IN THE PIAZZA of the Hotel Metropol, Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are saying a touching goodbye. The lights are dimmed, a double bass twanging a bluesy shuffle, the hotel guests dancing casually. “Would you do me the honour of one last dance?” asks McGregor. The pair stand, embrace, sway. There are hushed whispers of travel documents, a declaration of love, a kiss —before Winstead wrenches herself away, not looking back as she strides towards the foyer, leaving McGregor stood alone.
And cut. This isn’t a surprisingly dramatic moment in McGregor and Winstead’s real-life marriage that Empire has inadvertently stumbled upon —it’s a pivotal scene in upcoming Paramount+ drama A Gentleman In Moscow, a decades-spanning epic that intertwines romance and political intrigue against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Based on Amor Towles’ bestselling novel, it sees McGregor’s aristocratic Count Rostov spared the firing squad —instead sentenced to life imprisonment in the Metropol. Winstead’s film actress Anna Urbanova is one of many life-changing relationships the hotel offers him —and the pair’s off-screen chemistry is palpable as they replay their farewell multiple times over.
In his trailer later that day, scene firmly in the can, McGregor seems remarkably composed.