http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/movies/may05/327099.asp
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 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/LRMolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/