NEW YORK -- Ewan McGregor has always seen himself as a little fish in an enormous pond.
Though his role as the young Obi-wan Kenobi in the new Star Wars trilogy has gone a long way to change that status, he insists his heart and ego have not kept pace.
"I don't see projects as big films or little films. I'm just an actor so I see each of them as a new chance to pretend," says McGregor adding, "the whole idea of acting is pretending and that's what appealed to me in the first place."
Pretending and storytelling are the main ingredients in Tim Burton's Big Fish, a film about fathers and sons and their perceptions of reality and fantasy.
Albert Finney is Ed Bloom, a notorious teller of tall tales who has endeared himself to everyone but his son Will (Billy Crudup).
Ed is dying and both father and son want desperately to understand each other before it is too late.
McGregor plays the young Ed Bloom in the tall tales Finney tells Crudup and the audience.
"To be in a film with the legendary Albert Finney is wonderful. To get to play him was insane," recalls McGregor who says he easily identified with the young Bloom.
"Ed came from a small town and goes out to find himself and seek his fortune in a big city doing something most people consider insane.
"That's what I did."
McGregor, 32, who was born in Crieff, Scotland left school at 16 to pursue a career in acting.
"It was most difficult on my father because he was a teacher and he really wanted me to get a strong education.
"To him this acting thing was a daunting prospect. He worried for me until the day I got my first job."
McGregor says his father, like Ed Bloom, was a storyteller.
"My father loves telling stories and people loved listening to him. I remember that growing up, it took us so long to get anywhere because he'd stop to talk to everyone on the street."
McGregor says he is looking forward to the release of Star Wars: Episode III in 2005.
"It will be a closure to eight years of my life. I won't pretend it wasn't difficult filming those movies but it was an incredible and incredibly rewarding experience."
Working on any Burton film can be a wild experience and Big Fish was no exception.
McGregor had to wrestle with a huge animatronic fish, play opposite real-life circus performers and circus animals.
At one point McGregor puts his head in the mouth of a lion. "They built this beautiful prosthetic lion's head for me to work with but the next shot is me with a real lion.
"I met the lion handlers who had spent their entire lives working with big cats.
"The wife told me as long as I didn't annoy the cats everything would be fine. I got in that cage with a lion and a tiger and they are gargantuan. Suddenly they started roaring.
"Tim had wanted the lion to roar so she tapped him on the head which I think amounts to an annoying gesture because those cats were not happy and nor was I."
McGregor is preparing for what he feels will be another incredible experience.
In April, he and actor Charley Boorman will begin their motorcycle odyssey.
"Charlie is my best mate. We met on The Serpent's Kiss in 1996. We're going to ride our motorbikes around the world.
"We'll be filming each other as we go."
Shortly after he filmed Big Fish in Alabama, McGregor set out alone on his motorbike to ride across the US.
"It's so fascinating to meet people this way. I told Charlie about my America ride and we got to talking about making it this world ride."
McGregor is currently filming Stay for Marc Foster, the director of Monster's Ball.
McGregor plays a professor who is struggling to keep one of his students from committing suicide.
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