C-3PO Actor Anthony Daniels Found Disney's Star Wars Secrecy Bizarre
Anthony Daniels, the actor in the gleaming gold costume of C-3PO, has often been refreshingly outspoken about the "Star Wars" movies. Indeed, if you check out his interviews or excerpts from his memoir "I Am C-3PO," it is clear that a lot of his own personality found its way into the endlessly complaining protocol droid.
Writing on his website, Daniels openly admits that he wasn't interested in playing a robot in a sci-fi movie at first. He acknowledges that taking the role changed his life, however, and he has become very protective of his onscreen alter-ego over the years. He is no less frank about the more recent movies in the franchise, saying that the prequels "weren't that much fun to do" and he felt like a "table decoration" in the third trilogy of the Skywalker Saga. As for "The Rise of Skywalker," he told one interviewer how dismayed he was with the troubled production:
"The changes were fairly constant and you get used to inconsistency. [...] I actually stopped really cramming the words in because I knew they were going to change on the day."
His candor has sometimes had a negative effect. Some unkind comments he made about his co-star and onscreen counterpart Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2, contributed to long-running rumors of a feud between them. He received backlash from fans when Baker passed away in 2016 because they felt his public condolences weren't sufficiently emotional.
Overall, however, Daniels' willingness to express his opinion on the films that brought him fame and fortune is endearingly unguarded. He was no less critical of mega-corporation Disney and their attempts to keep the plot of "The Force Awakens" under wraps.
Anthony Daniels takes issue with Disney's Kremlin attitude
Ahead of the release of "The Force Awakens" in 2015, Anthony Daniels spoke to The Guardian about playing the famous droid once more. In typically forthright fashion, he took umbrage to the levels of secrecy surrounding the project:
"The secrecy has been beyond ludicrous. [...] For heaven's sake, it's a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn't photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it."
As good as it was seeing C-3PO and R2-D2 again in the movie, their presence felt very much like fan service. Although his role was basically an extended cameo, Daniels still managed to get himself in hot water with studio executives for mentioning another actor's name on social media:
"I said that I'd met so-and-so. An actor who plays a [...] thing in the film. A character. Immediately I received a message from Disney: 'Remove the tweet! You're not allowed to say that!' Honestly. It's a kind of Kremlin attitude. Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I'm giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise. And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day."
I don't know about you, but I find it hard not to hear C-3PO when I read those quotes. Daniels simply is the droid, and perhaps his symbiosis with the character is what has helped the befuddled robot butler become such a firm fan favorite. Out of the vast array of fantastic creations in the "Star Wars" universe, he was always mine.