Ewan McGregor details role in 'Last Days in the Desert'

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Ewan McGregor was initially daunted by the prospect of portraying Jesus in Last Days of the Desert.

The 43-year-old actor admitted as much in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Last Days of the Desert stars McGregor as both Jesus and the Devil, and premiered Sunday at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

"The idea of playing Jesus is really intimidating," he confessed. "And so very quickly I stopped sort of worrying myself about the idea of playing Jesus but to look at playing a man who's trying to communicate with his father and who's finding it frustrating and difficult to do so."

Last Days of the Desert reimagines the temptation of Christ in the Judaean Desert. McGregor told Yahoo! Movies the dual role is open to interpretation, but said he envisioned the characters as two different people.

"I played them as he's the Devil and he's Jesus," he shared. "A lot of what the Devil is saying to Jesus is trying to create doubt and [expletive] with him, really. But that being said, I was never trying to suggest that [the Devil wasn't real and] just another sort of Jesus' doubt."

Last Days of the Desert is helmed by Rodrigo Garcia (Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Nine Lives) and co-stars Ciaran Hinds, Ayelet Zurer and Tye Sheridan as a father, mother and son Jesus encounters in the wilderness.

McGregor last appeared with Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow in Mortdecai, and is scheduled for a number of upcoming projects, including Jane Got a Gun with Natalie Portman and Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead with Don Cheadle.