PT The Fantastic Ian McDiarmid

Ian rocks! His palpatine voice reminds me of an old Dr Lecter (in SOTL when his voice is raspy).

 

My favorite line from Sidious was when he played Yoda, Mace, and poor Jar Jar. A room full of Jedi and this guy makes all of them look stupid.

If only senator Amidala was here.

Palpentine: "Hhhhhhmmmmmmm"


THIS ONE LINE ROCKED!!!!! The tone of him saying it, and the simple nod of his head while saying it.

 

Ian, will undoubtly, have alot of screen time in EPIII. Remember Yoda's line in ROTJ "Do not underestimate the powers of the emperor" I think when the jedi find out about Palpy, they will think he's a wimp (because of his Palpy routine) and try to easily take him out, but gets surprised by his true power. We know he has force lightning, but it would be a nice surprise to have him whip out a lightsaber and kick but (maybe a choke hold or two as well). It is also my opinion that he has THE BEST LINES IN ROTJ !!!

 

Your not the only one waiting for that scene slave2!!! The evil in that scene shoud be chilling! Cue Emperor music!!

 

He did have great lines in ROTJ. I remember when I first saw it,I thought it was as good an acting performance as I'd ever seen. I still feel that way. When he told Luke "and now, you will die" this look came over his face as he electrocuted Luke. It was chilling.

 

I gotta agree. Ian rules!
I love everything he says in Aotc. The democracy speech is priceless. Second time I saw it someone yelled "YEAH RIGHT!" That got a huge laugh, of course.
I also adore the scene where he talks to Anakin. His line "So, they've finally given you a mission" (pardon the misquote).Great! His tone was so freakin' fatherly, with that little smile on his lips, it was scary but funny. It's great that they were shown together.
Darth_China, spot on! Ian sounded so Burns! I really enjoyed the scene he had with Dooku. The way they greet each other, I still remember. Very cool. (and yes, the way he says 'tyranus" is immensely cool)
Ian is perfect as Palpy. I can't imagen anyone else playing him. I didn't like him before much, but with the pt, I've gotten to love the guy. Yeah, he's the bad a$$ of SW, but no one's perfect. And yeah, PadmeLeiaJaina, even loving the guy, I still wanna slap the daylights out of him!
*sigh* Aah, Palpy...
Slave2, you mentioned a scene in epIII (hopefully) with Palpy/Ani/Dooku, YEAH! That would be *sweet*!
My own wish, (pretty please with sugar on top, George?) would be a fight between Yoda and Palpy.
That would be even *sweeter*!

 

Palpatine is my favorite PT character, and I hope he gets much more screen time in III.

And I'm jealous of these audiences who understood the significance of "I love democracy..."

Besides me, I think I've heard only one other snort.

 

Ian's brief but excellent work in AOTC is testimony to how great an actor he is. Never a false moment, unless it's intended to be.

I'd love to see him play a museum curator or something like that in Indy 4.

 

Isn't he also an old family friend of Ewan McGregor and his uncle, Denis Lawson (WEDGE!!!)?

I love him. He's great-he's the guy you just love to hate. He's over the top-but he's SUPPOSED to be over the top.

McDiamid rocks.

 

Anyone who hasn't read this Ian interview HAS TO....they have to read it as much as I have to see ROTJ for the first time in it's entirety!

*ahem*

nevertheless, it's an excellent read. And you can tell how much Ian knows his $#!T. He knows star wars as a mythology, and it's evident from the interview.

It's long, so I'm going to highlight a couple notable bits:


Q: ----------

How do you as an actor convey trustworthiness to the characters around Palpatine while simultaneously signaling to the audience not to trust him?

A: ---------

I suppose that, in a sense, he is hyper-sincere -- defensively sincere. He is a supreme actor. He has to be even more convincing than somebody who isn't behaving in a schizophrenic fashion, so he's extra charming, or extra professional -- and for those who are looking for clues, that's almost where you can see them. He's super-sincere.

