ST Cast Member Quotations Regarding the Sequel Trilogy -- No Discussion

To complement the other thread with quotes from George Lucas, here is one in which we can quote what cast members have to say. Please put quotes with sources and dates, without commentary:


Entertainment Tonight interview with Mark Hamill, 1983:

Hamill: It's the last one for everyone except for the two robots. They are the only ones who go through the three trilogies, the nine stories.

Shriver: I've heard that you've been hired to come back as Luke Skywalker in the last Star Wars film 18 years from now. Is that true?

Hamill: In, in something like 2004 or something.

Shriver: You're going to be back?

Hamill: But you see its okay because it's either going to be on another plane of existence or not the same character and I can't really tell you why without sort of getting into sensitive material.

Source:]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKD1xx0u-vs - 3:20 mark onwards.


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From 2004:

“He [Lucas] talked about doing a VII, VIII, IX,” Hamill began.

“You know when I first did this, it was four trilogies. 12 movies! And out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing. I said, ‘Why are you starting with IV, V and VI? It’s crazy.’ [Imitating Lucas grumble,] ‘It’s the most commercial section of the movie.’ He said the first trilogy’s darker, more serious. And the impression I got, he said, ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ This is 1976.

‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’ I defy anyone to add 36 years to their lives and not be stunned. Even an eight year old is like, ‘No, I’ll never be 47.’

So I did the math and figured out how old I’d be. I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.’”

Source: http://www.movieweb.com/news/mark-hamill-talks-star-wars-7-8-and-9

 

From another 1983 television interview:

Hamill: He {Lucas] at one time said, "Would you consider playing an Obi-Wan-type character, handing Excalibur down to the next generation?" I said, "When would that be?" and at the time he said, "Around 2011."

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UGV7WVB-bA

 

Dear Mods, If you think it is a good idea to do so, feel free to pin this thread. I envisage that, after the cast are formally announced and start giving interviews over the coming year, we can capture any tidbits they reveal about the plot, settings and their characters here.

People, always capture direct quotes if you add anything to this thread and follow the rules that Pfluegermeister has established for his George Lucas quotes thread so that we have sources and dates and that both threads have a consistent format. Cheers.

 

Yup, will sticky this one too. Thanks.

Note: As in the Lucas thread, posts without quotations (discussion, etc.) will be removed.

 

Hamill:

"They're talking to us. George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we'd be interested. He did say that if we didn't want to do it, they wouldn't cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out."

[snip]

"I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous – in my opinion, anyway," said Hamill. "And another thing I'd want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Are Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that's around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure everybody's on board here, rather than just one."

[snip]

"I'm assuming, because I haven't talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring – like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character," he said. "When I found out [while making the original trilogy] that ultimate good news/bad news joke – the good news is there's a real attractive, hot girl in the universe; the bad news is she's your sister – I thought, 'Well, I'm going to wind up like Sir Alec [Guinness]. I'm going to be a lonely old hermit living out in some kind of desert igloo with a couple of robots.'"

- Guardian, February 21st, 2013. Link: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/feb/21/mark-hamill-star-wars-movie


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McDiarmid:

“There’s been all sorts of rumors. No conversations have been had, and no deals have been struck. And anyway, I’m dead…but I could be resurrected. Yes, I’ve heard of ghosts, I’ve heard of clones. There’s all sorts of possibilities. But until I get that phone call, like the one I had before, I won’t believe I’m in it. And I think I won’t be working for it, because it’s a whole new world now that I think is going to be invented. There might be some old favorites in it, but I should imagine it’s about the adventures of the descendents of the first characters and new villains that no one except George has ever imagined. And I hope it is, because the great thing about Disney is that it will continue in a new form with new people and be reinvented, just like all great works of art are sooner or later.”

Comicbook.com, August 24th, 2014. Source: http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/08/24/star-wars-episode-vii-ian-mcdiarmid-addresses-emperor-rumors/

 

LOL. Okay, you got me. 'Twas 2013.

 

"During the Wizard World Nashville Comic Con, Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando Calrissian in two Star Wars movies, was asked if he would be participating in Star Wars Episode VII.”
“Everybody wants to know that. I have no idea,” said Williams. “I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re still just in the middle of writing all that stuff. Obviously a lot of rumors are going around, but I don’t know. But if they ask, I’m quite happy to do it.”

