Page 27 - Star Wars Insider #194

INTERVIEW: ANTHONY DANIELS

02
was given a character to play and “George left me
was directed how to play it, and
as a performer he threw himself to do the physical
absolutely into it, as a professional.
The character may have split side totally on my
opinions, but if you meet people
who were ten years old at the time own, and he could
of The Phantom Menace (1999), have done the
their favorite character is Jar Jar.
Both of the characters we’re vocal side totally
talking about are masked and semi
human. Both speak in our language, without me, but
they’re both bipedal, they have two
legs, two arms. They have human as we know he
elements but are heavily disguised.
You have got to be careful when changed his mind.”
you’re inside all that, because if
you’re too subtle nothing is going to
get through the latex or the metal. breathe, that was one of the horrible
If you’re too over the top, people things. There’s an almost immediate
go “Whoa, that’s too much.” Some panic reaction, and certainly that

people found Jar Jar too much, some CO reflex—you need to breathe,
2

people find C-3PO too much. But and if you have something pushing
when I meet people in their middle onto your diaphragm so you can’t
age, they remember the great joy physically move it, that is scary. It’s
the characters gave them as young happened to me two or three times.
03 people. These things stay with them.
How did you get past that?
Some locations must have been Shouting, “Get me out, get me

difficult to work in. What was out!” And having people who care
the toughest? enough to be understanding and
Anywhere that didn’t have a fl at, right there with you.

smooth floor. Anywhere with steps,
that was dark, that had a low ceiling So, did you have a spotter
(laughs). And because there’s a watching out for you?
human reaction to not being able Oh, it was beyond spotters. There
to breath or sensing that you cannot was always one, and often two
people, who were my dressers from
the prop department, because the
04 suit was so technical. Absolutely
looking out just for me.
Over the course of the book,
you’ll see I gradually went through
a series of people over the years,
because they could only take so
much. And indeed, because I’ve
been doing this for so long, some
people have retired. I was hoping
Brian Lofthouse would come back
for the sequels, but by then he’d
retired too.

Presumably you were the least
comfortable in the costume
during the fi rst fi lm?
There were issues on the last fi lm
too, but nobody had ever made a
costume like C-3PO before A New
Hope. Even the robot character

STAR WARS INSIDER / 27