00:00So please help me welcome to the stage, the last guest speaker, Hayden Christensen.
00:10All right, take it away.
00:17All right.
00:20Hello, everyone.
00:22Nice to see you all.
00:25Wow.
00:26Quite the turnout for you, my friend.
00:31It's really an honor for me to get to be here and say a few words about my friend, Ewan McGregor.
00:42Now, I'm going to talk about you like you're not just standing right next to me, but...
00:53Ewan McGregor is one of our great actors, and in my opinion, the coolest person on the planet.
01:06I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for Ewan's work.
01:10Right from the early days of his career, I remember watching Trainspotting for the first time
01:16and just being completely blown away by your work, man.
01:21He just leaps off the screen.
01:24His fearlessness and his mastery of craft were undeniable,
01:29and I remember thinking to myself that this was the type of work that I wanted to be able to do as an actor.
01:36Since then, his career has been storied, his body of work prolific, a part of so many great films,
01:44playing so many great characters,
01:47and it's why he continues to be regarded as one of our most admired and respected actors.
02:00But when I think about Ewan, I think about the person that he is,
02:05and a lot of stories come to mind, but I often think about the first time that I met you.
02:13We were both in Australia many moons ago, getting ready to do Star Wars Episode II,
02:20and I was at the studio where we were going to be filming,
02:24and the producer was taking me around, showing me some things,
02:27and then he was going to go take me to meet Ewan for the first time.
02:30I was so excited. I was already such a huge fan of his.
02:37I walk into this room where I'm told Ewan's going to be,
02:40and before I can even put eyes on him, I hear his voice,
02:45and he exclaims my name with more enthusiasm than I think I'd ever heard it spoken with before,
02:53and I turn and I see him, and then he's coming at me, and he comes and just gives me the biggest hug,
02:58like just the most disarmingly warm embrace,
03:02and we start chatting, and he's just the nicest person.
03:10He's telling me how excited he is to be working together,
03:12and how much fun we're going to have doing our lightsaber training,
03:15and he's just beyond kind to me,
03:19and it was immediately apparent to me that I was meeting someone truly special,
03:24and not just as an actor, but as a person,
03:27and that I was meeting a friend.
03:31A friend who would later go on to chop off both of my legs and leave me for dead on the side of a volcano,
03:41but I guess I kind of had that coming.
03:47But I do want to just talk for a moment about Ewan's work in Star Wars,
03:52and his iconic performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
04:01It really is just a master class in great acting,
04:06and to watch him embody this character,
04:10it's like watching magic, and the best kind of magic,
04:15not the kind that involves any trickery or sleight of hand,
04:18but the kind that really makes you believe in something bigger,
04:22because he wasn't just playing Obi-Wan, he was Obi-Wan.
04:28I mean, he is Obi-Wan.
04:32And I really hope we get more Obi-Wan, because this man is just Star Wars gold.
04:40He so perfectly brought all of the qualities that we knew about the character,
04:46while imbuing the role with his own depth and emotion,
04:51and thus creating something that was bigger than the sum of its parts.
04:56And it was just a remarkable feat, and I was just in awe the entire time.
05:03So, my friend Ewan, I want to thank you for being the best Jedi Master
05:09that anyone could have ever hoped for,
05:12and you always had my back, and I thank you for that.
05:18And I'm just so happy to get to be here with you right now,
05:21and it's been an honor and a thrill to get to work with you,
05:25and swing a lightsaber with you, and more than all of it, calling you my friend.
05:29I love you, brother.
05:30I love you too.
05:34Thank you so much.
05:35Thank you, thank you.
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