CT Should Prowse have played the Unmasked Vader?

I agree on that. Movie-wise speaking, Darth Vader, and therefore Anakin Skywalker should logically be in his 40's in ROTJ.
Sure, Guiness was 62 when ANH was made (1976). Nevertheless Ben Kenobi was actually envisioned as being in his mid 70's circa 1977-1983 (Lucas' few notes and quotes from these days).

I well understood that.

Let's say that by the time of ROTJ, Lucas eventually decided to show him more like a sad old man than a menacing/powerful face when unmasked. Thus oblivious to the age inconsistency.

 

Yes! Good call - Looks the part too... Just needed a different voice.

 

I heard that too. Prowse did something he wasn't supposed to do so Lucas decided this was a fitting punishment for him.

 

Right. Lucas also stole Prowse's lunch bag and ate the sandwich himself.

 

Lucas and Prowse certainly had their differences, but I seriously doubt that had much to do with Shaw's casting. The fact is, Prowse was not a dramatic actor, and this was a very important scene to get exactly right.

 

Bob Anderson was also bullied by George and wasn't allowed to play Anakin in that scene either.

 

Bob Anderson was a stunt man and sword master, not an actor. Why would you believe for an instant that he might be cast to deliver weighty, meaningful lines in close-up, when a trained and experienced actor could be hired to deliver them with... well, weight and meaning?

 

The fact that you missed the joke aside, when you're talking about "a trained and experienced actor" to deliver "weight and meaning" are you referring to David Prowse?

 

Heh. I thought you were serious that you thought "Bob Anderson was also bullied by George and wasn't allowed to play Anakin in that scene either"... but I see now you were being sarcastic.

Apologies for missing the joke. I was referring to Shaw.

 

I guess.

 

I agree. Prowse could have pulled it off with his body language and facial expressions, but he just didn't have the right voice. I like how he portrayed Vader's body language and mannerisms. I think he did particularly well in TESB and ROTJ, since he probably was imagining how Jones would sound delivering the lines. James Earl Jones deserves a lot of credit for portraying Vader's vocabulator. It should be noted that Lucas did not initially believe that his original idea of Vader being a battered, scarred man in a mechanical suit with an iron lung would be able to be portrayed as he wished, and so he asked Jones to deliver the lines as though his voice was that of the man inside the suit in ANH. That is why Jones is quite expressive as Vader in that film. When Lucas and Co. started working on TESB, Lucas found that his idea of Vader being confined and permanently encased in the cyborg suit could be realized on film. Thus, in TESB and ROTJ, Jones's performance is colder and more mechanical, since he is in fact portraying the vocabulator (speech synthesizer). Vader was basically a walking emergency room, given that he was in constant pain and all of his senses were dead after his immolation on Mustufar, with his own voice being less than a whisper. Therefore, Jones considered his performance a special effect. Prowse's job was to convey the intimidating, imperious, lethal, confident, fearful, enraged, impatient, bossy, testy, conflicted, insecure, and powerful physical presence of Darth Vader. Bob Anderson was brought in during TESB and ROTJ because he was as sword master who could portray Vader's excellent and terrifying dueling skills accurately. As we can see from what Alec Guinness and David Prowse were doing in ANH, neither of them were particularly talented duelists in spite of the fact that they pulled of the scene well dramatically. Anderson, however, was not as tall as Prowse, and so camera tricks were utilized to make him appear taller, and if memory serves I think I read something about him standing on something as he dueled Mark Hamill. The reason that Sebastian Shaw was cast was due to the desire to have an experienced dramatic actor portray the redeemed Anakin Skywalker when Luke removed Vader's mask from him. I think they made the right choices by having Prowse be the masked Vader most of the time, Jones being the voice, Anderson being the masked, dueling Vader, and Shaw as the unmasked, redeemed Anakin. However, I do believe that Lucas should have given as much credit to Prowse and Anderson as he did to Jones and Shaw. I recall that Mark Hamill was vexed about dueling Anderson and then having to pose with Prowse for a photo-shoot. And, yes, I have heard those stories about Lucas being peeved at Prowse about giving spoilers, but that shouldn't interfere with giving the man his credit, IMO.

That picture of Prowse from TESB is awesome. He looks scary. However, on a more humorous note, I initially mistook him for a young Christopher Lloyd. http://i.imgur.com/Lbpozke.gif

 

No if they wanted to have a good actor in that scene.

 

But they could have let others do the voice.

He might look something like this with make-up. Someone here once did a mashup.

 

There's more to acting than just a vocal performance. The eyes and mouth and other features of the face have to be activated in a way that is taught (or intuitively understood by some) and which draws the viewer's eye while conveying convincing emotion. As great as David Prowse was in that Frankenstein movie and as the bodyguard in A Clockwork Orange, I don't think he had the skills to pull off the emotive performance that Shaw delivered.

 

I don't see that as a problem. It was like 3 mins and not much dialogue to be said. With some basic training he could have done it well.

The real problem is the "Force Ghost scene", Prowse would not be able to show the father kindness with a simple smile and no lines like Shaw did.

 

I concur. I think Shaw did a splendid job of conveying an Anakin who had come to regret many of his actions and yet was happy to have allowed Luke to open his eyes. I found it intriguing that Anakin/Vader is about forty-six, but the real life Shaw was seventy-seven. Due to his age, makeup, and performance, the idea of the dark side degradation is convincing.

 

But I think he didn't show Anakin/Vader's strength beneath the mask. We saw how tough and powerful Vader was, and from some of the lines we could know that Anakin was a strong Jedi as well.

 

Seems like a conspiracy theory to me. Like something coming from someon like Michael Kaminski.

 

Even if Prowse had never ticked off Lucas, I highly doubt Lucas would have let him be unmasked Anakin.

 

I wonder who they will cast in future unmasked scenes.

 

I agree. Just wasn't meant for it.

 

In an anthology film? Well, odds are that if it is a young enough Vader along the lines of "Lords Of The Sith", it would be Hayden in any unmasked scenes. If we're talking around the time of "Rebels" and ANH, then someone else or the helmet stays on.

 

That's awful. Lucas can be a strange, nasty bird sometimes. I love some of his ideas, but if I were an actress or stunt person, I would hate to work for him.

 

It's never late to warn people that we were joking.

 

Yeah, that would help online, since I can't see your facial expressions. Lol.