What Ewan McGregor (55) Eats During Long Filming Days

On a film set, when the cameras stop and the crew breaks for lunch, you find out quickly what an actor is actually like. The craft services table does not lie. And in Ewan McGregor’s case, what it reveals about him is almost comically unpretentious.

The man who played Obi-Wan Kenobi across three ‘Star Wars’ films and spent years riding motorcycles across the most remote corners of the planet has a straightforward answer when asked about his favorite food. A boiled egg. With toast.

The Philosophy That Has Never Changed

McGregor has said that working as a waiter early in life gave him a genuine appreciation for good, simple food, and that nothing has ever topped a boiled egg with toast. He has repeated this position in various forms for decades without any apparent desire to upgrade it.

When Men’s Journal asked him about his favorite meal to cook, his answer was equally unshowy. “Eggs, omelettes, pasta,” he said. “I’m like a student.”

How Sobriety Changed Everything

The deeper story behind McGregor’s relationship with food is inseparable from his sobriety. He stopped drinking in 2001 after years of struggling with alcohol, and has spoken openly about how that decision changed every other part of his life, including how he treats his body.

Before that, he has said, he would show up to sets having been drinking and would continue drinking on breaks. After getting sober, he described becoming “much more part of the world.” That shift extended to what he put on his plate and how much attention he paid to it.

Running Instead of Dieting

McGregor stays lean not through careful meal planning but through running, which he has described as something close to meditation. Five to eight miles is his standard several times a week, and he actively dislikes the gym. Free weights and treadmills bore him. Fresh air and distance are the formula.

That approach to staying in shape is reflected in how he eats: functional, honest food that does not require a nutritionist to explain.

On the Road and On the Plate

His Apple TV+ series ‘Long Way Home’ sent him through seventeen European countries on a vintage motorcycle in 2025, and the food was a genuine part of the journey. Eating locally, stopping when hungry, letting the road decide the meal.

On the show’s companion podcast, he and co-traveler Charley Boorman discussed everything from boiled egg debates to tomahawk steak, with McGregor recalling a chance meeting with Delia Smith that clearly stuck with him.

The picture that emerges is of someone who genuinely means it when he says simple food is the best food. No performance, no wellness protocol, no carefully curated set diet. Just a Scotsman who really does prefer a boiled egg on toast, and runs a few miles to earn it.