Les Jones

Star Wars > Alec Guinness's Opinions on Star Wars

After An American in Paris the other night TCM showed To Paris, With Love starring Alec Guinness. Melissa did her usual IMDB research and found lots of great trivia and quotes from Alec Guinness with regards to Star Wars. Everything below is excerpted from Internet Movie Database.

"Science fiction - which gives me pause - but it is to be directed by George Lucas, who did American Graffiti (1973), which makes me think I should. Big part. Fairytale rubbish, but could be interesting" [while considering doing Star Wars (1977)]

Reportedly answered one "Star Wars" fan's boast that he'd seen the first movie over a hundred times, with a nod and the words "Promise me you'll never watch it again." The boy was stunned, but his mother thanked Guinness.

Reportedly hated working on Star Wars (1977) so much, Guinness claims that Obi-Wan's death was his idea as a means to limit his involvement in the film. [Note that this is incompatible with George Lucas's version that changing the script to kill off Obi-Wan in the first movie was his and his wife's idea.]

[Guinness discussing how much he disliked working on Star Wars (1977) and his attempts to encourage George Lucas to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi] "And he agreed with me. What I didn't tell him was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo."

"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" [during filming of Star Wars (1977)]

"I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars (1977) to me."

"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. The only really disappointing performance was [Anthony Daniels] as the robot - fidgety and over-elaborately spoken. Not that any of the cast can stand up to the mechanical things around them." [His diary entry after viewing Star Wars (1977) for the first time]

[Asked if Star Wars (1977) had made him a fortune]: "Yes, blessed be Star Wars (1977). But two-thirds of that went to the Inland Revenue and a sizable sum on VAT. No complaints. Let me leave it by saying I can live for the rest of my life in the reasonably modest way I am now used to; that I have no debts and I can afford to refuse work that doesn't appeal to me."

Salary
Star Wars (1977) $150,000 + 2% of profits
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) £ 6,000
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) £ 6,000