If Billy Dee Williams does get the opportunity to be part of Star Wars Episode VII, he has a couple ideas on how his character could come back.
“My idea was to come back with a daughter who was a Jedi, a beautiful daughter who was a Jedi,” said Williams. “But then somebody else came up with the idea of having a son, who’s a villain, which would be very interesting.”"

Comicbook.com, August 20th, 2013. Source: http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/10/2...illiams-talks-coming-back-with-a-villain-son/

 

Liam Neeson:
«J'adorerais revenir dans Star Wars! Mais personne ne m'a contacté pour l'instant. J'attends que le téléphone sonne…»

English translation:
"I'd love to return to Star Wars! But no one has contacted me yet.I am waiting for the phone to ring... "

Le Figaro, January 28th, 2014. Source: http://www.lefigaro.fr/cinema/2014/...vii-liam-neeson-pret-a-reprendre-le-sabre.php

 

Note: This thread is being "unstickied" now, but please continue to use it as needed (still no discussion here).

 

Just a reminder, ladies and gents, that now that we know a large number of cast members, you can post any quotes by them in this thread. So if Daisy, John, Max von Sydow or anyone else lets something slip about the plot or locations or their characters, feel free to put it in here, abiding by the rules outlined in my first post at the top. Cheers.

 

I just posted this in another thread but it is worth putting here as well for posterity. It is an old quote from an interview Abrams gave about Star Trek into Darkness but it may contain clues about the tone of SW7 as well.

Is Abrams hinting at a happy ending despite a trailer [for Star Trek into Darkness] that looks dark, violent and suggests deaths from some of the​

major characters?​

​

​

"I don't like going to the movies to feel bad. I don't like going to the movies to feel depressed and feel​

diminished. The reason you go to the movies is to feel bigger and stronger and happier. So this is a movie that they​

certainly go ‘Into Darkness,' but I would be the wrong director if it was about characters staying there..."​

Source: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...ess-over-a-dozen-new-photos-revealed-20121224
December 24th, 2012

(NOTE: I am happy if we capture quotes from Abrams in this thread as well, even if it is meant to be ostensibly about cast members, rather than create a separate one for him.)

 

Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher has said the latest film in the Hollywood franchise will let her "get Princess Leia right this time".

Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, Fisher said of her role: "I think less British. I looked a little pretentious faking the accent."

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27563839 May 25th, 2014.

 

Interviewer: What do you think Princess Leia is like today?​

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Carrie Fisher: Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs]​

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I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle.​

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Source: http://www.palmbeachillustrated.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.details&ArticleId=2886#.UTap7hz_l8H


March 2013

 

From Hamill's Reddit interview:

Question: Older Luke Skywalker: beard or no beard?​

[–]RealMarkHamillMark Hamill 2094 points 5 months ago​

Well based on what has gone before, I have a feeling it's beard, but I have no confirmation of that. My wife said if you grow a beard, you'll cover up your cleft chin. That's not something that occurred to me. But I can only guess. I've never read any of the novelizations or anything but someone said to me, 'you're married, you have children.' Based on Obi-Wan I would have guessed I'd be living in an igloo or something. He was more spiritual, he didn't have a wife or children. And when you find out one of the only eligible women in the galaxy is your sister, it really cuts down on your odds of hooking up with anyone. But that's not what these movies are about. The charm of the trilogy is it appeals to the child in all of us. It goes back to playing in your backyard. It's very primal, it's good versus evil, a high sense of adventure.​

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​

[snip]​

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Question: Hi Mark! Possibly stupid question: Do you find yourself at home trying to move things with the force? Example: TV remote across the room. I ask this because I have done this many times hoping it would finally move. It hasn't. Yet.​

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[–]RealMarkHamillMark Hamill 2653 points 5 months ago​

That's the thing, that's what fairy tales are made of. You wish you could do all these things, fly like Peter Pan, telekineses i think it's called.​

You should always believe. Don't go through life being skeptical. One thing that makes the films distinct is how optimistic they are. The philosophy is very uplifting and very positive. it was a way to approach the subject of spirituality without knocking you over the head with it. The force could be religion, science, magic.​

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I love that people can make what they want of it, and that they could find courage in their life. I've heard so many stories about what a positive thing it's been for people.​

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Keep trying to make that remote lift, never give up. One day it will happen.​

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[snip]​

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Question: Apparently Carrie Fisher let it slip that you guys will be in Episode 7, any response?​

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[–]RealMarkHamillMark Hamill 3995 points 5 months ago​

The only character I know for sure is returning is my friend R2-D2. He hasn’t stopped beeping about it.​

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Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1vvul8/mark_hamill_here_in_an_ama_far_far_away/
January 22nd, 2014.

