How did George Lucas land Alec Guiness for the first "Star Wars"?

[Bill_Door]

@ArchiveGuy

I’d like a cite for this, because my understanding was that he didn’t hate either at first, but he did come to hate the enormous success they had because they threatened to, as Captain Amazing so adroitly put it, diminish his entire career to a single not-all-that-distinguished part.

You know, surprisingly enough it’s not just distinguished Shakespearean actors who feel that way. I was eating dinner next to Christopher MacDonald in Shreveport, and a guy across the bar yelled “Hey, Shooter”. Mr. MacDonald says “Call me Chris” and then mutters under his breath, “85 movies and everybody calls me Shooter”. He didn’t seem enthusiastic about it.

Could you imagine being Liam Neeson and having someone come up to you and gush about your performance in High Spirits?

[FatBaldGuy]

@Kizarvexius

NPR played an interview with Sir Alec just after he died…

That must have been quite an interview. Did they use a medium or a ouija board?

[garygnu]

@Sampiro

I have read somewhere that one of Lucas’s original choices for the role was Toshiro Mifune, bkf his Kurosawa samurai films and as Lord Toranaga from Shogun. Does anybody know the truth of this?
…

According to this site, the studio nixed the idea with George not terribly upset*:

ultimately the studio and George felt it would be a better selling point to have a well-known white actor in the role

Lucas was heavily influenced by Kurasawa, and if you watch The Hidden Fortress, you can get an idea of what Mifune-as-Kenobi would have been like.

*:I think that’s backed up in the making-of documentary that’s included in the DVD set I have, but I don’t feel like watching it through right now.

[Runestar]

I suspect that it’s difficult for many fanboys (and fangirls) to understand that for actors, any given part is just supposed to be a job to them.

I think it was Michael Caine who, when asked why he’d appeared in so many mediocre movies over his career said "I’m an actor. It’s what I do. "

In other words, not acting doesn’t pay the bills.

So if an actor treats a role like any other role, it annoys the fans of that movie to the extent that they perhaps start talking about so-and-so ‘hating the part’ and ‘hating the movie’, merely because the actor doesn’t treat the film with the same obsession and reverence that the fans do.

I suspect that actors also worry that they’ll become typecast in these situations, and if they’re not careful the supply of work will dry up.

[Terminus_Est]

@CalMeacham

Nope – I’ve written about that too often on this Board.
I swear I saw Jones’ name on the credits, though. I’ll have to check my copy of the tape (I’ve got an old tape, way pre-CGI re-release).

But I note that the iMDB entry for Star Wars doesn’t say Jones is “uncredited”, as it does for The Empire Strikes Back.

See the aforementioned link from the horse’s mouth Episode IV: What Has Changed? [slide #119-120]
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/f20060825/20060825_picview/img/119.jpg
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/release/video/f20060825/20060825_picview/img/120.jpg

The accompanying caption reads:

James Earl Jones was not originally listed in the 1977 credits.

[CalMeacham]

I’m still checking my old tape version.

[dotchan]

@Martini Enfield

If you’ve ever heard Dave Prowse speak, you’ll understand why they couldn’t use his voice for Darth Vader- I’m told the on-set joke was to refer to his role as “Darth Farmer”, on account of his thick Yorkshire accent.

Just as a passing impression, they had a documentary of Star Wars and I thought Prowse sounded kind of like Rick Moranis.

[Mahaloth]

@CalMeacham

I’m still checking my old tape version.

You video recorded the theatrical release of Star Wars in 1977!?!?

Awesome!

Otherwise, why check?

[Mahaloth]

By the way, does anyone have the Letterman clip with Alec Guinness? I’d love to see it.

[Shirley_Ujest]

Slightly related, if anyone wants to read a very charming book, pick up ** My name escapes me** by Alec. I wish more actors kept ‘diaries’ like this.

[CalMeacham]

Otherwise, why check?

Because, as I said above, it’s an old tape version, made well before the CGI re-releases, and it represents the film pretty much as originally released.

[Guinastasia]

@Kizarvexius

[Eyegore] On the nosey! [/Eyegore]

NPR played an interview with Sir Alec just after he died wherein he expressed his disgust for the fanboys who could not seem to understand that the Star Wars universe was fictional. He seemed rather disturbed at the sheer number of fans who approached him in public under the delusion that he actually was a Jedi Knight (he pronounced it “JED-ee”), that he carried a real lightsabre under his jacket, and that the whole “Alec Guinness” identity was some superhero-esque front to deceive the ignorant public.

The other Obi-Wan, Ewan McGregor once said that while he loves it when kids ask him about SW, and even doesn’t mind when adults express admiration for it, he HATES the geeks who treat it like it’s real. He had one guy ask him to train him as a Jedi Knight. McGregor told him to fuck off.

