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The most challenging scenes of the Star Wars prequels weren't what you might think, according to Ewan McGregor

Melted make-up and fake water was a thing on the Star Wars prequel sets.

News by Joseph Pete, Contributing Writer

Published on Fri Oct 24 2025

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Tatooine plays a prominent role in the Star Wars universe, including in the prequels, but it wasn't an easy place to film.

Ewan McGregor recalls how beastly hot it got in Tunisia, which stood in for the desert planet of Tatooine in the prequels, at a sold-out panel at FAN EXPO Chicago. A fan asked about the most challenging scenes to film in the prequels.

"I just love it so much what we do I don't think it's a challenge," he says. "The stuff in Tunisia that we shot in the desert was hard because it was so hot. It was amazing. You would be in the makeup bus and open the door to come out and step down the step and all your makeup would come off. Luckily, I was wearing mainly brown, and it didn't show up too much on my costume."

"Some of the underwater stuff was quite tricky. You have to hold your breath a long time. As soon as you do that, somewhere in your brain says you should probably breathe. So you start majorly panicking and doing 5-second takes. Everyone in the crew asks, 'is that the best he can do?'"

George Lucas was showing him around the set after he was hired, giving him a tour of the various departments. He saw where the crew was building the submarine he went in with Qui-Gon and Jar Jar Binks.

"I was looking at the submarine they were carving out of polystyrene and asked George if we would go under," McGregor recalls at FAN EXPO Chicago. "He looked at me and went, 'what?' I said, 'will we go underwater in the submarine?' He said, 'There's none of it real, you know.' A small part of me died. The little boy went, 'oh.' It probably wasn't a good idea to put three actors underwater in a polystyrene submarine, you know what I mean. It could go badly."

The Star Wars prequels are streaming on Disney+.

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