Ewan McGregor shares how he found common humanity with the character of Yeshua (Jesus) in the upcoming film Last Days in the Desert in an interview with the Daily Beast.
The Golden Globe-nominated actor is playing Yeshua in Rodrigo Garcia's pensive drama about Jesus during his 40-days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). He is also playing the devil who tempts him.
Although McGregor admits he is "not a religious person", he was keen to relate to Jesus both as "the Son of God" and as a "young guy".
"When I started thinking about it in those terms, as a man who is frustrated he can't communicate with his father - well, there's not a guy in the world who hasn't had a moment like that with his own dad, so I understood that," he told the Daily Beast.
"I'm very friendly with my dad by the way, and we have a very loving relationship," he added.
"But of course when you grow up, you have moments like that. 'My dad doesn't understand me!'"
While researching for the role, he started reading books that "set out to disprove his 'Son of God'-ness, which are written about who he really was."
However, McGregor found them "entirely unhelpful", because "I was playing the Jesus who IS the Son of God. That was our fact - this was what Rodrigo and I were doing. And the Devil is the Devil - although of course when you watch the film, you can have many different [interpretations]."
Instead of looking to "other people's writings, or other people's imaginings of him", McGregor explained that he began "looking for him in my own - who do I think he is, who do I think he was? Then that's when I found him".
Through this personal lense, McGregor described Jesus as "a young rabbi, a holy man, and people go to him for advice.
"There is a beautiful scene at night in the tent of the Devil tempting him. He thinks the mother is asking him for advice, and he gives her a piece of advice—then immediately doubts himself. Like, 'I've got to come up with better words. These words are not enough...'
"As an actor, I have moments when I think, 'Was that good?'" he added.
"There's a very human moment for Jesus to be questioning his role as a rabbi. For me that was a very easy thing to contemplate."
The film has been criticised by some Christians, however McGregor told the Daily Beast that although the film wasn't directly aimed at Christians, "We didn't make a move that's offensive to people of faith.
"We didn't set out to offend them, or not offend them. We made a film about the relationships between fathers and sons, and the lead character is Jesus."
