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<\/p>\nIt was still dark when Anthony Daniels arrived for his first morning of filming Star Wars: The New Hope in 1976.<\/p>\n
The production had set up in the Sahara Desert in Tunisia, which could be both freezing cold and blisteringly hot. Daniels,\u00a0 a British actor and mime artist, had been cast as a the fussbudget droid C-3PO, a role he would eventually play in nine films. It required him to be installed into.an elaborate gold-planted suit. On that first morning, it sat in 17 pieces in a tent in the desert. It took two hours for him to get into the costume.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cI lost my entire body, my sense of being me,\u201d Daniels told a packed audience at the BMO Centre Friday afternoon as part of Calgary Expo. \u201cPeople struggled to put the whole thing together. It was utterly, utterly painful and awful. So this is when you tell me how wonderful I am\u00a0 and how important I am to your childhood. Because I suffered for my art.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a running theme on Friday for the 80-year-old actor, who spent much of his 45-minute talk roaming through the audience front of the main stage in the Champion Ballroom. He made several references to his 2019 memoir I am C-3PO and made numerous mentions that he was the only actor to appear in all nine of the films in the main Skywalker canon of the Star Wars universe, from A New Hope to 2019\u2019s The Rise of Skywalker.<\/p>\n
The talk began with Daniels narrating his own introductory film, which showed numerous clips of C-3PO in harrowing situations that upped the droid\u2019s anxiety levels. The voice Daniels came up with forC-3PO was meant to reflect the character being constantly tense, misunderstood and maltreated, he said.<\/p>\n
Yes, Star Wars was about the Force and the battle between rebels and the evil empire and a very dysfunctional family. But, according to Daniels, \u201cStar Wars is the story about a gold robot who was bullied and humiliated for all nine movies!\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anthony Daniels poses with C-3PO and BB-8 at the special fan event for \u2018Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker\u2019 at Roppongi Hills on December 11, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.<\/p>\n
Daniels shared some behind-the-scenes tidbits, although there is probably not much that hasn\u2019t already been revealed over the years. He talked about working with Sir Alec Guinness,\u00a0 who had to be coaxed into taking on the role of Jedi mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi. The fact that the legendary actor was not sold on director George Lucas\u2019 vision is old news, of course, but it\u2019s still amusing to hear Daniels tell the story when adopting a bang-on imitation of the actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody understood what George Lucas was talking about,\u201d he says. \u201cThe British crew had never made a film like this and there were all sorts of tensions. One day Sir Alec said to me \u2018You will be in other films, and you will find them better than this.’\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Actor Anthony Daniels famous for playing C-3PO from Star Wars during Calgary Expo on Friday.<\/p>\n
Daniels, who was at the same agency as Guinness, also wasn\u2019t sold on the idea when his management told him to try out for the part. In fact, Lucas seemed rather passive and less-than-enthusiastic when he gave Daniels the role and initially was going to get another actor to voice C-3PO. When Star Wars blew up and became one fo the biggest cultural phenomenons in the history of film, Daniels was left out the public eye because producers wanted to maintain the illusion that C-3PO was a real robot. The actor was felt so rejected by this that he initially decided he would not return for the film\u2019s first sequel, 1980\u2019s The Empire Strikes Back.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the film I was given no credit, I wasn\u2019t allowed to be a part of the whole circus, I didn\u2019t exist,\u201d he says. \u201c. . . That hurt more than I could possibly tell you. So I nearly didn\u2019t do (Empire Strikes Back.) Then I thought about it and I realized two things. First of all, it was a job and I was an actor, once. It was also returning to a character of which I\u2019m very fond.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Calgary Expo continues until Sunday at Stampede Park.<\/p>\n
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