Ewan McGregor Discusses Role in Latest Star Wars Film

As many Star Wars fans know, there was a surprise cameo by Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness in Star Wars: The Force Awakens; at least of their voices. During Rey’s Force-vision, the line “Rey? These are your first steps” comes from Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it’s split between the two actors who have portrayed that character on the big screen.

Discussing the line on Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday night, the actor talked about being called in to participate, reprising his role last played in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

“I recorded a line for it. It was very late in the day, I’d been waiting for the call to come for two years!” McGregor said with a laugh. “Maybe they’d lost my agent’s phone number! But I got a call just shortly before it was released from JJ [Abrams] saying, ‘I’d love you to be in it. There’s a sequence where we can use a voice, we hear Obi-Wan Kenobi’s voice coming from the distant reaches of the forest.’”

McGregor went in and saw portions of the film, and recorded his line. The best part of his conversation comes about 1:57, when he does his best Sir Alec Guinness impersonation.

“The line is, ‘Rey, these are your first steps.’ But they got Alec Guinness to do ‘Rey,’ which is extraordinary because he’s not alive anymore!” he explained. “They got a line of him as Obi-Wan Kenobi saying ‘Afraid’ and cut it so he says ‘Rey,’ then I say ‘these are your first steps.’”

For a little extra Star Wars trivia, voice actor James Arnold Taylor, who played Obi-Wan on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, originally recorded the full line, before they knew they could use the old Guinness audio and McGregor could participate. Taylor still voiced a couple of stormtroopers in the film, alongside the likes of Kevin Smith and several other Clone Wars alumni.