Re: Alec Guiness's Thoughts on Appearing in STAR WARS

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

Prior to accepting the role of Obi-wan (Ben) Kenobi, Sir Alec Guinness wrote
the following to a friend:

    I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which
    I may accept, if they come up with proper money.
    London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science
    fiction - which gives me pause - but is to be directed
    by Paul [sic] Lucas who did AMERICAN GRAFFITI,
    which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale
    rubbish but could be interesting perhaps.

After he arrived on set, he did not change his opinion that the movie was
"rubbish":

    ...new rubbish dialogue reaches me every
    other day on wadges of pink paper - and none of
    it makes my character clear or even bearable. I
    just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which
    will help me keep going until next April even if
    YAHOO [a play in which Guinness played satirist
    Jonathan Swift] collapses in a week ... I must off
    to studio and work with a dwarf (very sweet - and
    he has to wash in a bidet) and your fellow countrymen
    Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can't be
    right) Ford. Ellison (? - No!) - well, a rangy, languid
    young man who is probably intelligent and amusing.
    But oh, God, they make me feel ninety - and treat
    me as if I was 106. - Oh, Harrison Ford - ever
    heard of him?

Dude! You saw American Graffiti directed by Paul Lucas! Ellison Ford had
a small role in the movie!

Later on in the filming, Guinness wrote:

    "Apart from the money, I regret having embarked
    on the film. I like them well enough, but it's not an
    acting job, the dialogue - which is lamentable - keeps
    being changed and only slightly improved, and I find
    myself old and out of touch with the young"

To be fair, everybody hates that the script is never finished.

He did have some nice things to say about the completed film:

    "It's a pretty staggering film as spectacle, and
    technically brilliant. Exciting, very noisy and warm-
    hearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for
    five minutes too long, I feel, and some of the dialogue
    is excruciating and much of it is lost in noise, but
    it remains a vivid experience"

However, it was not an experience he liked to talk about afterwards:

    "I shrivel up every time someone mentions
    STAR WARS to me."

Clark Gable despised making Gone With the Wind, and thought It Happened
One Night was utter shite.

Uh, raise your hand if you want to hear an actor's opinion on what makes
a movie entertaining. Anybody? Don't all get up at once.