Scottish actor Ewan McGregor recently helped to lift the spirits of a female understudy in his Broadway play The Real Thing by delivering a one-off commencement speech after the student missed her graduation ceremony.

Rae Gray was forced to skip the traditional end-of-college celebration at the University of Chicago, Illinois over the weekend (13-14Dec14) due to her commitment to work on the New York stage play, so MCGregor took it upon himself to make it up to the 22 year old by posing as the event speaker backstage at the American Airlines Theatre on Sunday afternoon (14Dec14).

He even handed Gray a graduation cap to wear as he gave the speech to his audience of one.

She shared a photo of the unique experience on her Instagram.com page, alongside the caption, "Graduated from The University of Chicago today. Thanks to Ewan for a fabulous commencement speech."