Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back on bikes for the fourth series in their epic motorcycle saga around the world, Long Way Home. Over twenty years ago they filmed their first series, Long Way Around (2004), which followed the duo, still in their thirties, riding from London to New York, what the Scottish actor calls “one of the highlights of my life.”
From his breakthrough role in Trainspotting to playing Star Wars’ legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi, McGregor’s star factor surely has risen since that first series. But he’s still playing himself, riding along with his best friend Boorman, anonymous silhouettes on empty roads filming each other from cameras mounted on their crash helmets [they are being filmed from a third bike with two camera guys on it, too].
“Because of the shared experience of doing these journeys together there’s this bond that we have that I don’t share with anyone else,” shares the Scottish actor. In Long Way Down (2007), the two rode from Scotland through 18 countries down to Cape Town, South Africa. And in the last installment, Long Way Up (2020), McGregor and Boorman rode on prototype electric Harleys from the southernmost tip of South America through Central America to McGregor’s home in L.A.
A lot has changed since filming their first Long Way series two decades ago, but you wouldn’t know it from their bikes: McGregor rides a 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado while Boorman chooses a rusty BMW R75/5. After riding into the future on electric bikes that they had to plug-in along remote stretches of Patagonia, McGregor said “the only way to go this time was back.”
In addition to riding vintage bikes, this time the two also are adventuring closer to home, from the rolling hills around McGregor’s childhood home in Scotland to Boorman’s home in England. But as always, they’re taking the scenic route. Zipping along a 17-hairpin pass in Norway up to the Arctic Circle, and then down through the Balkans they clock 7500 miles through 17 countries in 63 days. But they still manage to dive into different cultures and take on challenges along the way, including picking themselves up after a few hairy stretches and falling off the bike.
[OUTSIDE]: So why Long Way Home now? It’s been 20 years since your first Long Way motorcycle road trip.
[Ewan McGregor]: We did our last trip, Long Way Up, just before the world was locked down with the terrible pandemic. It was in sort of a lucky accident that it happened, when it happened.
It had been a long time since we did Long Way Down. We got this very strong sense that it had meant a lot, to a lot of people who had been stuck inside, who hadn’t been able to travel for two years. And just by sheer luck or whatever Long Way Up came out when people were still sort of struggling to get back into coming out of their homes. It meant a lot to people, and it meant a lot to us doing it.
Long Way Up had its own complications—we did the trip on electric bikes which were quite difficult to find a plug for in Patagonia and such places [a fast charger would have been nice too, laughs Boorman]. But we did it, and we just love being back on the road together basically.
On that trip, when we were in Bolivia, we started daydreaming about another one. We came up with the Scandinavian idea; “Long Way Scandi” we used to call it in our helmets as we were chatting to each other. I suppose after we’d been on the cutting-edge-of-technology motorcycles, the only way to go was to go back the other way.
Last time you were riding on super fast electric Harleys, now you’re riding a bit slower on old temperamental bikes. Why old bikes this time around?
[McGregor]: Oh, I’ve always loved old bikes, and I always fancy doing a trip in old classic bikes. We just wanted to do one that was less stressful, more fun. More chance for us just to f*** around and have a laugh. And this sort of loop came out of that idea where we weren’t going to be. We’re not going to have to rush to get a boat from Egypt to Sudan on this one day, or else we wouldn’t be able to do it for another week. So we took the stress out of it, and we just had such a great time.
There were some intense moments when the power went out in Long Way Up and you needed to charge your bikes in the middle of Patagonia. What were the challenges this time?
[Charley Boorman]: I don’t want to point any fingers [points to Ewan in the chair beside him]. With the high-tech bikes you can’t really fix them if they go wrong. But old bikes you can. There’s always somebody somewhere that you bump into who can help you, who has a little workshop in the garage. So the breakdown becomes part of the adventure. The times you get stressed because your bike is broken, you end up meeting all these extraordinary people that can help you, and then that becomes one of the highlights of the journey meeting these interesting, like-minded people. That bumping into strangers is part of it.
[McGregor]: No computers involved. There’s no chip. There’s not a chip on that bike, except for the occasional french fry that’s falling out of my pannier. They’re mechanical and therefore fixable, and on an adventure that’s quite a good idea. You don’t want something that can catastrophically fail.
So Ewan, you’re in all these films now, what do you like about working on something were it’s unscripted; you’re yourself?
[McGregor]: I’ve always made documentaries. I did one about polar bears a long, long time ago up in Churchill, Canada. I’ve made three different movies with my brother about the Royal Air Force because he was a pilot in the Royal Air Force. I’ve always enjoyed them because I don’t have the pressure of playing somebody. It’s just me.
I suppose it’s like a busman’s holiday in a way. We are filming, and we are filmmakers. Charley and I were thinking about getting things across for an audience while we’re doing these trips, but also at the same time, we’ve got an amazing, talented cameraman, Claudio Von Planta, and Max Curtis who we picked up in Chile as our fixer there. And he’s such a great addition to the filming team that we had him come on all of this trip. So Claudio and Max sit on the same motorbike, and it’s just the three bikes for most of the time.
And because they’re so skilled we don’t really have to worry too much, just about being ourselves and meeting people and appreciating what we see, recording it, talking about it, and then hopefully inspiring people to look at this world that we’re lucky to live on. And if we can inspire some people to get out there and travel and experience the world, then we’d be very proud.
Charley, you’ve been in some serious motorcycle accidents over the years…What keeps you getting back on the bike—especially with the camera on you?
Ah, there’s been a lot of crashes, and 2016 was a bad one, lots of operations to get back together. And then 2018 [crash] was much worse. But all my life, I’ve ridden motorcycles, I’ve ridden horses and stuff like that, and you tend to fall off, and you get back on again. The first one with the broken legs I woke up the next morning having gone through a lot of surgery. I’d broken three limbs, and I’d broken my left hand as well as my right hand. I was starting to go down into a into a very deep, dark hole.
Then I realized there was someone in the room with me, and I looked over and there was a guy in the other bed, and he was in a much, much worse place than I was. And I remember looking at him, and I remember looking down at myself, and I remember thinking it’s not that bad actually. So from then on I was lucky enough to be able to sort of jump out of that hole and start to look at wanting to ride a bike again and wanting to have more adventures.
Somehow the motorbike was my therapy to get back on it. It’s very easy to get stuck in a trauma and let that trauma dictate your life and it’s a real rabbit hole. There is nothing you can do about what’s happened, so you may as well look forward.
And having friends like Ewan and knowing that people are around you to help but it’s taken a long time, 30 odd operations to get back and be walking again properly.
So I’m happy to be here with Ewan.
So what’s next? Will there be any more Long Way adventures?
[McGregor]: Well, you just have to wait and see. Who knows? We’re planning a big luxury RV trip.
[Boorman]: With helicopters. [McGregor and Boorman both laugh.]
Long Way Home premieres on May 9, exclusively on Apple TV+.
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