Ewan tripping on an energy rush

Ewan and Clara McGregor with her dad's Crystal Globe in Karlovy Vary Photo: Film Servis Karlovy Vary

Working for the first time with his daughter Clara on You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder - the debut feature of director Emma Westenberg - gave Ewan McGregor the same kind of energy rush he experienced when he burst on the scene with Danny Boyle in Shallow Grave in 1994.

“It was the first first film for many of us working on it. Danny set the bar very high in what you can expect in the relationship between an actor and a director. We went on to make Trainspotting, then A Life Less Ordinary and then Trainspotting 2, all films that left their mark on British cinema,” said McGregor, 52, at a media gathering after his latest film's premiere in the 57th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

His daughter, 27, co-wrote the script (with Vera Bulder and Ruby Caster) and she has admitted that the father-daughter road trip had been inspired by aspects of their own at times tempestuous relationship.

Clara McGregor at the Karlovy Vary press conference Photo: Richard Mowe

McGregor, every sinew the proud dad, relished the opportunity to spend time together with his daughter during the filming over a tight 21-days in New Mexico. “You do not know how it is going to feel when you start but on day one we chit-chatted when we were having our make-up done and from that moment on it all felt totally normal.

“Much of the time we were driving in that truck together and a lot of the time it all happens without words. Because we are father and daughter you cannot take that away from what is happening in front of the camera. And we have had a lifetime of that.

“You do not act in front of your daughter or your dad,” he added, when quizzed about whether it felt weird. “In this case you act with them. Acting is truth and not something you put on or do. It was that moment of truth for these two people and it felt free and wonderful.”

He admitted it was quite something for his children to have seen in Trainspotting the infamous scene of his head down the toilet. “It was quite something for a father to show his children!” Clara recalled seeing Moulin Rouge for the first time when she was nine or ten. Her father became alarmed when he heard her weeping. “I haven’t seen it since because it made my cry so much,” she said.

Ewan McGregor on working with daughter Clara: 'You do not know how it is going to feel when you start but on day one we chit-chatted when we were having our make-up done and from that moment on it all felt totally normal' Photo: Richard Mowe

McGregor turned up at the festival in the Bohemian spa town sporting an uncharacteristic moustache. “It’s a fashion statement,” he joked. “It’s actually for the role of the Russian aristocratic count in an adaptation of Amor Towles' novel A Gentleman in Moscow. We are making an eight part serialisation for Paramount + . We have been shooting in Manchester since February and it’s quite a long haul with another month to go. By the way, this the smaller version of the moustache. At the start it had twirly bits at the end.”

The star, who was dreading the inevitable Star Wars question, obviously was pleased it did not emerge. He tends not to differentiate between blockbusters and more intimate projects. “It is not so much the scale of the film but the nature of it. All you want is for to feel real and truthful. That can be hard in big action sequences. Movies are always unique because you are working with different people all the time. It is necessarily going to be a unique situation. The bigger action type films are slower, and often seem like an exercise in endurance to keep your acting where you want it to be,” he said.

Would he repeat the experience of working with Clara and the female-led team? “Yes absolutely we would work together again. I am anticipating them writing me lots of roles to keep Clara’s old dad in work!” he gushed with a merry laugh.

Ewan McGregor with his Crystal Globe Photo: Film Servis Karlovy Vary