Category: Interviews

With A Gentleman in Moscow streaming on Paramount+, a brand new photoshoot Mary did with The New York Times has been released. The shoot was done when Mary and Ewan were in NYC earlier this month on March 11. Be sure to head to the gallery to check out the new pics! If anymore get added, I will update this post. Below, I’ve also posted some excerpts from the interview, but you can read the interview in full by clicking the link above.

How did you get involved with “A Gentleman in Moscow”?
MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD: You [Ewan] had hinted, cheekily, that there was a great female character in there. Reading the book, I just thought, ‘Oh my God, what a great, juicy opportunity that would be to play her.’ But I was very tentative because the last thing I wanted was to try to win a role and then have somebody think I was trying to get something out of being married to you. I just wanted to quietly say, “I think it’s a great role if you think I’m right for it.”

What about Anna? Is she a good actress?

WINSTEAD Anna believes that she is. I do think she takes it very seriously. It’s something positive in her life that gives her a sense of purpose. She does hang in there, even if she’s not always a star. That has to count for something.

They have a superb meet-cute, when the count tames Anna’s Russian wolfhounds. What’s their initial attraction?

WINSTEAD I instantly find him very intriguing. The way that he handles my dogs, it sparks a little something. Our repartee makes me further intrigued. Then hearing about him and knowing that he’s imprisoned in this hotel, the mystery is interesting to me as a woman who gets bored very easily by most men that I’m around. Over time, that leads to much, much more.

It’s so lovely how much time it takes. It’s many years into their relationship before they realize they’re in love. There’s something beautiful about that slow progression. Especially for Anna. She resists that feeling. But it hits her like a wave.

Mary, earlier you alluded to a downside of working together, in that people might think you were offered a role for reasons other than your talent.

WINSTEAD Of course, there’s always going to be one person on the internet who makes that comment, but I’m secure enough to not worry about that because I know the truth, which is that people want to work with me. When we were first together, I was up for a role in something that he was in. They were worried we would bring some sort of drama to the set, which we thought was very funny because we’re not very dramatic people. But you have to let time deal with that. Now it’s clear that we’re a pretty levelheaded couple, that we’re not going around smashing vases. Other than that, it’s really been just upsides, which is that people who know us and like our work are happy and excited to put us together occasionally, which is a really lucky thing for us.

MCGREGOR There’s no downside in terms of actually doing it. It’s only great to go to work together, get to work together, come home together. It’s as good as it could be, really.

In 24 hours, Mary’s new limited series ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ will begin streaming on Paramount+ and with the premiere just hours away, a couple more interviews are still being released. The first one is a new video interview with The Toronto Sun:

Next, Mary did an interview with Yahoo! where she spoke about what drew her to the character of Anna.

“She’s a real hustler, a real survivor, and those are the kinds of people that I love to play, because they’re so interesting, and they’re so active, and they’re never really just sitting back and letting life happen to them. They’re always trying to think about how they can kind of advance. When I signed on to the show, I think I only had the first couple episodes to read, … and how Anna was going to be presented in the show, … I thought, … ‘This is so much fun,'” Winstead said. “To get to be this brash, brazen woman who’s fully in her diva confidence, it’s not really the way that we get to behave in real life. So it’s really liberating to step into someone’s shoes like that.”

“I certainly could see myself in her, in terms of her being an artist that has to navigate an industry that’s not always about the art, there’s so many other things at play. There were things about her I could relate to, and then other things that I could just really empathize with, and made me really love her.”

You can read her full interview here.

Mary and Ewan also did a video interview where they talked about working together and talked about what their son is currently into. It’s so cute! So happy for them. Their portion of the interview begins around the 6:05 mark.

