Role Recall: Anthony Daniels on C-3PO’s five decade journey through every ‘Star Wars’ movie
Anthony Daniels breaks down every "Star Wars" movie through the eyes of his chatty alter ego, C3PO: from his initial reluctance to join the franchise,, to dancing with Ewoks, and to the final goodbye.
Video Transcript
C3PO: Sir, my first job was programming--
DANIELS AND C3PO: Binary loadlifters, very similar to your vaporators in many respects.
C3PO: The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is--
DANIELS AND C3PO: Approximately 3,720 to 1. My parts are showing?
C3PO: My goodness!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Where have you been?
[R2D2 BEEPS]
They'd heading in this direction? What are we going to do?
ANTHONY DANIELS: It is so weird to be here in 2020 and think back to 1975, I think a day in November when I reluctantly went to meet George Lucas. I was reluctant because I didn't want to be in a low-budget sci-fi movie in the part of a robot. And he wanted to see me because I'd come out of drama school quite good at mime. I could control my body to a certain extent. Also, I was very slim. So if you put a big suit on me, I wouldn't look kind of humongous.
And the thing that changed my mind about being involved in the process at all was not George. It was Ralph Macquarie's concept painting of the character. It sounds kind of weird to say. I looked into the eyes of the character, and his painting, the eyes of the character looked back at me and said, come with me.
The next day I went back and met George Lucas again. I said, well, please may I play the part. And George went, sure. We arrived in Tunisia. It was the first time out in the desert that I really tried on the whole costume, and it was just awful. And it broke immediately. It was very fragile. And of course in the making, I would stand there covered in this fiberglass stuff. And the itching afterwards was horrific, you know? It was like ugh, disgusting stuff, fiberglass.
And at no time did Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, or myself, did any of us think this was going to make it off the shelf.
C3PO: Oh! Nice to see a familiar face.
[DROID SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
How rude!
ANTHONY DANIELS: Back then it was clear that I was being completely negated from any kind of publicity, that I, as an actor, didn't exist. 3PO, people sort of rather liked him to my great pleasure. But me, they weren't allowed to know I had any part of it. You know, my name whizzed by up on the credits there, but you wouldn't know.
So I didn't have a really good feeling about it. I felt left out. Because believe me, the publicity was pan-global. I couldn't go anywhere without hearing the music, seeing images, reading pieces, in which I was never mentioned. So when it was mooted that there would be another film, which would now become episode five, would I want to be involved.
And it was a tough decision. Why would I re-enter a job that was so uncomfortable physically, so uncomfortable, that physically hurt me, attacked me, bruised me, pinched me, and then having been through the psychological trauma of being wiped out of the biggest success in cinematic history? And then I realized also that I'd become very fond of 3PO, that he was a character that, going back to the original Ralph Macquarie painting, kind of seemed to need my help, still needed my help. So I said yes.
C3PO: Oh, my head!
[EWOKS CHATTER]
Oh my goodness.
ANTHONY DANIELS: By now we had a curious situation where George wasn't directing. So he had somebody come in to be the apparent director. But it didn't kind of work, because George knew what he wanted. And it didn't work through somebody else's fingers. Yeah, that-- it was a much more successful shoot apart from the who's in charge here. And when nobody's in charge, sometimes the wrong people start to chip in a bit too much. I kind of did my own thing, frankly.
PRINCESS LEIA: Come on, we've got to get out of here.
[R2 BEEPS]
C3PO: Oh, my eyes! R2! Help!
ANTHONY DANIELS: One day, Salacious Crumb was pulling out 3PO's eye. And I'm lying there on the floor, and out of nowhere I got something that I understand was claustrophobia, instant panic.
CARRIE FISHER: Help him!
[GRUNTING]
ANTHONY DANIELS: I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly my world had changed. And I'm yelling, get me out, get me out, get me out. My head was off in seconds.
