In “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” Ewan McGregor’s character, Dr. Fred Jones, wears tweed suits and spends his free time crafting fishing lures.
He’s a fisheries expert -- and one who takes the title very, very seriously.
So when Harriett Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt) approaches him with a harebrained request from her boss -- a visionary sheik with endless financial pockets -- to relocate salmon to the Yemen for the purpose of fishing, Fred is appalled.
But, with a little coaxing, he’s willing to give the massive undertaking a try.
It’s a classic stuffed-shirt-learning-to-let-go-and-have-a-little-faith type of story, but one imbued with the romantic possibilities between the unhappily married Fred and the recently brokenhearted Harriett. And when the British prime minister's public relations maven (Kristin Scott Thomas) gets a whiff of the sheik's scheme and immediately tries to spin it into a positive story, more sometimes-unintentional comedy arises.
The story is based on the novel of the same name by Paul Torday, who in 2007 won the United Kingdom's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing for the book.
McGregor called in recently from New York, where he was shooting “The Corrections” with Maggie Gyllenhaal, to talk about the dense-sounding but really lighthearted "Salmon Fishing" and working with Blunt for the first time.
Q. How did you find out about this story? Had you read the book?
A. I hadn't read the book. I just got sent the script and I liked it very much. Everything that I've done that has been based on a book has been done that way -- read the script, then the book. It fills in the character gaps, it gives you who you are.
Q. This might be the most literal title ever for a movie.
A. [Laughs] There was some talk of them changing it. I'm so glad they didn't because it represents the British comedy aspect of the movie. It has a clever element to it.
Q. Do you think it will be a hard sell getting people to watch a movie about bringing salmon to the Yemen?
A. I've got no idea. I don't have any expectation in that area. But the trailer is very good, and it gives you a sense of what the film is about without telling you the whole story.
Q. How would you best describe the movie?
A. I don't know how to describe it. I've never liked to pigeonhole films. It's not like anything else. It has quite a unique quality to it, the strong romance aspect of it.
Q. You did some filming in Morocco. What was that like?
A. I've made a few movies there, and it's always great to work in. This [movie] has three very unique looks -- the London urban, the Scottish Highlands and the deserts in Morocco. The film has a really rich palette. And the art department did extraordinary work. It's not a big budget film, but it looks like one, and we had some shooting issues and had to redo the schedule because of a flash flood.
Q. Emily has called you her “pal” in interviews, so I take it that you got on well together?
A. We had a really lovely time. She's so charming in her work, and I have met her before. I saw her on an airplane once on the way to Sundance [Film Festival], and I was nudging my wife, 'There's Emily and her husband, John [Krasinski].' We got on immediately very well. I was in flux about whether to use this particular Scottish accent called Morningside. The first time I met her, I read the scene with her with it and without, and she said, "Oh, you have GOT to use it!"
Q. You only have a few scenes with Kristin Scott Thomas. Is she at all intimidating?
A. Why would you think that?
Q. Because her character is very uptight and brash, and she often plays strong-willed characters and seems like she could be a tough lady.
A. No, no, not at all. She's lovely. I've always really liked her work. She's one of our best British actresses.
Q. Your character, Fred Jones, is very much a Fred Jones. How did you get inside his head?
A. It was fun to play him. I know many people like that, so it was fun to draw on that. He's not Scottish in the book, but I absolutely wanted him to be. There's a sort of Scottish emotional repression that totally works.
Q. On a different note, how did you feel about “The Phantom Menace” being re-released in 3D?
A. I think it's always nice to get a re-release because a whole new generation will enjoy it in the cinema. The more we get people into the cinema, the better. I don't want them to become like bookstores and record stores. We spend a great deal of time and effort to make movies look a certain way for the big screen.
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