BOORMAN When we first hit Kazakhstan, we still expected there to be proper roads.
MCGREGOR We were f---ing wrong. There were potholes the width of this room and four feet deep.
BOORMAN We were endlessly off our bikes. What was that one road called?
MCGREGOR The Road of Death. When we got through it three days later and we hit tarmac — even though it was still shite — it was like finding heaven. Charley was on the ground kissing the road.
EW Is there something about making movies that's too cushy for you?
MCGREGOR You don't make any decisions for yourself — other than the ones you make in front of the camera. Someone picks you up; they tell you where to go when you get there, when you're going to have lunch, and what you might have. It's not surprising that actors wind up behaving in such awful, childish manners because you end up being treated a bit like a child. So I started going on solo bike trips when I was in Australia doing Moulin Rouge and the second Star Wars film, partly to get away from people and be on my own, but also to make my own decisions — to decide where I stopped and when I stopped. After that, whenever I finished a big movie, I would go on a bike trip. After Big Fish, I rode from Alabama to L.A. on a Harley. And after Down With Love, I rode across France for a week. Another great thing about riding a bike is it gives you time to reflect. On your bike you're just alone inside your helmet.
EWWhat was the trip's scariest moment?
MCGREGOR I got rear-ended in Canada. A kid in a car behind me went right over the back of me. I didn't come off, luckily. It's funny, my first reaction was one of absolute joy. I got off the bike and I was like, ''Yeahhhh! I didn't go down!'' The kid was terrified.
EW What was the worst food you ate on the trip?
MCGREGOR Sheep's balls . . .
BOORMAN . . . in Mongolia. We stopped off by this camp of nomads and once a year they cut the testicles off their male animals — they obviously keep the prime ones to mate — but we turned up on that day. They lifted this ladle out and all these testicles were falling out.
MCGREGOR Big ones, little ones. It's the idea of sucking down a testicle that puts you off.
BOORMAN Ewan ate his. I got mine halfway down and it came straight back up.
EW Ewan, you had a crazy Grizzly Adams beard when you got home. What did your wife, Eve, think of it?
MCGREGOR She didn't like it. It's funny, you haven't seen the woman you love most in the world for three and a half months and you're quite nervous about seeing each other again, and she later said it was unfortunate because all she could see when she looked at me was the beard. It had been so long and I couldn't kiss her without getting a mouthful of my own mustache. It was a great beard, though.
EW Ewan, I noticed outside you have this sweet '65 Mustang convertible, but in the back you've got a baby seat. You seem to have this whole dad-versus-badass dichotomy . . .
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