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

On 3/19/25 6:14 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

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.

I saw the latter, in the 1990s(?), and did not care for it.

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.

Yeah, a lot of actors get their own stuff wrong. Musicians too! (There's a doc on Yes where the bandmembers clearly didn't understand how great an album "Relayer" was!!)