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Ewan McGregor had to use a wig for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and hated it

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars movie star Ewan McGregor had to wear a wig when he debuted in The Phantom Menace, and he wasn't a fan.

phantom menace ewan mcgregor as obi-wan

You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Ewan McGregor’s wig cupboard. The Jedi have always been known for their, um, interesting hairstyles, like the little braid Padawans are meant to wear, and nobody had a bigger hair evolution than Star Wars cast member Ewan McGregor, as he went from Qui-Gon Jin’s apprentice to a Jedi on the run.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, McGregor opened up about some of his Star Wars character‘s most iconic hairstyles — and it turns out he had very strong feelings about his Phantom Menace look.

“I remember the idea of it being short,” McGregor recalled. “I think they were looking for something in a military sense or in the world of monks that there’s some sort of hairstyle sacrifice in order to be a Jedi. I guess to become a Jedi you have to give up the idea of being married or there’s some sort of monk-like qualities that are similar.”

“What I didn’t like very much was when we came back, there was always a period of time after the main shoot where we came back to do some reshoots,” he said. “And for episode 1 [The Phantom Menace], it was six, seven, eight months after the principal photography, we had to come back and I was doing something else and I couldn’t cut my hair.”

“So they made a wig that was a short hair wig, which is the worst kind of wig,” he says. “If you’ve got a wig and it’s long hair, you can disguise the fact that it’s a wig, but when it’s a short hair wig, it’s a nightmare. I’ve seen some clips of both episode 1 and the reshoots from episode 2 [Attack of the Clones] where you’re like, ‘Are you kidding me?'”

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The Obi-Wan Kenobi cast member continued, “And then for episode 1, not only did I have to wear it for the reshoots, and it’s usually just a little shot here or there for reshoots. And most people don’t really notice it. But some bright spark decided to put me on a poster in the wig!”

“They picked an image of me from the reshoots and I saw myself in this huge poster in the wig,” he adds. “And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding? You couldn’t find a still of me when from the real shoot?’ Unbelievable. I don’t know who that was, but I’d love to meet them one day and just say, ‘Are you f***ing kidding me about that?'”

To see Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s crop up close, check out all the Star Wars movies in order — or see what crazy hair 2023 has in store with our guide to all the new movies coming this year.