McGregor: Jesus role isn’t Biblical

Ewan McGregor doesn’t believe his portrayal of Jesus is “Biblical”.

The 43-year-old actor depicts the Christian son of God in forthcoming adventure drama, Last Days in the Desert.

But although the picture centres around Jesus, from Ewan’s perspective it’s more psychological than ecclesiastical.

“I don’t see it as a faith-based film,” the Golden Globe nominee told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s not telling a Biblical story. I think it’s a film about fathers and sons. Jesus and God are the ultimate father and son relationship.”

Last Days in the Desert is an imaginative adaptation of the story surrounding Jesus’ 40-day fast and prayer retreat, which is penned in the Bible at Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4, verses 1-2.

According to this scripture passage, Jesus wandered around Jordanian hostile terrain for “forty days tempted by the Devil”.

Ewan portrays Lucifer too in Last Days in the Desert and he found depicting villain and hero in one film to be a pivotal career experience.

“It’s maybe the best scene I’ve ever played in my life,” he said of a moment in the picture when Jesus comes face to face with Satan. “Jesus! The depth of the questioning, the twists and turns, the sort of one-upmanship between Jesus and the devil, it’s such a wonderful scene! Lucifer was a fallen angel. He’s been with God. He knows God. Jesus has not had that experience.”

Colombian-born filmmaker Rodrigo García, who is behind 2012 picture Blue and 2005’s Nine Lives, directed Last Days in the Desert.

And he agrees with Ewan that the focus of this movie is primarily developmental.

“In a way, I thought of this movie as the adolescence of Jesus,” Rodrigo noted. “Of course he’s already 30 in my story, three years out from being crucified. But I always thought of it as an adolescence.”