00:00Please welcome filmmaker Mike Mills to the stage.
00:16Hi. This is so weird to talk to these few people when all of you guys are out there.
00:21So I might come around here a fair amount.
00:26Ewan and I, about 15 years ago, we made a little film called Beginners,
00:31which is much bigger than Star Wars and Moulin Rouge.
00:34I'm sure you've all seen it, and that's why you're here today.
00:38And looking at that list of people you work with,
00:41I'm so honored, my friend, that you asked me to come talk today.
00:44I cried when I got the word because working with Ewan,
00:49he played sort of a version of me in this film,
00:52and Christopher Plummer played a version of my dad.
00:54He wore this jacket of mine in the film.
00:57And it was just, all you all, it was the funnest thing in the world
01:02and one of the deeper things in the world,
01:04and I had so much film camaraderie with you, and I'll never ever forget it.
01:09First day I worked with Ewan, Ewan, Christopher Plummer in a hotel room.
01:14I'm coming up with some really questionable rehearsal ideas,
01:18really woo-woo, improvisatory, just way too weird for Christopher Plummer.
01:23He's giving me a look, and he says to me, looks me in the eye,
01:26and he says, Michael, not all directors need to do this.
01:29And that's really scary.
01:31I don't know if you guys have met Christopher Plummer.
01:33He could be terrifying.
01:35Luckily, to his left, ten feet behind him, is Ewan McGregor.
01:38And he's looking at me with this little smile, just like right now,
01:42a little mischievous smile,
01:44and it's like one of the great moments in Ewan's film.
01:46It's like a little subtle moment where he's letting the camera come to him,
01:49but it says everything, and he said to me,
01:51go on, Mike, keep going.
01:53And with this little look, he said, I am a very curious person,
01:58and I am freaking game,
02:00and I want to do what I've never done before, and I'm up for it.
02:04And I feel like that's in all of his performances.
02:07You get this sense of someone who loves it and is up for it.
02:11And it was so inspiring to me, and I'll forever be grateful to Ewan
02:15for saving my ass in that moment and saving my film's ass in that moment.
02:20Let's go to the end of that film.
02:22I'm sorry I have to bring up Christopher Plummer,
02:24because we were in this very intimate thing together,
02:26and trying to think of what to say today, Christopher kept coming to me.
02:29He's passed away now. He kept coming.
02:31And I was like, either Christopher wants to steal the scene from you again,
02:34or he just wants to be here and congratulate you.
02:37I really felt that.
02:39Last day working, Christopher is going to,
02:41his character is going to pass away in this day.
02:43He's loving it. He's a king about to die. He loves it.
02:46Ewan comes up to me, and he has this look on his face
02:49which he never really had. It's like, let's go now.
02:52So I scurry the crew away. I turn on the camera.
02:54I tell Christopher to die. He dies.
02:57I don't know what Ewan's going to do.
02:59He runs up to Christopher, throws his arms around him,
03:02and starts crying in such a real, deep, authentic way.
03:06The whole crew just froze.
03:08Tears started hitting the camera that I was standing by.
03:12And something so real, authentic, painful, and just unknown
03:17was pouring out of Ewan.
03:19And I was like, this is another moment to share with you all.
03:21Because not everyone who gets a Hollywood star,
03:24who's a big Hollywood actor,
03:27is going to make themselves that vulnerable and that real
03:30and go to such an authentic place.
03:32And not everyone has the talent and the skill and the experience
03:36to know how to give it to us, to show it to the camera.
03:39And he does it in such a light way.
03:41He was in such a raw place, but he just knew the camera would find him,
03:44the story would find him, and all of us would find this place he's in.
03:48And he's carrying these unbearable feelings so that we can bear them.
03:52And back to the set, he's still crying on Christopher.
03:56And I don't know how to say cut,
03:58because he's just falling through the air in a real moment.
04:01And finally he yells out to me,
04:03Mike!
04:05And I've never felt so close to anyone in my life on set.
04:08Because he was crying for me,
04:10but he was just giving so much to the film and to all of us.
04:13I went and I hugged you.
04:16And you went off to repair.
04:18I went to Christopher, and he had, to be honest,
04:20just like snot and tears all over his chest.
04:23And he looked kind of like perturbed.
04:26And I said, are you okay?
04:28And he goes, oh, I'm just jealous as hell.
04:31Because Christopher kind of couldn't do that in some ways.
04:34Christopher couldn't let himself fully go
04:37and yet give something that the camera could see and take in.
04:42So when I come back and see this Hollywood star
04:46walking down the street in my hometown,
04:48or when I come show my kid your star,
04:50I'm going to get to say, I know him.
04:53Which is pretty rad, right?
04:56And it's so weird that I'm here, let's be honest.
05:01And that is not just a star, that's a real man.
05:05That is a really good-looking Scottish man
05:09who really loves his job.
05:14He would say this all the time on the film we're working on.
05:16It's just a little film, right?
05:17Almost every day you want to go like, I can't cuss,
05:20but I freaking love my job.
05:22I love this.
05:23I'm so lucky.
05:25And he truly felt that.
05:27The crew couldn't wait for him to show up in the morning.
05:29We filmed with a dog.
05:30The dog couldn't wait for him to show up in the morning.
05:34And I feel like he sensed that gratitude,
05:37this little fire flame energy of gratitude
05:40in so many of Ewan's performances.
05:42He's lucky to be there.
05:43He knows it, and he's eating it up.
05:46So I'm lucky I got to work with you.
05:48Thank you so much for making that film with me.
05:51Thank you so much.
05:53Beautiful.
05:54I was lucky.
05:56Great.
05:59That was very nice.
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