In a recent Radio Times cover story, Ewan McGregor spoke about his experience working with his wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead on A Gentleman in Moscow.
In particular, McGregor revealed that he and Winstead had an intimate coordinator on set while filming the sex scenes for the new drama series.
“It’s still essential, because it’s also about the crew,” McGregor said. “And it’s weird to be naked in front of people, and it’s weird to be intimate in front of a camera.”
“If you’re doing a dance scene, you’re going to have a choreographer,” he added. “He’s an important part of the work now, because he’s someone the director and actors meet in the middle.”
For McGregor, it’s also important for production companies to hire intimacy coordinators, because in the past, the young actor – who is similar in age to his 22-year-old daughter Esther – may have felt pressure to perform “unnecessary” scenes.
“My daughter is 22 years old. If an older, famous director went up to a 22-year-old and said, ‘I want you to be naked in this scene,’ that actress might feel like, ‘Oh my God, I have to do this,’” McGregor said. “My career may depend on it.” “Five years later, she could look back and say, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that.’ Why am I naked in this scene? “It’s unnecessary.”
McGregor plays Count Alexander Rostov in A Gentleman in Moscow, while Winstead plays Anna Urbanova, described as “a charming, independent, self-made film actress, at the height of her fame.”
According to the official logo, the series follows Count Alexander Rostov (MacGregor) who, in the wake of the Russian Revolution, finds that his golden past places him on the wrong side of history. After escaping immediate execution, he was banished by a Soviet court to an attic room in the luxurious Metropol Hotel, and threatened with death if he set foot outside again. As the years pass and some of the most turbulent decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors, Rostov’s diminished circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. As he builds a new life within the hotel’s walls, he discovers the true value of friendship, family, and love.
“A Gentleman in Moscow” will premiere March 29 on Paramount+ with Showtime.