He may have been taken "totally by surprise" by his Golden Globe nomination for "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" Thursday, but on Friday, Ewan McGregor joined TODAY's Savannah Guthrie to talk about his next film, "The Impossible" -- a fictionalization of one family's true-life experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
"There was something very honest and truthful about the script, I thought," he said. "Brutal, really. Because it was a horrendous situation to get caught up in. But by focusing on this one family it was a unique look at the devastation of that event."
He recognized that there was a "responsibility" to everyone who was caught up in the tsunami, which killed over 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. "We had to focus on making the film honest and true and not letting it spill over into Hollywood," he said.
And, in case "Star Wars" fans needed a little more reassurance, Guthrie made sure that the actor confirmed his interest in returning to that film series (he played Obi-Wan Kenobi as a young man). "George (Lucas) always talked about there being nine stories, so it's nice that there will be nine stories. And if they need me, I'll be there of course."
"The Impossible" opens in limited release on Dec. 21.
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