Sir Alec Guinness

Does anyone have links for interviews or comments by Sir Alec about Star Wars? Did he enjoy doing the films? Did he hate them? What?

I remember reading something about a big fight he had with Lucas when he discovered that Obi Wan was going to die in the end of Star Wars (when it was just "Star Wars", hehehe). I also remember somebody saying something like "Here's a British actor who had done hundreds of plays and films and suddenly he acts in a sci-fi fantasy flick and millions of teenagers start to like the guy".

I still don't know HOW Lucas managed to get sir Alec to play OB1. He had already won a couple of Oscars, I believe, and was already a legend among the great actors, and here he is acting (brillantly, by the way) beside a metalic robot and a walking carpet!

 

(1) Guinness agreed to do SW because he liked the story and because he was impressed with Lucas.

(2) Yes, initially Guinness was pissed off that Obi-Wan was suddenly going to be killed off (in the old drafts he lived).

(3) While Guinness did think some of the dialogue etc. of the OT was a mess, that was not his main beef with SW.
The thing that made him start to turn on SW was being annoyed by fans. He didn't like being stopped on the street and being asked to say "May the Force be with you" eighty-six times a day... he didn't want to be remembered as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

BUT
He does not hate the movies.
He sent Lucas a gift and a nice note after ANH wrapped.
He did ESB and ROTJ for free as a favor to his friend Lucas, even when his eye doctor told him he shouldn't be acting under hot lights all day.
He and Mark Hamill kept in touch after the movies ended.
He happily acknowledges the fact that doing SW kept him financially secure.
He saw TPM and was impressed with Ewan McGregor's performance (although I'd like someone to post some further proof... it sounds like too cute a story to be real).


Sir Alec is often made out to be a Star Wars hater. It may make for an interesting story, but it's not quite the truth.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Any links to any of those things? I did a Google search, but anytime you mention Star Wars and Guinness in google you get like a zillion links...

 

Absolutely right there!.

I have an interview with him on tape talking to the talk show host Micheal Parkinson. He raves about the film and says he found it refreshing and enchanting to watch. He described the dialogue as "ropey" but was obviously very pleased to have been in it.

I did read one of his books a while back in which he said he was sick of being sent SW toys and fan mail through the post. He was definitely a bit p*ssed off with its OTT hype, but I really don't get the impression he hated the movies in any way.

I don't think he'd have approved of TFN though

 

AdamBertocci, I could kiss you for that post....

The rift betweem George and Alec was documented in The george Lucas Companion and although I had heard the AG did the sequals for free I did not know about his issues with eyesite...

As for him possibly seeing EM, AG passed away in August of 2000, so it is possible.

Antony Daniells also has only happy memories of working with AG, saying he was supportive and kind.

Adam, if you fell so inclined, could you repost your list over here?

AOTCRazzies BS

 

ANH is what it is because of Alec.

 

his major problem with star wars is he is a two time oscer winner and god knows howmany stage awards and people only remember obi wan kenobi.

I saw a brovo profile with him about 7 years ago and it only mentions star wars brefly. he says something like he enjoyed working on them. the show really wanted to focus on his body of work. it mostly had him talking about all of his make up and disguises he wares on stage. and often in films. he spent much of his time talking about john geilgood.

 

If I were as famous an actor as Mr. Guinness and people were only interested in hearing me say "May the Force be with you" and asking me whether I could beat Spock in a fight, I might be annoyed too.

 

In a curious footnote in Star Wars trivia, Ewan McGregor's first acting job was in a stage production of E.M. Forster's "A Passage to India," in which film version Alec Guiness starred as Professor Godbole.

 

Apparently, Guinness didn't like the quasi-religious fervour which the films unintentionally engendered. I believe in his last autobiography he claimed that he asked to be killed in the duel with Vader as he was fed up with the ropey dialogue. This contradicts the earlier story that he was upset when Lucas decided during filming that it would make more sense dramatically to have Obi-Wan die at that point rather than survive to the end (which he was originally going to do). Personally, I believe that version.

I think it was a bit ungrateful and disrespectful of Guinness to moan about Star Wars (which he made a huge amount of money from), when the other films he appeared in around the time of the original trilogy were such "classics" as Murder by Death, Raise the Titanic, Little Lord Fauntleroy and Lovesick.

I'm not disputing that Guinness was a top thesp though!

 

"He saw TPM and was impressed with Ewan McGregor's performance (although I'd like someone to post some further proof... it sounds like too cute a story to be real)."


