After
seeing "Sith" today, I just *knew* it had to be the same actor. how awesome it
is the same guy playing the Emperor in all the movies! What a strange two-edged
sword it must be for actors, to get recognized most for what may be your least
challenging or complex work. Or to be typecast by a role you loved, but want to
put behind you. George Reeves, Leonard Nimoy and others have had that
struggle.But hey, if it pays the bills--more than pays them, I
imagine--it can allow you the freedom to do all those plays and
stuff.
At
least McDiarmid seems to have a good attitude. I know the late Alec Guiness came
to despise the fact that he'd be most rememebered as Obi Wan. I remember reading
an interview where he was faintly contemptuous of his fans, whom he felt were
odd and needed to get real lives. That was sad.
-----Original Message-----http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327099.asp
From: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kelly Wright
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 10:07
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [scifinoir2] Darkest of "Star Wars" dark lords get his day in the sun
Darkest of 'Star Wars' dark lords gets his day in the sun
By BOB LONGINO
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posted: May 19, 2005
Skywalker Ranch, Calif. - More than 20 years after Scottish actor Ian
McDiarmid first donned the dark threads of Emperor Palpatine as ruler
of "Star Wars' " evil Empire, the robe's back on.
53727'Star Wars'
And in "Revenge of the Sith," the final installment in George Lucas'
"Star Wars" saga that opened worldwide this week, the dark lord is
finally having his day in the sun.
Palpatine gets to wield a lightsaber, slicing his way through a
mélange of Jedi knights.
He uses that hellish lightning-from-the-fingertips moxie he's got in a
blistering, senate chamber-smashing duel with Yoda. And he gets to
order around Anakin Skywalker, compelling him to do evil deeds with
simple commands, like "Kill him."
If Darth Vader is the baddest guy in the universe, what does that make
him?
"It makes me beyond that," said McDiarmid, a veteran stage and TV
actor with limited big-screen appearances. "Blackest of the black.
Darkest of the dark. But, unfortunately, still recognizably human."
McDiarmid was 38 when fans first saw him as the creepy, disfigured
emperor when "The Return of the Jedi" was released in 1983.
Now he's 60 and actually much closer in age to the character he's
played in four "Star Wars" films.
From Shakespeare to Sith
McDiarmid has progressed from senator to supreme chancellor to, now,
the man who would be emperor.
For a dozen years, McDiarmid was joint artistic director of the
Almeida Theatre in north London. He's performed with the Royal
Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court.
He's played Edward II, Henry IV and Prospero in "The Tempest." He's
had small parts on the big screen in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow,"
"Gorky Park" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."
His left profile, emphasizing a weak chin, slightly pointed nose and a
splash of swept-back gray hair, is the spitting image of the notorious
Mr. Burns of "The Simpsons."
"The whole of 'The Simpsons' (seems to be) obsessed with 'Star Wars,'
" McDiarmid said.
He doesn't know if Palpatine was in Matt Groening's mind, the actor
added, "but I wouldn't be surprised."
Lucas hadn't seen McDiarmid's work on stage, but a casting director
did, in the small, upstairs theater at the Royal Court at the dawn of
the '80s.
"It was Sam Shepard's play, 'Seduced,' in which I played the aging -
well, his version of the aging - Howard Hughes with the long hair and
the fingernails, motionless in bed," McDiarmid recalled.
His performance struck the right notes: paranoia, confidence,
arrogance, obsessiveness.
Later, McDiarmid was called to lunch with Lucas.
"Even when I got back (home), I didn't know why we had been speaking,
though I imagined it had something to do with 'Star Wars,' " he said.
His agent phoned.
Obviously it went well because you got the part, the agent said.
"I said, 'What part?' "
The agent leafed through his papers, searching for the role, and then
uttered four words - emperor of the universe.
" 'We'll be doing that then,' I said. And that's how it started."
Creating a villain
Once McDiarmid saw the ghastly prosthetics planned for the emperor's
face - the reason behind his metamorphosis from the normal-looking
supreme chancellor to the hideous emperor is illustrated in "Sith" -
he conjured up the character's distinctive, cackling voice.
"Oh, he's like a toad," McDiarmid said. "He's a terrible reptile. I
thought his voice should come from the dark depths. From the bowels of
the Earth or the bowels of his being. . . .
"And the voice just sort of arrived."
"Sith" provides McDiarmid with the most screen time he's had yet.
High praise
His co-star, Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin/Darth Vader, said
McDiarmid took advantage of the moment.
"He steals the show," Christensen said. "I think so much of why this
film works is from his performance."
"He makes choices I don't know that I could really muster the courage
to make. And he pulls it off," Christensen added. "You can see the
process in his eyes. And between scenes, you see him doing that same
sort of obsessive, constant analysis of things. He doesn't go
anywhere. He just sort of stays on set, pacing back and forth."
McDiarmid reluctantly admits that, despite all his years on the stage,
he'll be best remembered for his work in "Star Wars."
"If you make movies, your face and your performance is there forever
more, and if you are involved in a big movie - the biggest movie of
all time - then it's obviously going to be there," McDiarmid said.
"And it does give me pause.
"But it's not all that I do. And I haven't, I hope, got it out of
proportion. That would be the only problem."
Besides, he's not at all impressed with having his face on a "Star
Wars" action figure.
"I think it's a bigger thing for Hayden than it's been for me. Those
little figures or whatever it is. The T-shirts. It's been a very, very
strange thing indeed."
__________________________________________________________
The Black Prince. The Black Church. A State of Mind.
http://www.theworldebon.com
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