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From: Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: Alec Guiness's Thoughts on Appearing in STAR WARS
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 23:43:22 -0400
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On 2025-03-19 10:53 PM, shawn wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Mar 2025 21:58:18 -0400, Rhino
> <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 2025-03-19 9:36 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>> On 3/19/25 6:14 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>>
>>>> BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Prior to accepting the role of Obi-wan (Ben) Kenobi, Sir Alec
>>>>> Guinness wrote
>>>>> the following to a friend:
>>>>
>>>>>       I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which
>>>>>       I may accept, if they come up with proper money.
>>>>>       London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science
>>>>>       fiction - which gives me pause - but is to be directed
>>>>>       by Paul [sic] Lucas who did AMERICAN GRAFFITI,
>>>>>       which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale
>>>>>       rubbish but could be interesting perhaps.
>>>>
>>>>> After he arrived on set, he did not change his opinion that the movie
>>>>> was
>>>>> "rubbish":
>>>>
>>>>>       ...new rubbish dialogue reaches me every
>>>>>       other day on wadges of pink paper - and none of
>>>>>       it makes my character clear or even bearable. I
>>>>>       just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which
>>>>>       will help me keep going until next April even if
>>>>>       YAHOO [a play in which Guinness played satirist
>>>>>       Jonathan Swift] collapses in a week ... I must off
>>>>>       to studio and work with a dwarf (very sweet - and
>>>>>       he has to wash in a bidet) and your fellow countrymen
>>>>>       Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can't be
>>>>>       right) Ford. Ellison (? - No!) - well, a rangy, languid
>>>>>       young man who is probably intelligent and amusing.
>>>>>       But oh, God, they make me feel ninety - and treat
>>>>>       me as if I was 106. - Oh, Harrison Ford - ever
>>>>>       heard of him?
>>>>
>>>> Dude! You saw American Graffiti directed by Paul Lucas! Ellison Ford had
>>>> a small role in the movie!
>>>>
>>>>> Later on in the filming, Guinness wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>       "Apart from the money, I regret having embarked
>>>>>       on the film. I like them well enough, but it's not an
>>>>>       acting job, the dialogue - which is lamentable - keeps
>>>>>       being changed and only slightly improved, and I find
>>>>>       myself old and out of touch with the young"
>>>>
>>>> To be fair, everybody hates that the script is never finished.
>>>>
>>>>> He did have some nice things to say about the completed film:
>>>>
>>>>>       "It's a pretty staggering film as spectacle, and
>>>>>       technically brilliant. Exciting, very noisy and warm-
>>>>>       hearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for
>>>>>       five minutes too long, I feel, and some of the dialogue
>>>>>       is excruciating and much of it is lost in noise, but
>>>>>       it remains a vivid experience"
>>>>
>>>>> However, it was not an experience he liked to talk about afterwards:
>>>>
>>>>>       "I shrivel up every time someone mentions
>>>>>       STAR WARS to me."
>>>>
>>>> Clark Gable despised making Gone With the Wind, and thought It Happened
>>>> One Night was utter shite.
>>>
>>> I saw the latter, in the 1990s(?), and did not care for it.
>>>
>> I finally saw it a year or so back and didn't much care for it either.
>>
>>>> Uh, raise your hand if you want to hear an actor's opinion on what makes
>>>> a movie entertaining. Anybody? Don't all get up at once.
>>>
>>> Yeah, a lot of actors get their own stuff wrong. Musicians too! (There's
>>> a doc on Yes where the bandmembers clearly didn't understand how great
>>> an album "Relayer" was!!)
>>>
>>>
>> Savages! Relayer is a fine album!!
>>
>> I had no idea you were a Yes fan. Have you ever listened to Rick Wakeman
>> being interviewed? He is a legendary keyboardist (and yes, I know he
>> didn't play on Relayer) but also a truly entertaining speaker, full of
>> stories of his life as a musician, both with Yes and playing with other
>> people. He's also written two books full of anecdotes about his career.
>> I haven't laughed so hard in YEARS!
> 
> You mean like this:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zppfjeculUs
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4CCMeTlDXI
> 
> This one shows some of his skill at the keyboard.

The second of those is an excerpt from the first - or at least the same 
interview. Beato may have removed some bits of the longer interview from 
his main channel and put it on the second channel. (I've only watched 
the full interview once and certainly haven't memorized it.)

It's a fine interview but the books contain a lot of stories from a 
colourful life; some of them aren't even music-related. He tells a great 
story about meeting some submariners while drinking after a gig and then 
being smuggled aboard their (top secret) sub to have a look around, 
which had a hilarious sequel. His adventures with home repair are 
surprising too. He was a notorious boozer and smoker who went cold 
turkey with zero effort after he had some health scares. He seems like a 
remarkably down-to-earth and approachable individual despite his fame. 
I'd love to spend an afternoon talking to him.

-- 
Rhino