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Not directly related to SW7, but here are some interesting quotes of tangential relvance from an old interview with Max von Sydow:

... And cinephiles who saw von Sydow soar to great cinematic heights as the star of Ingmar Bergman’s 1956 masterpiece The Seventh Seal shouldn’t be too taken aback by his current role as a supernatural villain in a mainstream horror flick. The 63-year-old actor has had an abiding interest in the fantastic ever since he was a child growing up in a small town in the south of Sweden.​

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​

“You see, I had an odd upbringing,” says von Sydow during a break from filming at Vancouver’s North Shore Studios. “My father was a scholar, a professor in the town where I was born, and his subject was folklore. He was a master at telling stories, folktales, and adventures. I was very shy as a child and heard more fairy tales than the average child because of my father. I think this and my shyness prompted my imagination, and led to an interest in make believe.”​

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​

[snip]​

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Nightmares of another kind—owing to a botched movie effort—were rampant among viewers of Dune, the big-budget sci-fi flop based on Frank Herbert’s celebrated novel. But if the end result was poor, von Sydow’s experiences working with writer/director David Lynch on that project were healthy.​

​

​

“I enjoyed that. I was just very sorry that David Lynch was not allowed to make a longer film than he did. It was not fair to the project, it was not fair to the subject, it was not fair to David Lynch to cut it down as much as it was. It should have been a long film, or even better it should have been a miniseries for television. It’s such a fantastic book, it’s a terrific book, I must say.​

​

​

“But the film, as far as I can see, failed because it was too short, and all the wonderful structure, all the backgrounds, all the worlds which I think were very intelligently portrayed in the book—you didn’t really understand them in the film. They had to put in a narrator to explain things, et cetera, et cetera, and it was not fair to David Lynch. David is such an imaginative filmmaker.”​

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[snip]​

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.... [Von Sydow] says that he enjoys genre films, for the most part. It helps if they’re decent movies as well.​

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“I don’t like just any scary movie,” he says. “Some of them, I must say, I think are terribly silly. And terribly bad. But if they are good, yes. I think one of the most thrilling films I’ve seen—which has nothing to do with supernatural things, but is terrifically suspenseful—was Runaway Train. Andrei Konchalovsky directed that, and that was fantastic and terrifically well acted.​

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“But also, if we stay with Stephen King, I think that both The Shining and Misery, now lately, were very good films, and very scary movies.”​

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Source: http://earofnewt.com/2014/03/25/max-von-sydows-odd-upbringing-led-to-roles-as-jesus-and-the-devil/

March 25th, 2014 - based on an older interview from 1993.

 

Ewan McGregor:

In a new interview, McGregor said he expects to reprise the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi now that original actor Alec Guinness is no longer with us.​

​

“I would [do it], I would. I can only imagine I would be a hologram-type person because Alec Guinness can’t do it now,” he told Jimmy Fallon, via /Film. “There was always to be nine stories. He shot the middle three originally, we shot the first three, and then he told me that he wouldn’t make the last three because he had other things planned.”​

McGregor also revealed that he knew about the Disney/Lucasfilm sale before most others did, saying, “[Lucas] let me know the night before that it was announced, which was nice.”​

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Source: http://www.ifc.com/fix/2012/12/ewan-mcgregorobi-star-wars-episode-vii
December 20th, 2012.

