Our friends at Lightsabre have posted part one of their 3 part interview with C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels. Click here for the interview (navigate to the interview section) and see below for an excerpt:


Q - "For a man who was so unimpressed by 2001 A Space Odyssey that he walked out after ten minutes and demanded his money back, you must look back in wonderment at the last thirty-odd years and your involvement in Star Wars and think, what happened, given that you were so unimpressed with another sci-fi classic?"

A – "Well, I think it was actually fifteen minutes, and I've actually met someone else who did the same thing. I was not alone in those days in thinking it was boring. In fact I watched it on a plane the other day, Virgin do these retro movies and it's so impressive. I still have no idea what the last ten minutes is about but it's just a magical movie, I was just too young to enjoy it. Yes, it is weird that circumstances led me into this strange past - it was the future then, but I didn't know where it was going.

You know, as an actor I didn't have any other ambition other than to act, you know. Wear other peoples clothes, say other peoples lines in front of other people. It's a kind of weird sort of exhibitionism. But that was all I wanted to do, as it were to please the audience and gratify myself. It never occurred to me that I would become or to want to become rich and/or famous, I just wanted to act. And given that on occasions I've acted to all of six people in the audience at the Edinburgh Fringe, I think there were seven. But the sheer joy of doing it is what it was about, and circumstances, fate, The Force, whatever took over and here I am after all of thirty-two, thirty-three years of Star Wars still doing it. Strange."


On a related note, catch Mark Newbold from Lightsabre on the Force-Cast giving his report from Star Wars: A Musical Journey, and see the related links below for previous interviews and articles regarding Mr. Daniels, including his appearance in the Force-Cast Cantina.



UPDATE: Part 2 of the Lightsabre interview with Anthony Daniels is now online. Click here to check it out (navigate to the interview section) and see below for an excerpt:


Q - "Did the costume change much between '77 and when you finished Revenge of the Sith, was it similar?"

A - "It was the same costume and there are a number of costumes, I think there are six originals, but they break all the time and we found ways of strengthening them because day one in 1976 the costume wasn't ready and it didn't work, it didn't fit together in itself, let alone fit me and gradually we had to bodge our way through and there's a few scenes where it was held together with nylon thread and tape or something, and certainly in the original it often fell apart during a scene or the eyes would go out.
Funnily enough I was talking yesterday to Brian Lofthouse who looked after me for all three of the original movies and it was just terrific, I hadn't spoken to him for ages and we instantly got into telling stories to each other, 'Do you remember when this went on,' and I was saying how much I had relied on him because I'm like a baby in a pram, just a baby, I can't do anything for myself including, and I reminded him and said the most loving thing he ever did, which I had to ask him to do, because when I was doing the storytelling scene in the Ewok Village I had such a bad cold that I said to him through the mask 'When you take my mask off, can you blow my nose for me'"

Q - (Laughs)

A - "And he held up a handkerchief, I blew my nose, wiped it. You know, without his loving affection I couldn't have done it. And it's the same with Don Bies now, I rely on people outside. And people are very, very solicitous.
What happened very quickly on the original set was that part of the magic I did on the first day, people Ooohed and Ahhhed and came up to me and said 'Anthony, that's incredible, great performance' and by day two, day three they'd completely forgotten I was in there. They accepted Threepio for Threepio and they forgot that maybe I'd like to take a break."



UPDATE #2: The third and final part of Lightsabre's interview with Anthony Daniels is now online for your viewing pleasure. Click here for the full interview (navigate to the interview section) and see below for an excerpt:


Q - "There's one famous scene, I interviewed Irvin Kershner a couple of years ago very luckily, a fantastic fella, and I asked him about the Carbon Freezing scene in Empire Strikes Back. Were you on set that day?"

A – "Yes, it was a disgusting set because it was so steamy, there was a very big smell of wet rust in the air, it was actually not very pleasant. I was on Chewbacca's back, so there were shots there. I didn't like that, it was orange and smelly."

Q - "Was it as difficult to work on that set as Alan Arnold indicated in his Once Upon A Galaxy making of book? It seemed to be a hot set, a difficult day."

A – "It was steam, set at a certain temperature. Dark, claustrophobic, orange. Jabba's Palace, the big thing there was smoke. Ahh, jeez, there were some scenes there you can just see my right side. The rest of me is behind a pillar with a wet towel. There was atmosphere, fog or incense. Day after day after day."