[SIGHS]
And I'd never had that experience before. It gave me an insight into what some people suffer, a phobia. One of my endless embarrassments is the end of "Return of the Jedi" with 3PO discoing away with an Ewok. [INAUDIBLE] But that was the end of it! I'd done a trilogy. Amazing. That was the end, goodbye.
C3PO: Master Anakin, you were my maker and I wish you well. However I should prefer it if I were a little more completed.
ANTHONY DANIELS: Time went on, and my life became, you know, back to normal, not wearing clothes like that anymore. And then literally a phone call, because with actors it always changes with a phone call. And there I was at Leavesden Studios. And George is there telling me that, you know, you created Anakin.
I was not puppeteering this wonderful puppet figure created by props in ILM. And I was there just on the set occasionally to-- and then to do the voiceover over something that I had not timed or created myself. So it was a slightly detached experience, but a very clever beginning to the story. And for all of us to have learned the word prequel, it increased our vocabulary.
C3PO: I don't believe we have been introduced.
[R2 BEEPS]
R2D2, a pleasure to meet you. I am C3PO, human cyborg relations.
ANTHONY DANIELS: The relationship between R2D2 and C3PO was brilliant in the script. It just was great. That wasn't the reality. I was working with a prop that didn't make any sounds. And then there were empty boxes that Kenny Baker would get into and make it wobble. And I never knew, really, which I was working with.
We never really could have a relationship on set, because he couldn't hear anything. He didn't know what we were doing. He couldn't. He was in a box wobbling. And I'm talking to it. It was a crazy situation. We never had a relationship on set, and certainly not outside. Because we were both doing very, very different things. And curiously they weren't connected. The film makes you believe they're connected, but not really.
C3PO: My obtuse little friend. If they had needed our help, they would have asked for it. You obviously have a great deal to learn about human behavior.
[R2 BEEPS]
ANTHONY DANIELS: Then it became very clear that number one wasn't going to be the last film. We had number two. And at this point, I said, you know I really would like to do the puppetry of this thing. Because it's still a puppet. And they said, sure.
So they strap this beautifully created puppet onto my body at the toes, the knees, the waist, the chest, the head. The arms are on sticks. I have got a person in front of me, attached to me. And then I'd be photoshopped out. And it was quite a challenge, quite interesting, and I enjoyed it. It was scary, because this puppet I really had to keep my balance, you know.
C3PO: Oh, my lady, is there anything I might do?
PADME: No, thank you, 3PO.
[C3PO SIGHS]
C3PO: I-- I feel so helpless.
ANTHONY DANIELS: Again, 3PO sadly didn't have a huge amount to do, which none of these films really are about him. But I did feel a bit-- his services could have been, maybe, used better. But there were other things to do. Digital had become in the prequels the big thing, the new thing, but occasionally you can lose warmth and kind of visceral quality, you know? It makes the whole experience slightly less charming in a way. That was the film when finally I said goodbye, that's the end, episode three. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, done it.
C3PO: Goodness! Han Solo! It is I, C3PO! Look who it is! Did you see who-- ? Oh.
ANTHONY DANIELS: Some time passed, and then the phone rang again. Hi, this is Kathy Kennedy. I'm the producer of the new "Star Wars" film. I just wondered if you'd be OK if J.J. Abrams gave you a call. He's the director. And to meet him was just a revelation. Because he had grown up with "Star Wars," I think from the age of 10. And he'd kept that huge enthusiasm.
He'd seen George's original, and he had just absorbed the whole thing and adored it. So there we were back with some of the old team, of course, and wonderful additions to the new team. And people say, so did you help Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac and John Boyega?
[LAUGHTER]
They are so much better than I could ever be. They knew everything about "Star Wars" because they'd sort of, you know, grown up with it. And also, they're really, really good actors.
C3PO: Scarif? They're going to Scarif? Why does nobody ever tell me anything, R2?
