ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Hollywood finally embraced Ewan McGregor as a romantic leading man in "Moulin Rouge". So he camps it up once more in the 60s rom-com pastiche Down With Love, opposite RenΓ©e Zellweger. (Don't leave the cinema too early, as McGregor breaks into song once more, for the end credits.)

Were you tempted by the 60s style of Down With Love?

I was very familiar with all of those 60s movies, and thought it would be challenging to play in a comedy in a style that we don't do anymore. It's really a different comedic acting than a contemporary romantic comedy.

The film is typical of the Rock Hudson/Doris Day films of the era. Did you play the role like a secretly gay Rock Hudson?

Am I a little bit gay? Is that what you're asking? My job in the movie wasn't to be Rock Hudson. I was playing a part that Rock Hudson might have played. But I think very masculine men are unattractive to everyone. I did photos for David Bailey once, who said his worst nightmare was four men in a small car. I knew exactly what he meant. There's a feminine side that is attractive.

Did you enjoy the lighter, campier feel to the film?

I don't know if it's campy, but it's absolutely in the 60s sex comedy style with the mad colours, movie sets made entirely on the sound stages of Hollywood, with rear screen projection.

We get to hear you sing during the end credits. Were you actively looking for an opportunity to burst into song again?

Although I love to sing, I'm not a professional singer. I've sung in movies, and I'll continue to do so, but I won't go out of my way to look for a film with music. We recorded a song for the end title sequence just because I thought it would be foolish not to - seeing as RenΓ©e was in Chicago, and I was in Moulin Rouge.

We had to persuade some of the producers to let us do it, which I found really odd. It's a new song that Marc Shaiman wrote for us called Here's To Love. After we recorded it, we had such a laugh that we felt we should film it somehow. The director, Peyton Reed, came up with a brilliant idea that we sing it as our characters appearing on a 60s television show.