Why Lumiere From Beauty And The Beast Looks So Familiar

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career ... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who need reasons when you've got heroin?" Few movies have as powerful an opening sequence than that of 1996's seminal, drug-fueled black dramedy "Trainspotting." The above monologue — trimmed for content and time — was delivered to the jaunty beat of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Lust" and laid overtop a montage of various sequences depicting the scummy goings-on of the Edinburgh, Scotland, drug scene. "Trainspotting" was the sophomore offering from British filmmaker Danny Boyle — who would later go on to make "28 Days Later," "Sunshine," and "Slumdog Millionaire" — and was the film that established Ewan McGregor as an international star.

The opening monologue from "Trainspotting" is delivered by McGregor's Mark Renton; he's a jobless heroin addict holed up in Edinburgh and the film chronicles his efforts to become a productive member of society. Renton is trying to get off the junk, but has found it difficult. And it's no wonder, considering the company keeps: Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) is a jittery 007-obsessed addict and Spud (Ewen Bremner) is an unassuming but devious conman and fellow heroin user. Mind you, he's got friends who don't do drugs as well; Begbie (Robert Carlyle) substitutes violence to fill the hole inside him the others fill with drugs. Not even the tragic death of Sick Boy's infant daughter Dawn, through his negligence and that of girlfriend Allison, isn't enough to scare them off their seedy path. 

After getting in legal trouble, Renton is forced to go cold turkey and gets clean but finds existence without drugs meaningless and empty. He eventually chooses life, though at the expense of friendship, when he makes off with thousands of dollars the crew nabbed from selling drugs.

Two years after his first turn as future Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ewan McGregor put his vocal talents to work 15 years before being transformed into mood lighting when he appeared in "Moulin Rouge!" McGregor plays the love-sick young playwright Christian, opposite Nicole Kidman as the object of his affection, the courtesan Satine. The film, a popular jukebox musical from visionary filmmaker Baz Luhrmann ("Romeo + Juliet," "The Great Gatsby"), tells the tale of Christian and his experiences as part of the free-spirited Bohemian movement at the turn of the 20th Century in Paris, France. He falls in with a motley crew of creatives — including a fictionalized version of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo) and a narcoleptic Argentinian — who aim to sell their production, "Spectacular Spectacular," to the owner of the Moulin Rouge theater, Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent). 

In a classic mixup we've seen a million times before, Satine mistakes Christian — who is meant to pitch their show to Zidler's star courtesan — for Zidler's potential investor, the contemptible Duke of Monroth (Richard Roxburgh), to whom she's been offered for the evening. The Duke interrupts when Christian and Satine are in her chambers and they convince him they're simply rehearsing; he agrees to back the show on the condition that no one else is allowed to spend ... personal time with Satine. The writer and the star fall in love but the menacing Duke and her terminal case of tuberculosis will keep them apart in the end. 

According to Variety, McGregor knew "Moulin Rouge!" was going to be a success all along. He reunited with Kidman for the outlet's "Actors on Actors" series, saying "I don't think you do work unless you think it's going to be great. I've never approached anything thinking, 'Well, this might be a bit crap but ...'"

Ewan McGregor washed off the grit and grime of war for a trip to the incredible world inside the head of director Tim Burton for 2003's "Big Fish." The stunning visual tale tells the story of young Edward Bloom (McGregor) — rather, the stories of Edward Bloom, as initially relayed by his son Will (Billy Crudup) to his pregnant wife Joséphine (Marion Cotillard) as they travel back to his hometown of Ashton, Alabama, to visit his dying father. Will is estranged from his dad, finally growing tired of his tall tales when — at the younger Bloom's wedding — Edward tells of catching a giant catfish using his own wedding band on the day Will was born. When they arrive at the hospital to visit Edward (Albert Finney), who's developed cancer, he continues on telling the charming, seemingly fictitious account of his incredible life as a younger man. 

McGregor's younger Edward goes from local sports hero to town savior when he leads a giant named Karl, who's been eating the town's livestock, away with him on his quest for greatness. He travels to the secret town of Spectre, joins the Calloway Circus and befriends a werewolf before traveling via cannon to Auburn University to seek the heart of a beautiful young woman who'd been at the circus. That young woman was Sandra (Alison Lohman), who would become Edward's wife — and later Will's mother (played by Jessica Lange in present time) — before he was drafted to serve in the Korean War. 

Despite his disbelief, Will looks into his father's stories and finds some of them are tied together and grounded in reality, albeit exaggerated. Upon Edward's death, many of the characters from his stories show up to pay their respects, revealing the true nature of his seeming tall tales and deepening Will's love and admiration for his father.