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Ewan McGregor was seated beside his co-star George Clooney at the Venice Film Festival, where their film The Men Who Stare at Goats premiered, when a man at the back of a packed press conference dropped his drawers and asked Clooney for a kiss.

“I am gay, George,” the man giddily proclaimed. “Take me, choose me, George, please. May I kiss you, just once?”

McGregor's mouth dropped open. But Clooney filled the awkward pause with a trademark quip and mild reproof: “It's hard when you take a big chance and it doesn't really work.”

Days later, McGregor was in Toronto promoting Grant Heslov's black comedy at this city's film festival and, in an early-morning interview with java in hand, he made no bones about dissing the guy for pulling a stunt that made all the serious journalists in the room hang their heads in shame.

“We spoke to many journalists the following day who apologized for that man,” said McGregor, dressed in black, with skinny jeans rolled up into cuffs. “I felt bad for them because, for most media, that press conference was the only shot they had to talk to George. And this idiot takes his clothes off and the tone's been lowered.”

“ My first scene with Jeff Bridges, we were supposed to be tripping on acid. And we had these amazing contact lenses that made us look like we had big, black eyes.”

McGregor, raised by teachers in the tiny Scottish village of Crieff, is a very private straight shooter who never discusses his marriage (to French production designer Eve Mavrakis), or their three kids.

He's also one of a rare breed – having worked with all manner of celebrities – who still gets star-struck when he meets a fellow actor he respects. “I knew George was on board and I'd wanted to work with him for ages. Then someone mentioned that Jeff Bridges had also signed on, and I was, like, ‘Oh, you're kidding,' 'cause that was so exciting,” says McGregor, 38, who spent his early years in small independent films such as Trainspotting and Velvet Goldmine before hitting the big league as Obi-Wan Kenobi in three Star Wars films.

“My first scene with Jeff Bridges, we were supposed to be tripping on acid. And we had these amazing contact lenses that made us look like we had big, black eyes,” he says with a chuckle. “Here I was with this dude and we're supposed to be high on LSD. And it was just too much. It was great.”

Shot at the end of last year in Puerto Rico and New Mexico, The Men Who Stare at Goats tells the true story of the U.S. Army's efforts to train a unit of psychic soldiers who believe they can read the enemy's thoughts, pass through solid walls and even kill a goat simply by staring it down.

Ewan McGregor and George Clooney with director Grant Heslov on the set of The Men Who Stare at Goats.

In the film, McGregor plays the so-called straight man, Bob Wilton, a desperate reporter who stumbles upon the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a psychic American soldier redeployed post-9/11.

“Most of the stuff in the film – especially the most unbelievable parts – are all true,” says McGregor. “The mundane bits we made up. The journalist in Iraq – my story, the character I play – is an invention.

“When I first read the script, I was worried a little bit that Bob was going to be quite a bland character in amongst all these very colourful characters. But Grant [Heslov] assured me that wasn't how he saw it. In fact, Bob, who is humiliated and emasculated by his wife, who runs off with the one-armed editor at the paper, comes into his own, and in the end, I think is happy with his lot.”

McGregor quit school at 16 and eventually studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Last year, he returned to the stage as Iago in a London production of Othello . But in 2009, he switched back to feature films, including Amelia (shot in Toronto with Hilary Swank), Roman Polanski's unfinished film The Ghost , this Friday's The Men Who Stare at Goats , I Love You Phillip Morris with Jim Carrey, and David Mackenzie's The Last Word , now shooting in Glasgow.

“I like to be busy,” says McGregor with a shrug. “So last year I thought I'd just get back into making films, and I'm really enjoying it. At the moment, I'm going from one thing to the next. And when I'm not working, I step away, and go back home to have as normal a life as possible.”