There's a moment in one scene of the new film where tears almost appear in his eye. These are crocodile tears, but for all those in the movie, and perhaps watching the movie itself, they'll see he is apparently moved -- and of course, he is. He can just do it. He can, as it were, turn it on. And I suppose for him, it's also a bit of a turn-on -- the pure exercise of power is what he's all about. That's the only thing he's interested in and the only thing that can satisfy him -- which makes him completely fascinating to play, because it is an evil soul. He is more evil than the devil. At least Satan fell -- he has a history, and it's one of revenge.

But the Emperor -- well, I don't know all the details, but who does of the Sith? -- is an independent agent who just lives for the exercise of power. He doesn't know what scruples are, let alone have any. The only emotion that manifests itself truly is the one seen just before he meets his end, if that's what he meets, in Jedi -- and then that's pure anger, when he realizes that he hasn't succeeded in manipulating young Skywalker. So he has to kill him, and he tries to do that with unadulterated fury.

------

and I agree with him bang on on this next one:

Q: -------

Has he given you a specific idea about how Palpatine will evolve in Episode III?

A:--------

He's always said that Episode III will be the darkest. George feels people won't necessarily like it because of that, but my feeling is the reverse. I think they'll like it even more, because I think people are fascinated by the whole dark side of the saga. That's why Vader is so interesting. He's complicated, as we later find out. It's that apparently seductive darkness that fascinates people. They want to know more about it. They're not attracted by evil, but they're attracted by the nature of it. It's a very interesting thing to observe.


here's the link to the rest:

http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/feature/20020124/index.html

 

Excellent article! (WARNING: gushing ahead)

It is a testament to Ian McDiarmid's fantastic acting that Palpy is becoming one of my favorite characters in the whole story. His utterly evil, malicious voice in ROTJ is at the back of my mind in every scene that I see him in the PT. Has anyone seen the man on stage? (He was the director of the Almeida Theatre in London until only recently).

LONG LIVE EMPEROR MCDIARMID!

* I feel much better now *

 

To all the Ian McDiarmid fans of this board:
listen to few of his AOTC-lines on this page.
=> his tyranus pronunciation
=> his 'I love democracy'
Mark the difference between Palps & Sidious voice... what an actor!!!

Aren't you high yet

 

I personally am going to enjoy Episode III with relish. Palpatine has outsmarted absolutely EVERYONE and now his plans are about to come to fruition.

Episode III may be dark, but who cares, that's the pleasure of it.

Regards,

Darth Nemesis, Sith bloke...quietly saying, "Muhahahahahaha"

 

Very, very cool observation, Darth China!

One of the reasons I think McDiarmid is SO GREAT in STAR WARS is that he DOES NOT condescend toward the material. He cares about it and respects it and does a great job. He understands the mythological underpinnings and he understands his role in the whole thing. He doesn't look down his nose (and what a nose, lol!) and say "oh, this isn't the Shakespeare and classics I'm used to." He understands he's in a very different kind of classic.

I read in an interview with Ian once that after his very first meeting/audition with Lucas, as he was leaving, he heard George say, "great nose." After that, he felt he had the part,lol. He won by a nose!

 

To the person who asked if anybody had seen Ian on stage, indeed I have seen him.

It was MANY years ago, when I was still at school. My school went to The Tempest, and Ian was staring in it. And yes he IS an electric performer, live. Which is why he's so good in Star Wars. So much of these films involve improvising, especially with the Blue Sceen, and I think old hams like Ian and Christopher probably find this easier.

He is a great actor, and will show everybody how great he is, in Episode III, when he comes full center into the story. I have said many, many times, except for Sir Alec Guiness, Star Wars hasn't got a better actor than Ian Mcdiarmid

 

Ian is probably the one man who kept me interested in starwars after TPM.