I HIGHLY doubt he saw TPM. He was bitchin about the Special Edition when that came out in 1997.

I noticed both Obi-wans bitch Star Wars from time to time.

 

It's Lucas-directing syndrome, if you ask me.

FASTER! MORE INTENSE! -- yeah, you can see what I mean.

But, between Peter Cushing, Harrison Ford, the voice of James Earl Jones, and Sir Alec Guinness -- that really made ANH so powerful to the audience.

Damn, how much do I love the classic trilogy compare to the PT.

I don't think anything will EVER compare to them. It's just not possible, a lot of luck and chance went into the making of the original three films.

Plus, I think heart. Anyone ever notice that the people behind Star Wars (lucas included) burned with a passion to get this story done? Even with the limited tools they had?

Seems to me anymore, it's all about hack and slash graphics and hot girls/guys.

-GAT

 

Sir Alec was very supportive of Lucas on ANH, and he returned for TESB and ROTJ. I think it was in his later years that he became fed up of his association with Star Wars. I also doubt that he saw TPM.

 

I think it was a bit ungrateful and disrespectful of Guinness to moan about Star Wars (which he made a huge amount of money from), when the other films he appeared in around the time of the original trilogy were such "classics" as Murder by Death, Raise the Titanic, Little Lord Fauntleroy and Lovesick.

I don't see how he could have made a lot of money from Star Wars. The budget for the first film was minimal and I don't believe that his salary was that great. And, as other people have pointed out, he did the other two for free. So how could he have made a "huge amount of money"?

As for his classics, he made films such as "Oliver Twist", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago", "A Passage to India" and many, many others. By the time Star Wars came along, he was already a respected and award winning actor.

 

lucas gave the actors a cut of the profits for small saleries. that is why mark hamil never need s to work again.

the actors get a cut of the mercindising as well. none of them ever needed to work again. so it is safe to say alec made a boat load.

 

Thran - there were quite a few people not passionate about making ANH, including director of photography Gil Taylor, most of the British crew who disliked Lucas, and pretty much everyone at Fox.


Regarding Sir Alec's SW money -- he got 2% of the profits from ANH. Mark, Harrison and Carrie got 1% each, I believe.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

"the actors get a cut of the mercindising as well."

I thought I read somewhere that all of the actors--after the trilogy was over--took a cash buy-out of their merchandising rights...for around $100,000 or so. The merchandising for SW didn't really take-off until the early nineties. So I think it's safe to say that Lucas--not the actors--made a "boat load" off of the Star Wars phenomenon.






Shelby

 

actually I saw an interview wih mark hamil where he states that any time anybody buys any thing with luke skywalker on it or made to be his likeness he gets a percentage.

he says harrison has the same deal and so does carrie.

I take that to mean that alec had this as well.

this interview was also just after AOTC came out.

it was on howard stern over the phone. he said it to try and shut howard up because all howard wanted to talk about was the star wars money and why he no longer works.

 

I always got the impression that Sir Alec hated the fact that he had been in loads of other films where he had done a great job yet instead of being famous for this he was only known as Ben Kenobi by so many people. The role transformed him from a well respected actor to a cult figure, this was what he hated, not SW itself.

 

I think the same thing can be said for Jim Varney. He started to resent being Ernest because that was all he was recognized for. He was actually an accomplished stage actor who was in Shakespearean plays and did many serious Pre-Ernest roles, and such. Now, I'm sure he was happy to have played that role--just as Sir Alec--but he hated that that was all he was seen as...just as Sir Alec.


Shelby

 

Jim Varney was so tired of playing a simpleminded yokel that he signed on to play the complex and nuanced role of Jed Clampett in the Beverly Hillbillies movie.

I suppose we could have seen Alec Guinness playing Mr. Drysdale...

 

I think at that point...he didn't have much of a choice. The role of Ernest made him typecast into that kind of role...unfortunately...


Shelby

 

I suppose we could have seen Alec Guinness playing Mr. Drysdale...

Or Jedi Clampett

He really didn't seem too happy to be associated with SW in his later years, and his description of the saga wasn't too complimentary either.

g

 

Or Wedge Varney?

 

Guinness hated acting in SW as a matter of fact here's some personal quotes

Behold:

Guinness discussing how much he disliked working on Star Wars and his attempt to encourage George Luca$ to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi "And he argeed with me.What I didn't tell him was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd have had enough."


Or



"I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me"


Ewan hates it too!

Edit:Alec finish the other two movie because Luca$ up his pay considerably but he said he hated every minute of it.