Ewan McGregor likes ‘kissing boys on screen’

LOS ANGELES — Ewan McGregor says he doesn’t mind getting intimate with his fellow male stars, including his “I Love You Phillip Morris” co-star Jim Carrey — but the actor does take issue with the de-gaying of his latest movie.

“There was talk that Disney fended off the release (of ‘I Love You Phillip Morris’) until after ‘A Christmas Carol’ came out,” McGregor told Out Magazine in its March issue when asked about the delayed movie. “They didn’t want kids thinking (Carrey’s) Ebenezer Scrooge was a bender.”

The actor thinks it’s ridiculous when the media attempts to pretend like “Phillip Morris” is not a gay movie.

“I’m very keen that it’s a gay movie,” McGregor said of the movie, which will finally hit theaters on March 26. “There was quite a lot of talk at Sundance (in 2009) that ‘Well, it’s not a gay movie. It’s a film about guys who happen to be gay.’ And I was thinking, it’s nothing but a gay movie. It’s about a gay couple, about a man’s sexuality, and he comes out. It’s not the point of the film, but let’s not pretend it’s not a gay film.”

The trend of “de-gaying” films has been a hot topic lately in Hollywood, discussed recently by several media outlets including CNN regarding the marketing of recent films like “Valentine’s Day” and “A Single Man.”

Slideshow: Celebrity Sightings The actor, who has played a slew of LGBT characters during his career including roles in 1996’s “The Pillow Book” and 1998’s “Velvet Goldmine,” told the mag he doesn’t mind doing what many of his fellow male colleagues shy away from.

“I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it’s quite an interesting proposition,” he explained. “Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good.”

McGregor also discussed his tendency to go full frontal in several of his films, including “Trainspotting,” “The Pillow Book,” “Velvet Goldmine” and “Young Adam.”

“I remember getting a kind of rush out of that first time,” he explained. “A slight feeling of power about it, you know?”

The actor, who is also starring in Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” opening in limited release on Feb. 19, told Out that he loves to challenge himself with the roles he takes.

“I’m always interested in playing different people, in different situations. It doesn’t matter to me whether someone is in love with a man or a woman,” he told the mag. “I find the idea of love and romance interesting. I’m a sucker for it. I like playing someone who’s falling in love because I like the sensation of it. People do extraordinary things when they’re falling in love.”