Teachers at a Hampstead primary school were more excited than the children when Hollywood heartthrob Ewan McGregor stopped by during the filming of his latest blockbuster.
The Scottish actor, 42, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, dropped in on St Luke’s Church of England Primary School in Kidderpore Avenue last week during a break in filming.
He was in Hampstead shooting his new movie Mortdecai, based on the trilogy of novels by Kyril Bonfiglioli, about an art dealer. Johnny Depp and Belsize Park resident Gwyneth Paltrow also star.
Headteacher Gill Tyler said: “We’ve never had a film star here before. Some of the younger ones were just thinking ‘Who’s standing here?’ but the older ones knew he was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Children of that age tend to catch on with the excitement.”
Some of the children may not have known who the star was but the teachers definitely did, with some female staff members becoming very excited.
“It all happened very, very quickly,” Mrs Tyler said. “Someone brushed their hair a little bit more than usual but we didn’t get much notice so there wasn’t very much they could do.”
When the road was suddenly blocked off the day before the visit, teachers found out that the movie star was filming just yards away at Craxton Studios and asked the production manager if the film star could spare five minutes to meet the children.
Family man Mr McGregor was kind enough to oblige the swooning staff members, and popped into every classroom to ask what the children were learning.
Mrs Tyler then had a brainwave and asked the Trainspotting and Moulin Rouge! star if he would officially open their newly-built summer gazebo in the playground, which was finished during the October half-term.
A quick-thinking teacher found some blue ribbon in a drawer, tied it into a bow and handed Mr McGregor a pair of scissors to cut it at the makeshift ceremony in front of the gazebo.
Mrs Tyler said: “We had been thinking that we wanted something special and this just seemed ‘Wow!’ He really got on with the children and asked them about what they were learning and went into all the classrooms. It was so kind of him to take the time.”
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