Ewan McGregor has revealed how he thought he blew his chances of starring in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio after a "nightmare" first meeting with the director.
While the world is currently busy watching a live-action remake of Pinocchio starring Tom Hanks on Disney+, Del Toro has been quietly going about his business making his own version of the classic fairytale.
Del Toro's version will be a stop-motion picture and his first outing directing an animated feature.
It will have a more serious tone than Disney's version as it takes place in 1930s fascist Italy.
McGregor will lend his voice to Sebastian J. Cricket in the movie. But, judging by his comments on the Smartless podcast, he initially believed he messed up his chances.
"I went to meet Guillermo, I thought to discuss the role, and to discuss what we were going to do with it," he told Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes.
"I arrived and I was in a sound studio in front of a mic with a lectern and script, and he was behind the glass going, 'Let's start off with cue one.' I hadn't read the script. I thought we were just having a chat. I started trying to do it. I couldn't tell him.
"Of course, I had an idea of who Jiminy Cricket was but it didn't seem to be anything like what I was reading on the page.
"I didn't know what accent to use or what. I almost got to the point where I wanted to cry, I was so embarrassed. I did about 25 minutes of this nightmare.
"I was really tearing up. I went, 'I have to tell you, I haven't read the script, I wasn't sent it, I thought we were having a discussion.'
"Thank God, I hadn't been sent it, even though I didn't know that for absolute sure."
As well as McGregor, Pinocchio will star David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio trailer
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