[R2 BEEPS]
ANTHONY DANIELS: A phone call. Would it be all right if Gareth Edwards, the director of this film called "Rogue One," he-- he's a big fan. Could he come around? I said, of course. You can come over for tea. And then I realized he's saying, would you be in it. Just a walkthrough, you know, just like-- yeah, it'd be such fun. A cameo, because you know, 3PO was just such a thing to walk [INAUDIBLE]. Yes, of course.
He could not believe that I was saying yes. He got into this speech mode, the selling mode. There was no off button. I said, I finally said, I've said yes, now shut up. Have some tea, you know, whatever.
C3PO: If I was to be the sole voice of reason, Admiral Holdo would never agree to this plan.
POE: Yeah, you're right, 3PO.
ANTHONY DANIELS: Rian Johnson who is directing "The Last Jedi" has a very different approach to filmmaking than J.J. Who's kind of-- knows exactly what he's doing. But he's kind of on the hoof with-- Rian is much more calm, and sort of he's done all the homework. You don't have to worry about it, whatever.
He was adorable to work with. One of the very-- I think it was the first shot we did, was with Carrie Fisher, with Princess Leia in the medical chamber having had some kind of out of body experience. And I couldn't work out, is that Carrie. She was behind a kind of glass thing. Because it was the most beautiful dummy, had a beautiful face mask. Because you can think back on that now, that it was-- I had a little moment.
HAN SOLO: Now!
[CHEWIE ROARS]
All right!
ANTHONY DANIELS: And here's the news. They're going to make another "Star Wars" film that isn't a "Star Wars" film. It's an offshoot film, and it was called "Solo" about the adventures of Han Solo and Chewbacca. And 3PO wasn't in it. But they said, you-- you could be an extra, a cameo. Yes! I meet the directors, and there on my trailer it said, to my surprise, human slave. What does that mean?
So I meet the directors and have a great time and show them my ragged costume, filthy, ragged, ugh. And they go, that's terrific. The next day they left the production. And a few months later, there I am on set. And by this time, my trailer said Tak, T-A-K.
Tak was the name of the human slave. He was one of many people in this disgusting, sulfurous, messy, waterlogged mine scene. And there I was running about with the immortal line, "Sagwa, this way. Come on, Sagwa." Because I was apparently best friends with a very tall, thin Wookiee.
[LAUGHTER]
C3PO: Memory restoration complete. R2, have you heard? I am going with Mistress Rey on her very first mission!
ANTHONY DANIELS: Episode nine, "The Rise of Skywalker." How does it end? It felt to me really rather good that it ended. Because this could have trailed on forever like "Days of our Lives." I didn't get a script forever. And I-- it really--
[MAKES UNCOMFORTABLE SOUNDS]
And I talk in my book about being frustrated that J.J. kept saying, I want you to have the best up-to-date script. But I had written to him to say, look, here's the thing, in the last two films, and indeed in the prequels, 3PO didn't get to do much stuff. He's better than what he was given. He has more abilities and more interest curves and all that kind of thing. Not an ego thing. It was a thing for my friend, 3PO. He needed to be shown off.
Well, when I read, eventually, Chris Terrio's script, I was absolutely thrilled. I had the best time on that film. It was adorable. It was exhausting. My last scene was with some of the adorable cast. And they were talking to each other. They had lines. 3PO didn't. 3PO was just there reacting. Didn't have a single word to say. He had chattered away through all these movies, and suddenly his last scene is silent.
And in a-- Oh, I'm getting goose bumps now. In a way, looking back, it's maybe right. Because when we'd finished and they said cut, it was a tough moment. J.J. made a nice speech, and I-- I hung on there. Yeah. It felt very warm and very bittersweet, yes.
People say, what's it like to be in all the "Star Wars" movies? It's too big for me to understand. I genuinely cannot conceive of the bigness of what I have done that people tell me. And so I just accept that they liked it, they're impressed, and whatever. And I think, well, I'm kind of happy to have survived it at all really.
POE: What are you doing there, 3PO?
C3PO: Taking one last look, sir, at my friends.
