(Photo: Getty Images)
Ewan McGregor returns this week in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a new series centered on his character from the Star Wars prequel movies. To get ready for his return to screen as the Jedi Master, we've rounded up 10 things we appreciate about this genial and talented Scotsman.
1. He's an Emmy-winning actor.
McGregor won Lead Actor Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his transformative performance in Halston, a biographical miniseries about the influential and sometimes tempestuous fashion designer Roy Halston. It was definitely a passion project for McGregor, who was also credited as an executive producer on the Netflix series.

2. He takes an admirably balanced approach to his craft.
McGregor is definitely committed but no method actor, as he explained in an interview with The Guardian. "I've always wanted to do this, I've made it my life's focus to be an actor and to try to be good at it and enjoy it, and I have a very instinctive way of doing that," he said. "I'm not tortured. I've never been one for a great deal of preparation. I don't sit in a library or do a lot of intellectual investigative work. I'm much better in the moment, with the other actors on the set and the cameras rolling. That's where I love it, and I trust that."
3. He really wants people to know he played Obi-Wan Kenobi.
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, McGregor revealed (very amusingly) that he once shouted at a teenager who doubted that he had actually portrayed the iconic Star Wars character.

4. He does a lot of charity work.
McGregor has served as an ambassador for UNICEF U.K. since 2004, as the nonprofit notes on its website. So it's fitting that when he received an OBE accolade from Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, it was in recognition of his services to drama and charity.

5. He has spoken candidly about his relationship with alcohol.
McGregor has been teetotal for more than two decades, and has explained why in several interviews over the years. "I had a drinking problem, which is why I stopped, and now I don’t do anything because that’s what being sober is about," he told The Times of London. "It alters everything about you, because you become much more part of the world. Drinking is a very self-centered way of being; you're really, really inside yourself somehow and you’re not able to look out or empathize properly with people."
6. He's a really fine singer.
Anyone who caught McGregor's Golden Globe-nominated performance in Moulin Rouge! will know that he can carry a tune. Who can forget his poignant rendition of Elton John's "Your Song?"

7. He is very much a man of principle.
As the BBC reported, McGregor decided against appearing on U.K. breakfast show Good Morning Britain in 2017 because he objected to recent comments made by co-host Piers Morgan. The actor tweeted at the time: "Won't go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch."
8. He was able to patch up his friendship with director Danny Boyle.
McGregor and Boyle collaborated on three '90s movies including the iconic film Trainspotting, but fell out when the director cast Leonardo DiCaprio over McGregor in 2000's The Beach. After patching things up, the two men appeared together on The Graham Norton Show in 2017 while promoting its sequel movie T2 Trainspotting.
Addressing the feud, McGregor said: "It's a big regret of mine that it went on for so very long. It's a shame we didn't work together all those years. It wasn't about The Beach; it was about our friendship and I felt I was in Danny's first three movies... and then I wasn’t in his fourth and it made me a bit rudderless. I didn't quite get it and, yeah, we didn't speak for a long time, which was a waste."

9. He's an avid motorcyclist.
McGregor has made several motorbike-based travel series with his close friend Charley Boorman, the most recent of which was 2020's Long Way Up. He's a real speed demon.

10. And finally, like most London dwellers, he's a big fan of the Tube.
McGregor splits his time between Los Angeles and North London, but loves riding the London Underground when he's in the British capital. "When we're at home in St John's Wood, if we're going to Tate Modern [art gallery], we get a tube straight down to Southwark," he told The Times of London. "And when I was rehearsing for Othello, I took the Tube down there every day and I really liked it." 
What makes Ewan McGregor stand out to you?