He is the reason why I bought the TPM vhs and then the DVD.

He is the reason why I watch it.

He has a smaller part in AOTC.
But he still has classic lines : "Do it for me Mylady, please, the thought of losing you is ... unbearable", "I love democracy, ..." and his "Welcome home lord Tyranus. You have done well" are great.

I'm not a big fan of the "if only senator amidala was here" scene. That scene was edited, well, butchered by Lucas.
And Palpatine is comic more than anything else. His "Hmmmm" is a little bit over the top.

 

Danger Will Robinson! Danger Will Robinson!
WARNING: gusher alert! gusher alert!

I just LOVED the scene with Anakin and Palpatine. I liked Anakin's respectful tone,
you could tell the two of them having been getting along fine and unlike the mentor/student relationship he had with Obi-Wan, this one is working well. And I liked old Palpy buttering him up, with Anakin the red-hot, gifted young quarterback not realizing that Coach Sidious is buttering him up so he'll eventually play on the Sith team. That brief scene spoke VOLUMES. And Ian was sooooooo smooth.

(Hayden really understands what this relationship is all about...there was a pic on the net awhile back of Hayden and Ian, I think they were meeting for the first time, I think Hayden was in street clothes, he had this HUGE grin on his face getting to meet his future emperor). BTW, if anyone has access to that pic, please post it here.

 

i think the fact that he had his screen time reduces in AOTC really made ian more appreciated. he is just an amazing actor; not many people could pull of the duality of his role. I look forward to Episode 3 to see how he pulls off the "Evil" side, when everyone in the movie finally figures out they were duped all along.

Ian=Good
Sidious=Palpatine

 

<<And I liked old Palpy buttering him up, with Anakin the red-hot, gifted young quarterback not realizing that Coach Sidious is buttering him up so he'll eventually play on the Sith team.>>

DarthKarma,

For the briefest of moments the vision of buttering a turkey came into my head!

Also in that scene, you gotta love the way both Ian and Hayden walk together towards the back of Palpy's office. Ian is relaxing his hands like the Emperor, and Anakin is walking like Vader. Ohhhhhhhh......

 

I love the way Ian plays evil characters... so wicked and sly. Just like he should be!

 

LOL, PadmeLeiaJaina, well I try to write in such a way that visuals come to mind, but in that case, uh, that's not quite what I intended. Once Anakin gets fried by the lava though, Palpatine will stick a fork in him and he'll be done...so to speak,

 

Put me in the Ian gusher club.
Two things. During the Office scene when Anakin answers Palpatine by saying,"More your guidance than my patience", you almost wait for Anakin to punctuate the sentence with "Master".

Also, I have what I'd love to see in the next episode from Sidious. I would love to see Jedi coming to the Chancellors office only to sense the darkest evil they have ever felt, then have that evil present itself as Sidious. Then the arrogant Jedi activating their lightsabers to attack only to be thrown violently away into walls by Palpatine with only a flick of his wrist and never breaking from his calm yet unstoppable stride. Much like Luke got in ROTJ. He wouldn't even waste his lightning on the Jedi as he would feel it unneeded. All of this showing the surprised reactions of vanquised and soon to be vanquished Jedi when the true nature of the darkside of the force is revealed.....But if it doesn't happen that way I won't go thinking my version is better, cause hey it ain't my story.

 

[image=http://www.wsu.edu/~dirk/palpy.jpg]

I too would consider myself a member of the Ian McDiarmid gusher club. He is incredibly cunning and Machiavellian as Palpatine. I love how Palpatine is willing to flash a winning smile (pictured above) to garner trust from the very people he would like to see dead. Every second of McDiarmid's performances in ROTJ, TPM, and AOTC are brilliant. He is the best actor in the SW saga, hands down. The obvious revelation of his character's first name in TPM even inspired my screename.

In short, McDiarmid is a genius and should be worshipped as such.

 

(bah, damn double post)