So, while it seems like McGregor is a lot nicer about it, it’s gotta be fucking annoying to be bothered by the super SW geeks (think Comic Book Guy).

[Elendil_s_Heir]

My MIL read My Name Escapes Me a few years ago, and liked it very much. I checked the index and read the passages where Guiness mentioned SW. He did become annoyed by the fanboys who focused on SW to the exclusion of the rest of his career.

I once saw him in a London production of A Walk in the Woods with Edward Hermann, and met him at the stage door afterwards to get my program autographed. He was glad to do it, but got annoyed at a German guy who asked him to sign some 8x10 color glossies of Obi-Wan. “You’re just going to turn around and sell these, aren’t you?” he asked a bit crossly. But he signed them just the same.

[Yorikke]

@Made in Macau

Fuck no - it was called…‘Star Wars’

Sorry to everyone who knows this.

As I said, I KNOW THE MOVIE WAS CALLED STAR WARS until Phantom Menace came out. Christ.

@wheresgeorge04

Didn’t it? I know that the movie itself wasn’t called “Star Wars Episode IV : A New Hope” until the Phanom Menace was released (I HATE the fact that they changed the name, BTW), but I seem to recall the opening crawl headlined with that phrase, at least on the original 1980s video release…

Joe

[JohnT]

@Trunk

His wiki page has this:

Alec Guinness - Wikipedia

That seems to have a much smaller degree of people pulling things out of their butts than the rest of this thread.

Well, there is this line in the Wiki article:

Guinness reportedly grew so tired of modern audiences seeming to remember him only for his role of Obi-Wan Kenobi that he would throw away unopened the fan mail he received from Star Wars fans.

Must be some Jedi mind-trick thing, this ability to throw away unopened letters from unknown people because you don’t like the contents within.

[Miller]

@CalMeacham

Because, as I said above, it’s an old tape version, made well before the CGI re-releases, and it represents the film pretty much as originally released.

They’re not talking about the CGI releases, Cal. There was another release, in 1981, when they altered the credits significantly, including adding the “New Hope” title. Unless you’ve got a VHS copy that predates 1981, it’s not going to prove anything about the credits in the 1977 version.

[madmonk28]

@JohnT

Must be some Jedi mind-trick thing, this ability to throw away unopened letters from unknown people because you don’t like the contents within.

Well, when the return address is Tatoonie you don’t need much more data.

[NDP]

@by JohnT

Must be some Jedi mind-trick thing, this ability to throw away unopened letters from unknown people because you don’t like the contents within.

@madmonk28

Well, when the return address is Tatoonie you don’t need much more data.

Or if it’s addressed to “Obi-Wan ‘Ben’ Kenobi.”

[Sampiro]

The Letterman appearance isn’t on YouTube, but it’s older than I thought- September 26, 1986 to be precise. I must have seen a repeat because I’m certain I saw it in the early 90s as I was in college with my cousin at the time (by definition the early 90s) and we both thought “OMG what a snobbish douche about a role that bought him a castle [or could have anyway]” and we talked about how he needed to loosen up, and then we talked about what he’d probably be doing if it weren’t for that role and started doing imitations of “Alterni-Guinness: IN A WORLD where Kenobi was played by another actor… what would Alec be doing…”, and ultimately we made a video using equipment from the video lab we worked in in which I was the host of “COOKIN’ WITH SIR AL”/"SIR ALEC TEACHES YOU PING-PONG and weirdest of all, with help from some the excellent theater department of a local black college who were appearing in a joint production of our campus and theirs (I was in theater at the time) we did greenroom improv one night in which I played Sir Alec Guinness in his alterniverse guest appearance as “English Harry, the Homeless Guy” on WHAT’S HAPPENIN’ NOW (one of the worst syndicated/latter-day series ever- but in our version the guy who played Rerun was frigging dead-ON in the dancing scene with Sir Alec- IIRC the plot had something to do with Shirley finding a homeless English guy and giving him a job washing dishes and later finding out he’s a crack lord).
Anyway, it was horribly cheesy- not even YouTube worthy- but we had a blast and people we showed it to loved it. Today I’d probably watch it and say “WTF?” and “Damn what was I thinking with my hair… and I sure have aged”. Unfortunately in those pre-digital days it got taped over. So it goes.
The point is don’t do drugs.

Speaking of Star Wars/Letterman/James Earl Jones, the latter’s reading of the Top 10 Things That Sound Classy When James Earl Jones Says Them was also a classic moment. I don’t remember them all, but among them were Heebie Jeebies, Big Ass Ham, and number one was Oprah.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@wheresgeorge04

As I said, I KNOW THE MOVIE WAS CALLED STAR WARS until Phantom Menace came out. Christ.

Sorry, no.

When the original film was re-released in 1981, “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added above the original opening crawl. That was nearly 2 decades before “Phantom Menace” came out.

I remember the hubbub that changed caused at the time.