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Not much concrete information in this interview with Abrams but there are a few interesting comments:

PLAYBOY: There’s much to discuss, such as the rumors of old cast members returning.
ABRAMS: [Smiles]
PLAYBOY: Will this be a distinct new trilogy?
ABRAMS: [Smiles]
PLAYBOY: Can you do away with Jar Jar Binks?
ABRAMS: You won’t like this answer, but it’s so early it would be insane to discuss details or get into plot points about what this unfilmed movie will be. And I’m not going to give my opinion on the original movies or characters.
PLAYBOY: But as a lifelong Star Wars fan, surely you have broad ideas about what needs to happen going forward. Three quarters of planet Earth came down on George Lucas for practically ruining Star Wars in Episode I. The Star Wars universe revolted.
ABRAMS: Here’s the thing. I try to approach a project from what it’s asking. What does it need to be? What is it demanding? With Star Wars, one has to take into account what has preceded it, what worked, what didn’t. There are cautionary tales for anything you take on that has a legacy—things you look at and think, I want to avoid this or that, or I want to do more of something. But even that feels like an outside-in approach, and it’s not how I work. For me, the key is when you have a script; it’s telling you what it wants to be.
PLAYBOY: Star Wars needs to look different from Star Trek, certainly.
ABRAMS: As with anything, because these are very different worlds, they shouldn’t feel the same aesthetically. They can’t. You’re right. But again, I don’t apply aesthetics first and fit a movie into that aesthetic. If I had come into Star Trek with those eyes, I would probably have been paralyzed. The advantage here is that we still have George Lucas with us to go to and ask questions and get his feedback on things, which I certainly will do. With Star Trek it was harder because I wasn’t a Star Trek fan; I didn’t have the same emotional feeling, and I didn’t have Gene Roddenberry to go to. But I came to understand the world of Star Trek, and I appreciated what fans felt and believed about this universe and this franchise.​

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[snip]​

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PLAYBOY: Who’s an up-and-coming director to keep an eye on?
ABRAMS: Rian Johnson. I love what he did with Looper, the scope of the movie and the emotion—and that moment when we discover who the Rainmaker is is one of the most chilling, awesome moments I’ve seen in movies in a long time. He has a big career ahead of him.​

​

Source: http://www.playboy.com/playground/view/playboy-interview-j-j-abrams-on-star-trek-star-wars {NSFW}
April 29th, 2013

 

Mark Hamill:

“I hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings — I’m sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that’s unfortunate. … If they listen to me at all, it’ll be, ‘Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.”​

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Source: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/02/21/mark-hamill-star-wars-episode-vii/
February 21st, 2013

 

One more very minor quote from Hamill:

"[Lucas] always liked the idea of seeing the original characters as elderly characters,”​

Source: http://collider.com/star-wars-episode-7-mark-hamill-interview/
June 2014.

 

A rather revealing interview with Andy:

http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/star-wars-7-exclusive-andy-serkis-talks-script-jj-abrams-more/

"The Imaginarium [Andy's motion capture studio] is now involved in all the performance capture on the Star Wars projects, and I'm playing a character in that".

He then goes on to say:

"It's extraordinary. I grew up with Star Wars and was a massive fan of the original films. I never imagined in a million years that I'd be engaged with this. It's just come about so organically."

"JJ Abrams and I met, and we just had this incredible kind of vibe between us. He said, 'You'd fit really well in this universe,' and I said, 'I think I probably would.' We're working very closely, as I say, in two ways: the Imaginarium is providing all of the performance characters, and I myself am playing a character in it".

"I'm thrilled, deeply excited," he continued. "Sitting at that read-through the other day was just extraordinary. It was an amazing event; being with the original cast was just incredible. I just think the script is so wonderful, and both the old and the newbies in the cast are just so thrilled and excited to get together".

 

Again, he's not a cast member but probably good to summarise what we know from Gary Kurtz here as well for future reference. (These quotes also cover the original version of Return of the Jedi, which would have set things up for the sequels):

Interviewer: Let’s jump right in. I have to ask, what exactly were your initial thoughts about the third Star Wars film, which was originally called “Revenge” of the Jedi?​

The one story thread that got totally tossed out the window, which was really pretty important I think, was the one of Vader trying to convince Luke to join him to overthrow the Emperor. That together they had enough power that they could do that, and it wasn’t him saying I want to take over the world and be the evil leader, it was that transition. It was Vader saying, “I’m looking again at what I’ve done and where my life has gone and who I’ve served and, very much in the Samurai tradition, and saying if I can join forces with my son, who is just as strong as I am, that maybe we can make some amends.” So there was all of that going on in Jedi as well, that was supposed to go on.​

​

So the story was quite a bit more poignant and the ending was the coronation of Leia as the queen of what was left of her people, to take over the royal symbol. That meant she was then isolated from all of the rest and Luke went off then by himself. It was basically a kind of bittersweet ending. She’s not his sister that dropped in to wrap up everything neatly. His sister was someone else way over on the other side of the galaxy and she wasn’t going to show up until the next episode.​

