Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, best known for his role as Renton in Trainspotting, has revealed he got his first perm in decades for a new TV series. The 52-year-old Perth-born star plays Count Rostov in an adaptation of Amor Towles' novel A Gentleman in Moscow.
McGregor, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, discussed the efforts to achieve the character's look. In an interview with Vanity Fair, he said: 'I went down to London and got my hair permed, which is something I hadn't done since the 90s, and then dyed it dark brown. The perm faded out and the colour faded a bit, and that was really conducive to his ageing.'
The actor last had dark brown curly hair for the 1993 Channel 4 musical drama Lipstick on Your Collar, where he played a Teddy boy. For A Gentleman in Moscow, his appearance is said to evoke Omar Sharif in the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago.
The series, set to air this year, also stars McGregor's real-life wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Count Rostov's love interest Anna Urbanova. McGregor noted the contrast between their real relationship and on-screen tension, saying: 'To be in love and married to somebody, and then to get to play all those cold-shoulder scenes, was just hilarious.'
