PT actors' thoughts on the films

You sound a bit disconcerted with Ewan himself, not just the hate-crowd-pandering author -- would that be a correct inference on my part?

My response on Naboo News dismantles his ingratitude (as I see it). My earlier response (on Facebook) is more a polemical defence of the PT (because people were expressing the usual disdain for it).


Nice! Oh, God! Don't expect to extract another (presently still mystical) rebuttal from me like the AOTC one! That said...

In the writing of my defence of the PT (as mentioned above), I discovered some renewed analytical fire for the PT. 

I've actually got something else in the works about that. But I need to stop saying that, because half my ideas never come to fruition! Anyway:

I still plan to port my Facebook response across to Naberrie Fields shortly. I hope you don't think I'd be scooping you. Let's all say whatever we feel inclined to say.   

To be fair: he has said this stuff before. It's just it's gotten a bit old to keep hearing all these bashing points trotted out, over and over. And it's a touch distasteful to rag on the prequels, even if it is passed off as frustration at the way the films were made as an eager actor, years later, especially when you're promoting a new Star Wars project involving the same character -- a privilege that Ewan enjoys, first and foremost, because of George Lucas, and secondly, thanks to fans eager to see him reprise his Obi-Wan role. So yeah, it's a little ungrateful, and comes off as slightly bratty -- even, as you imply, discourteous and detached. 

Ah! Ingram, Ingram, Ingram... I knew that response was (in)(gram)coming. 

I agree that this can all be filed away in the drawer labelled "shit that actors say".

I was only criticising in a theoretical sense. Because I'm a prequel fan 'n' all. And it's tiring to see the films getting dunked on all these years later -- even by the people that actually starred in them. Ultimately, it may not amount to a hill of beans, and actors are frequently critical or callously indifferent, after all. Yet it can rankle, especially when it becomes another opportunity for less, ah, sophisticated (or less, ahem... aesthetically inclined) fans/people to hurl another crate of tomatoes at the movies.

It's like, come on, man, find another cultural pastime, already (not you, my dear Ingra-ham). Take up outdoor bowling? Learn to sew? Breed pigeons? Open a bottle-top shop? Donate to the less fortunate? I wonder how much prequel bashing has added to the planet's carbon load these past two decades? Aliens haven't visited, but they've picked up our Internet streams: "They're still bashing the Star Wars prequels and polluting their atmosphere with toxins? Paleolithic era ongoing. Avoid solar system for another 10^6 years." 



One other thing to bear in mind: Ewan is a sweary, outspoken Scot -- basically, the only kind of Scot there is. 

(And I'm a sweary, outspoken Englishman). 

Case in point:

Yep. People are rarely on the same page about anything (just look at us few prequel fans on this forum and some of the arguments/disagreements that have developed), and filmmaking is a complicated, drawn-out business. Actors also have tremendous egos, are extremely image-conscious, and above PR/portfolio considerations, are basically just looking to stay employed. Filmmakers, on the other hand, can be obsessive, demanding, and aloof.

This actor-director disparity is perhaps best summed up by Kirk Douglas' famous remark after working with Stanley Kubrick on "Spartacus" (and "Paths Of Glory" a few years earlier): "Stanley Kubrick is a talented shit."

Liam Neeson also made some remarks the very month that TPM was released that were interpreted by some as a bash at George Lucas: "Film is a director's medium; it has nothing to do with actors. We are basically puppets, walking around, hitting marks, saying lines. Producers make all the money, and you get the sense that they hate actors."

Ouch! Of course, since then, whenever he's been asked about it, Neeson has always spoken favourably of working with Lucas and being involved with the film and seems proud of his character. But you see how bitchy and contentious actors can be...

Some of my favourite blockbuster films, like "Superman: The Movie" released in December 1978 (RIP to Richard Donner) and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", released the following winter, were full of difficulties behind the scenes, and even actors that disliked one another (STM) or just resented the filmmaking process and the finished product (TMP).

Heck, even on a smaller, more intimate film, which is another of my favourite's, Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation", you get the sense that Bill Murray displayed a lot more openness than his co-star, Scarlett Johansson. She isn't included in the "Lost In Location" featurette (she's in it for all of about five seconds), but it's heavy with Bill and Sofia. The same for the rooftop interview on the DVD. It's the two of them talking together, almost like co-directors. No Scarlett. Many factors go into filmmaking. Ultimately, the human element is so enormous that it's almost impossible for everyone to emerge unscathed, or with a positive view of what was accomplished. But then, if everyone agreed and there were no struggles or hurt feelings, would you even have a worthy result? As the saying goes: Art from adversity. 


Yes! I like treating the films as a kind of vade mecum one can dip in and out of at one's leisure. Or an interactive cybertext. 

They're sort of designed for playing with and lollygagging in consort with -- kinda like an epic slot-car racing track or something.

Indeed, how you interact with or "read" the text determines what you get out of it. Input-Output.

I agree. And yeah, they do make up the almighty power coupling so central to the PT. Also, there seems to be substantially more footage of Lucas directing Hayden than Ewan and Natalie.

I have never really cared for McGregor all that much. Don't get me wrong, I think his portrayal of Obi Wan in the Prequels was absolutely brilliant. However, McGregor always gave me bad vibes when seeing him in interviews. Even back in the day when the making of TPM videos were released online, I just remembered thinking there was something about him I didn't quite like. Even though he didn't seem to be doing anything outwardly "wrong", and his enthusiasm for being in Star Wars seemed genuine. He just seemed like he was probably a brat as a kid, that turned into a brat as an adult, that got even worse with fame. So I can see him being difficult.

However, it was a bit satisfying to see him taken down a notch when he dipped his toes into directing:


You don't say McGregor? You mean you don't like it when you put so much into something and people shit on it? Reminds me of someone named Simon Pegg.


Portman.. I think her issues stemmed from her expectations not being met after being in TPM (and some play she was in where she got bad reviews). There was that quote she had a few years back where she talks of having a hard time finding roles after being in the biggest box office movie of all time and a pretty popular play. I can't find the exact quote, I am sure someone else can. 

If memory serves me, she was talking about how after TPM, and the less than stellar reviews she personally received from being in the play, she couldn't land any roles. Her expectations were that because she was in Star Wars she was going to be thrust into the stratosphere and the offers would come pouring in. When that didn't happen, I think that soured her experiences on or with Star Wars. 

I remember when ROTS was being filmed, I was a paying member of Hyperspace. One of the features was we were able to sit in on web chats with some of the people involved with ROTS and ask them questions directly. A lot of fans would ask Pablo Hidalgo (who ran the web chats) about getting McGregor and/or Portman on one of the webchats. He would always answer that some people were far more accessible on set than others. I always took that as those two didn't want to be bothered by us lower life forms.. "We don't serve their kind here"

As the only actors who were in both ANH and the Prequels, have Anthony Daniels or Kenny Baker ever spoken to the similarities and differences in Lucas' directing of these two trilogies?