Despite being the only person to appear in all 11 \u201cStar Wars\u201d films, Anthony Daniels has never been one to hog the spotlight. Known for portraying the human-cyborg relations droid C-3PO under a shiny gold suit, the actor was the guest of honor Monday night at the closing event for the San Francisco International Film Festival. He even received a proclamation from Supervisor Bilal Mahmood that officially declared May 4 \u201cStar Wars\u201d Day.<\/p>\n
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The ceremony took place at Starbelly. It preceded a screening of \u201cStar Wars: Episode V \u2014 The Empire Strikes Back\u201d at the newly renovated Castro Theatre, which included an extended conversation between\u00a0Daniels and Howard Roffman, a longtime Lucasfilm veteran and the SFFILM board vice president. During the film, cheers broke out at C-3PO\u2019s first appearance and during at least three other moments.<\/p>\n
Despite all the admiration, when asked about the idea of getting his own spinoff TV show, he dismissed the idea outright.<\/p>\n
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Actor Anthony\u00a0Daniels looks at his C-3PO head, part of his costume for the 1983 film \u201cStar Wars: Episode VI\u00a0\u2014 Return of the Jedi,\u201d during a photo-call at the Propstore in Rickmansworth in the United Kingdom on Jan. 17, 2024.<\/p>\n
Andrew Matthews\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of wearing that suit for a whole series, not going to be possible,\u201d he told SFGATE. \u201c… I think Threepio has had very good innings, and I\u2019m slightly against the whole thing becoming attenuated and kind of unraveling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniels is a classically trained actor who spent three years in drama school prior to donning the golden suit, with the \u201cStar Wars\u201d gig coming directly after playing Guildenstern in the play \u201cRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.\u201d He shared with Roffman that originally he scoffed at the idea of doing a low-budget sci-fi film for an American director, but changed his mind when he saw a painting of C-3PO that showed the character\u2019s emotional depth.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was absolutely entranced by it. I always joked that, you know, I\u2019ve seen a Mona Lisa in Paris. It\u2019s crap. It doesn\u2019t speak to me at all. This painting spoke to me,\u201d he said to Roffman during the Q&A.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Anthony Daniels, right, and Howard Roffman appear onstage at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n Tommy Lau\/SFFILM<\/p>\n He went on to describe the process of the creation for C-3PO\u2019s suit as \u201cone of the grossest experiences of my life,\u201d during which he was covered in Saran Wrap and glazed in Vaseline before being enveloped in plaster.<\/p>\n Once the suit was created and filming began in Tunisia and London, Daniels found himself caught by surprise and out of his element due to the amount of improv required. In the script, R2-D2 originally had dialogue, but on set, the droid was silent, making it hard for Daniels to play off his primary scene partner (as a contrast, Chewbacca spoke English, replaced later with Wookiee language). However, the challenge wasn\u2019t a concern for George Lucas, who planned on substituting Daniels\u2019 voice with another actor\u2019s anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said the immortal line to me, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about the voice, I can fix it later, you can say anything you want,\u2019\u201d Daniels said. \u201c… What he meant was, \u2018I hate your performance already.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Cosplayers dressed up as \u201cStar Wars\u201d characters walk through the lobby of the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n Tommy Lau\/SFFILM<\/p>\n Daniels proved himself worthy after all, but in the follow-up to the first film, he was still treated like an outcast, as he said Lucas wanted to keep the mystique around his robotic character.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t allowed to exist. So for the second time, I lost my humanity, once during filming and now perpetually. For months and months, everybody wanted to talk about \u2018Star Wars,\u2019\u201d he said during the Q&A. \u201cI wanted to talk about anything but. It was a very, very painful time, and rude and cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That bitterness has long since softened, as he spoke with great affection for his colleagues when talking to SFGATE, albeit with a bit of snark. Despite Harrison Ford being \u201cvery mean\u201d to his character, he declared himself a fan, stating that Ford would make a great director. Mark Hamill was the first actor he met on set: \u201cHis enthusiasm and his charm and his humor and his energy \u2014 exhausting. Tough job being the blond hero with all this weirdness around him.\u201d<\/p>\n He called Carrie Fisher \u201ctricky, but adorable \u2014 the words didn\u2019t always come in the right order.\u201d<\/p>\n R2-D2? \u201cA pain in the butt,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anthony Daniels, left, and Howard Roffman onstage at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n Pamela Gentile\/SFFILM<\/p>\n And he declared Lucas a genius, an inventor and an inspiration, as well as \u2014 in a backhanded compliment \u2014 well-suited for technological adaptation: \u201cI think he\u2019d prefer not to work with actors, just use AI. I think George would be in his element.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n As for AI, Daniels considers himself \u201cthe first instance of amazing artificial intelligence on-screen.\u201d Given that he\u2019s now 80 years old, he said he\u2019s not concerned about his own livelihood being affected, but the current state of the technology does give him pause, calling it \u201ca little pernicious\u201d and saying that lots of artists are going to suffer. When asked about the recent White House AI meme<\/a> showing President Donald Trump as the Mandalorian, Daniels was quick with a \u201cno comment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Another thing that Daniels declared he isn\u2019t a big fan of: audiences talking during movies. But he did give fans permission to scream out after one of his character\u2019s most iconic scenes, even going so far as to give them a practice round. In a fun moment of crowd participation during the Q&A, he read out one of C-3PO\u2019s most iconic lines about the chances of the Millennium Falcon surviving a flight through an asteroid field, to which the crowd joyfully replied Han Solo\u2019s line: \u201cNever tell me the odds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being the only person to appear in all 11 \u201cStar Wars\u201d films, Anthony Daniels has never been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69,189445],"class_list":["post-415464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sfgculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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