PT The Fantastic Ian McDiarmid

As usual, Mr. McDiarmid did a sensational job as Palpatine/Sidious.

From his plea to Amidala (so manipulative),
"do it for me Senator."

To his buttering up Anakin's ego,
"I have said many times...you will one day be the greatest of all Jedi."

To his insincere,
"I love democracy, I love the Republic.."

and best of all, the way he says
"Welcome home, Lord Tyranus."

The way he says "tyranus" is great.

A mighty big thumbs up for Ian McDiarmid.
One more reason STAR WARS is great.

You notice the critics NEVER PICK on his
performances or line readings. They always ignore the quality things about star wars and try to zero in on the weaknesses.

It's a good thing too that don't jack with Palpatine. One wouldn't want to get zapped with force lightning.

 

I love his manipulation of Jar Jar, so deliberatly over the top, fantastic.

 

One of my only complaints about he movie was we didn't see enough of Palpatine.

 

Amen, brother. Ian Mcdiarmid is probably the best actor in this movie besides Ewan. I love the way he is ruthless as Sidious, and then becomes so innocent, and even naive, as Chancellor Palpatine.

 

A strange question, but is Ian McDiarmid in AOTC the same guy who played the emporer in ROTJ? The name sounds fimiliar.

 

Yes

 

Yep, same guy. Won't acknowledge who plays Sidious though. Strange...

 

It is the same guy.

And he is not that great people; he is camp and extremely hammy. I don't mind it personally but you can't generally call it good acting.

 

Ian's supposed to be good. He's portraying the biggest villain in the saga.

 

Yes, McDiarmid has played Palpatine/Sidious/Emperor in
ROTJ, TPM and AOTC.

He was 35 years old when he played
the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.
Incredible acting job.

 

Yes, he is.

And that Jar-Jar scene was hilarious, it was like he was almost daring the Gungan into seeing through his plan, because he was so confident that Jar-Jar was too stupid to do it. Brilliant.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness".

 

I have been raving about Ian McDiarmid ever since I joined these boards. He's a Brilliant theatrical actor, in the classic sense.
Except for Sir Alec Guiness, Star Wars probably hasn't had a better actor. He will come into his own during Episode III! He will be so important in that movie, that the Critics won't be able to ignore him.

 

Well, I personally find his acting to be top-notch. He always seems to hit the right notes with me. From being a hateful, coniving man in Sleepy Hollow to being an unassuming senator in TPM he plays his rolls perfectly. Ian McDiarmid is the man!

 

For the uninformed (which is a polite word for ignorant, I'm trying to be nice here)
Ian McDiarmid is considered to be one of the greatest and most successful actors AND directors of the British stage. He ran the Almeida Theatre of London for ten years which experienced almost unprecedented success and acclaim. He also acted in numerous plays, including plenty of Shakespeare, and directed many of them as well.

He recently departed the Almeida, and was almost immediately offered the opportunity to RUN the National Theatre of England, one of the most prestigious acting companies in the world.

If Ian does anything that appears to be "hammy" to someone, he is certainly an experienced and talented enough actor that he had a reason for doing it that way to achieve a specific effect, not because he isn't good.

I think his portrayal of Darth Sidious/the Emperor is wonderful. He's exactly the kind of flamboyant, arrogant, vicious sort of person that Sidious should be. He's the most evil being in the galaxy. He's bound to have a strong personality. And that would probably make him quite theatrical.

And I would strongly concur with G-Fett's comments...if Ian gets more to do in Episode III, the critics won't be able to ignore him.

 

karma, if you are talking at me, you should address me by my name.

I am not saying that Ian McDiarmid is a bad actor, his performances in the Star Wars films, and especially AOTC, are hammy and highly camp.

Laurence Olivier was a camp and hammy actor in his final Hollywood days like in Marathon Man: it did not make him a worse actor.

 

Al, you're wrong.

Margaret Hamilton is hammy and camp.

Ian is subdued and lowkey as Chancellor Palpatine, and enthusiastic in his evil
as Sidious.

But you're entitled to your opinion even if you're wrong. Al.

 

karma, the great critic wrote...

Ian is subdued and lowkey as Chancellor Palpatine, and enthusiastic in his evil
as Sidious.

Subdued? Lowkey?

Ian McDiarmid in AOTC is camp and ham all rolled into one. It is necessary I suppose, but it is nevertheless amazingly obvious.

 

I think it's doing Ian McDiarmid a disservice calling him camp and hammy. Hey, i've seen a TON of movies in my life being a movie buff and all and Ian ain't even close to being camp. Even in the original trilogy he didn't play it up for the audience like Boris Karloff or anything. I feel his depiction of Palpatine has always been on the mark. A small example of campy actors throughout history till now..Boris Karloff, Keanu Reeves, (yes he's genuinely campy in some flicks) Richard Roundtree, etc..

 

Sorry for my ignorance of UK lingo, but is hammy???

DS

 

You Guys, stop the violence and look up for a second! I posted a freakin' awesome interview with McDiarmid as the first post on the "Sith Index" - the link takes you right to his interview on the official site...It's a juicy 4 pages!!!


Here's the link by the way, for those who are lazy:

Interview with McDiarmid

He leaks a lot of stuff about whether Palpatine is Sidious - for those of you that love that shtufff.

By the way, he is so awesome. He's cunning. Super intelligent. A slime bucket. A serial killer politican. He's perfect as ultimate evil and frightens the living pants off me!

 

you've never had moons over my hammy?

 

Um, no...

DS

 

Oh yes, that's my favorite meal at Denny's.

I don't see how anyone can say Ian is campy or hammy though. Sidious/Emperor is pretty straight-forwardly evil, but I wouldn't say campy...and Palpatine is played perfectly.

 

I absolutely love it when Palpy is addressing the senate, pretending to care for the republic, and you can tell by the tone of his voice that what he is saying is total **. When He said "I truely care about the Republic..." everyone started to laugh.

Oh sweet irony.

 

People started laughing in my theatre when he said : "I'll step down as soon as this crisis abates"...LOL!