Summary

Best friends Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman share a passion for motorcycles, leading to their epic adventures in the ‘Long Way’ series.

McGregor and Boorman prioritize the journey over competitions, offering viewers an immersive experience that brings the audience along with them.

Boorman highlights the importance of taking scenic routes to explore the world and appreciate local culture.

Ewan McGregor first met Charley Boorman in 1997 on the set of The Serpent’s Kiss, where the two discovered a mutual love of motorcycles. Nearly 30 years and several adventures later, these best friends embarked on a journey from McGregor’s home in the highlands of Scotland to Boorman’s home in England, with a route taking them through the landscapes of Scandinavia and the heart of Eastern Europe, for the 10-episode Apple TV+ series Long Way Home. Navigating it all on vintage bikes – a 1974 Moto Guzzi 850 El Dorado for McGregor and a 1972 BMW R75/5 for Boorman – which sometimes have their own challenging quirks, their trip delves into personal moments, longtime friendship, local culture, and the element of risk that can come from the open road. During this interview with Collider, McGregor and Boorman talked about how it really is all about the adventure, getting to travel with your best friend, the horrible ideas that some execs suggested when they were originally pitching the Long Way series, that horrible phone call you can get when someone has a motorcycle crash, and making the audience feel like their along for the ride on each adventure. McGregor also discussed how nervous he gets while waiting for a live stage performance to start, as he’s currently doing the play My Master Builder in the West End.
Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman See ‘Long Way Home’ as an Excuse for Best Mates to Spend Time Together

“Here we are, 30 years later, still talking about motorcycles.”

Collider: When you guys first met and realized you had this shared passion for motorcycles, could you ever have imagined that bond would lead you to where you are now? CHARLEY BOORMAN: Gosh, no. We met 30 years ago on a movie set. It was the pre-filming party where they get everybody together to get to know each other, and I remember wandering up to Ewan and saying, “Hey, Ewan, I’m playing one of the characters with you and I hear you’re into motorcycles.” And here we are, 30 years later, still talking about motorcycles. It’s been an amazing adventure. We started off with it just being a passion, and going off and doing track days, and we got involved with a motorcycle race team on British superbikes. We’ve done all sorts of stuff together on bikes. And then, it was really Ewan that came up with this idea of traveling around the world. He got this map out and said, “Look, Charley, I think we should head to China.” And then, it went to New York. We never actually made it into China. But we had this journey, and then another one came along, and we just went along with it. Partly, it’s an excuse for two best mates to spend some time together, and part of it is the adventure and getting to travel.

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Related

Long Way Home — Official Trailer | Apple TV+

The boys are back at it. Join Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman, and their two vintage bikes on an epic journey across Europe.

It seems impossible to stay in touch with anyone for that length of time, or to stay in touch with somebody you work with. It takes a certain type of friend to be able to spend that much time on motorcycles together and still be friends at the end of just one trip. What do you guys love most about having each other as that travel buddy? EWAN McGREGOR: It’s something that we’ve created, starting with that Long Way Round trip. We were very adamant, 21 years ago, how we wanted it to be. When we were trying to pitch it around to different TV people to get sponsorship for it, lots of people had some really bad ideas about what it should be, turning it into some sort of competition where whoever got the least points through the journey from doing these random competitions would have their bike crushed when we got to New York. We were like, “No, guys, come on.” We were adamant that the journey was it. We’d go on a journey and film the journey, and that’s all it is. The appeal to the people that like it is that they get to come along. You get a sense that you’re on the trip with us because we’re discovering it and we want the people who like it to discover it with us. We still have that desire. That’s why we’re still doing it. And because we created this thing Long Way, we’ve got this platform now with the luxury to be able to do it again and again if we want to.
‘Long Way Home’ Shows That Getting Back on a Motorcycle After a Serious Accident Takes Mental Courage

“When your body has been broken, a lot of people can fall into a despair.”

Image via Apple TV+

In these episodes, we get to see glimpses of what Charley has been through from the accidents that he’s had. Ewan, what was it like for you to see what he went through with those accidents? McGREGOR: It was two horrible phone calls. The first one, when Charley was in Portugal, you never expect that to happen to you, and you never expect to hear about that happening to your best friend. In the first episode, you get to see some of the aftereffects of those accidents for Charley and it’s brutal. It was just awful. He sent me some photographs that we couldn’t put in the show, of different parts of his body that were really bruised, that I’ll never forget. Charley is an amazing example of not letting those things mentally break you. When your body has been broken, a lot of people can fall into a despair that Charley just wouldn’t let himself get into. It’s been really inspirational for me, and for a lot of other people to see that there’s a mental courage that comes out of that.

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That sure is a long and winding road.

Most of us don’t take the long way home, or what they used to call the scenic route, anymore. We’re always so concerned with finding the shortest or fastest way to get somewhere. Why do you think people should take the long way home once in a while? What are they missing out on if they don’t? BOORMAN: If you’re going to be commuting, when I’ve done a job where I’m going back and forth to the same place, once in a while, if the weather’s a bit nicer, I’ll take a different route to get there. I think it’s healthy to do that. For Long Way Home, the idea was to pack your bike and ride this longer loop to get round to my house, and then you unpack at home. In Ewan’s case, he then jumped back on the bike the next day and rode back to his house, so he could unpack there. We wanted to go on old bikes and have our adventure closer to home to see what’s outside your back door. We rode from Scotland, hopped over into Europe, and then ended up going up to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe and discovering all these places. Neither of us had really spent any time in that part of the world. You can be as busy as you want and you can see as many people as you want on that trip, but at the same time, you can still get lost in the wilderness around there as well.
Ewan McGregor Compares the Level of Anxiety for a Live Stage Performance to That of a Car Accident

“Chemically, you go through that sort of trauma.”

Image via Apple TV+

Ewan, you’re back onstage in the West End, for the first time in 17 years with My Master Builder. When it’s been that long and you wait that long to get back on the stage, does it feel like the first time again? Is it more nerve-wracking? McGREGOR: It’s horrible. You’re just standing in the wings on the opening night, the first night with an audience going, “Why did I decide to do this? What was I thinking? Why?” And then, the light goes green and you’ve got to go on. When you get to the end of the play, it’s an amazing experience. It teaches you a lot about acting, being in front of a live audience. I love it. I’ve got a few months left. I’m really enjoying being in a new play, which is really nice. I’m working with lovely actors. The level of anxiety before going on with those early shows is massive. They did a study once and an actor in his first preview experiences a level of anxiety that’s equal to a mid-range car accident. Chemically, you go through that sort of trauma. BOORMAN: I’ve been through it a little bit as well. People deal with it in all sorts of ways. Some people get sick. You go blank sometimes. I saw it, and it was just fabulous to see him. It was wonderful to watch. You forget who Ewan is up there. You just see him as the character. It’s a pleasure. McGREGOR: That’s nice. Thank you.

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Long Way Home

Release Date

May 9, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Directors

David Alexanian

Long Way Home is available to stream on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer: