Ewan McGregor tells of being attacked by a ghost

WalesOnline.co.uk-- HE MAY be about to play a journalist investigating paranormal goings-on in the US military, but Ewan McGregor can lay claim to a spooky real-life experience of his own.

The Star Wars actor, whose upcoming army satire The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted from a book by Welsh author and presenter Jon Ronson, has revealed he was the victim of ghostly happenings on his 20th birthday.

“I was wandering around in my dressing gown, running a bath when, suddenly, I felt this horrible pain in my back,” said the 38-year-old.


“So I ripped off my dressing gown to discover there was this huge burn mark all across the back of it.”

The next day McGregor told his friend who lived downstairs.

“As I was telling him the story he went white,” he said, adding that the pal went on to tell him that an old man who had previously lived in the house had been caught in a kitchen fire and had died from severe burns to his back.

“I just went, ‘Oh s***!’” he laughed. But he confessed he was “so freaked out” he still moved out.

After that a story about a battalion of psychic spies who can kill goats simply by looking at them hard enough must have seemed pretty normal.

“I just loved the character,” said the Trainspotting star whose performance can be seen when the movie, which also stars Hollywood heavyweights Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges and George Clooney, opens on November 6.

“I liked him because of his journey, because I was playing someone who was broken.”