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[snip]​

​

Interviewer: Finally, were there plans for a third Star Wars trilogy and were there any ideas generated for those three films?​

​

Kurtz: Yes, it was very vague. It was Luke’s journey really up to becoming sort of the premiere Jedi knight in the Obi-Wan Kenobi mold and his ultimate confrontation with the emperor. That was the outline of it and all that happens.​

​

Source: http://www.filmthreat.com/interviews/8​

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According to Kurtz at a conference, this was the early plan:

EPISODE 6: Leia was to be elected "Queenof her people" leaving her isolated. Han was to die. Luke confronted Vader and went on with his life alone. Leia was not to be Luke's sister.
EPISODE 7: Third trilogy was to focus on Luke's life as a Jedi, with very few details planned out.
EPISODE 8: Luke's sister (not Leia) appears from another part of the galaxy.
EPISODE 9: First appearance of the Emperor.

Source: http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/gary_kurtz_reveals_original_plans_for_episodes_19_80270.asp
May 26th, 1999



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IGNFF: Now, also the story has arisen that George had always intended prequels, but had never intended sequels to that initial three films.​

KURTZ: After this idea of more films came up, he did several interviews where he said he had story material to do nine films – three prequels and three sequels. That was the accepted story, basically, and there was quite a bit of material both before and after the Star Wars lump. So there was no decision to do either one... it was kind of a red herring in a way, because there was no immediate thought to make any other films right away.​

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[snip]​

​

One of the reasons Jedi came out the way it did was because the story outline of how Jedi was going to be seemed to get tossed out, and one of the reasons I was really unhappy was the fact that all of the carefully constructed story structure of characters and things that we did in Empire was going to carry over into Jedi. The resolution of that film was going to be quite bittersweet, with Han Solo being killed, and the princess having to take over as queen of what remained of her people, leaving everybody else. In effect, Luke was left on his own. None of that happened, of course.​

​

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/11/an-interview-with-gary-kurtz?page=4​

November 2002.​

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On the ending of Return of the Jedi, which would lead into the sequels:

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”​

The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.​

​

Source: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movi...2-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer/​

August 12th, 2010​

 

Audience question: “I just wanted to ask you, how much would you like to return to the world of Star Wars and If you could, or if you did, what would you like to do in that world again?"​

​

Ian McDiarmid: “Well, as you all know, there is going to be quite a lot of Star Wars around for the rest of your lives and we all know Episode 7 is coming as a big film... I’m not in that, I can tell you that categorically... I’m not being coy. I’m definitely not in that. As you know he’s dead by then. I know that you believe in reincarnation and holograms and all the rest of it but, no, I'm not in any of those but you know they’re going to take many twists on the story as the years go on, both spinoffs and new. And I guess they may go back to a time - I’ve got no clues, I’m just speaking off the top of my head - when the Emperor ran the universe. I don’t want anyone else to play him, do I? So, um, it might happen but - I’m not being coy - I’ve got no more idea than you do.”​

​

Moderator: “The answer is ‘Yes, you’d be up for it?’”​

​

Ian McDiarmid: “Of course.”​

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B52Yh6S5Y4A (from 29:38 mark.)
July 15th, 2014.

 

Here's another interview with Andy Serkis conducted over the phone:

It was on a "Regular Guys" Podcast uploaded as I understand it on the 15th July 2014. I typed out the conversation where they discussed Star Wars (they discussed other stuff before and after). There were a couple of words I wasn't quite sure about (many apologies), but the interview is as near to his actual words as I could get it:

Interviewer: “What’s coming up with Star Wars that you can say?”

Andy: “Very, very little about Star Wars unfortunately, I mean I’d love to fill you in on everything. I mean, uh I suppose what I can say is I’m not... I’m not playing a main character, it’s more of a cameo role. So, but well actually what we were also playing an important part in in Star Wars in that the performance capture company, The Imaginarium that I started two years ago. We’re involved in the consultancy for the picture.”

Interviewer: “So there’ll be more of that as opposed to the straight forward stuff Lucas did in the last trilogy...”

Andy: “[Unclear] to do with performance capture in it yep.”

Source: http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=151&c=1341&f=3058473