec Guinness brought to life,” said Harold.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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