AP interview:
Ewan McGregor ponders pandemics

[October 07, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- As the world collapses around him, Ewan McGregor brings out his romantic and culinary sides in director David Mackenzie's indie disaster flick "Perfect Sense."

The Scottish actor plays a chef who is gradually losing all his senses in a pandemic at the same time he is falling in love with a scientist who is searching for a cure.

"It is a very romantic film for sure. I liked it because there was a reluctance in their falling in love with each other," he told The Associated Press.

"And then the backdrop of the story is very interesting. The world is literally losing its senses, with these series of epidemics which are knocking out humankind's senses, smells, tastes, hearing and such," he added. "It was a nice metaphor, when we fall in love we lose our senses."

McGregor, 40, also stared in Roman Polanki's thriller "The Ghost Writer" and is well known for his love of adventure, which includes riding his motorcycle in remote regions of the world.

While "Perfect Sense" ponders the possibility of a world wiped out by a debilitating disease, McGregor says he doesn't believe in what he calls the hype of a global pandemic.

"I always imagine it's a media story. I always think it's not going to come to much, and so far I've been right most of the time," he said.

Eva Green, his 31-year-old co-star, said they had the luxury of a full week of rehearsals before shooting.

"It was great, because the relationship is very intimate and I am very shy," she said. "Ewan is very easy, he is very down-to-earth, and he is not playing at being the big star. He makes you feel confident."

And what if McGregor did only have one last meal to enjoy before he lost his sense of taste forever?

"I really like eggs," he said. "It would be a boiled egg. Somehow it doesn't get much better than that on a piece of toast."

"Perfect Sense" is being released in the U.K. on Friday.

[Associated Press; By LOUISE DIXON]

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