While at the Toronto premiere earlier this week, Mary was also asked why she thought viewers might sympathize with Ewan’s character and enjoy watching the show:

“It’s about the connection of people in the smallest of ways where you really go into the microcosm on what these people go through in their day-to-day lives. I do think that people are searching for connection right now. There is a feeling of isolation for a lot of people, and I think that the show does speak to that. We’re in a world where we’ve come out of a pandemic, and we’re watching a man who is isolated in his own way, who has to learn to find connection again with humanity and closeness. I hope that people come away feeling hopeful and that it makes them feel a certain warmth towards their loved ones, neighbours, and people who are within their direct orbit.”

In another interview with The Canadian Press, the two stars talked about why they each loved working with one another:

And finally, a character poster of Mary as her character film actress Anna Urbanova has been released. I have added it to the gallery. Anyone else super excited for the show to finally begin? 🙂

We are less than a week away from seeing Mary on our TV screens again in the upcoming Paramount+ series, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ & as such, a brand new interview has come out! Below are some highlights Mary did with Airmail.

I have also added a brand new still of Mary and Ewan as their characters into the gallery.

Mary on what it was like filming scenes with her on screen co-star (& real-life husband) Ewan McGregor:

“The fact that we are so in love with one another, and we do kind of burst with feeling for each other all the time, made it really, really easy to bring all those layers to the relationship and to really see the relationship between the count and Anna develop,” Winstead says. “There were certain scenes where we’d go, O.K., we don’t actually have to cry in this scene—let’s pull it together! It was always so moving for us every day.” (Despite their relationship, the producers followed protocol and assigned the couple an intimacy coach to help choreograph their sex scenes.)

Mary on the type of research she did to play the role of film actress Anna Urbanova:

Winstead found herself researching and learning from the lives of real-life Russian actresses who might have been contemporaries of Urbanova’s. “I really focused on Alla Nazimova, who was a huge Russian star in the 1920s and had ups and downs throughout her career that reminded me of Anna,” she says.

“She had many marriages and affairs, with both men and women, and was very bravely open and comfortable with her womanhood and sexuality. She also had a very difficult childhood and was abused by her father, so she left home at a young age to escape that. In our story, Anna’s backstory is kept quite mysterious because that’s how she likes it, but there is a heavy history there that can be felt.”

Mary on Ewan’s commitment to the role of Count Rostov:

“I think that Ewan really captures that so well in his performance, and I think that sort of has a trickle effect throughout the show. A lot of characters have that sense of strength in adversity. Life carries on, and you find humor and laughter and hope in the darkest of places. ”

McGregor has already begun praising his wife’s performance to reporters, and Winstead needs no prompting to return the favor. “I feel like I could talk for hours about how amazing he is, even when I was just home with him as his partner and seeing his commitment to it and the way that he embodied this person like nobody else could,” she says about McGregor’s preparation. He worked with a movement coach to nail the mannerisms and bearing of the leisured class, and maintained his character’s thick, nobleman’s mustache for nearly a year.

I have added a new interview/magazine scans of Mary and Ewan in the latest issue of Empire Magazine. In the interview, Mary and Ewan talk about what it was like working with one another and filming scenes together as well as discuss their takes on their characters. Head to the gallery to read the interview in full!

In related news, Mary and Ewan also did an interview together on Sirius XM where they talked about their son Laurie meeting baby Grogu for the first time, working together, and Mary getting Ewan into horror films! The entire interview itself is so good! I loved how Ewan said he was impressed with Mary as an actress and she gave it her all in the 2012 film, ‘Smashed’!

Mary and Ewan made a joint appearance last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in New York City! During the interview, the married couple talked about both being in the Star Wars universe and what it was like for their son Laurie to meet Grogu in real life! Ewan also talked about how it felt having that huge mustache for over a year due to last year’s SAG/writers’ strike and what it was like working together on set. Be sure to check out their hilarious interview below and watch ’til the end to see the first clip from the show!
I will be sure to make tons of screencaps from their appearance later this week!

It’s so beautiful to finally see them doing an interview together. I can’t wait to get more as the promotional press for AGIM picks up. 🙂