Playing Darth Vader In Star Wars Wasn't What David Prowse Expected At First
The central villain of George Lucas' 1977 sci-fi film "Star Wars" is a stuffy, cold-hearted general named Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing). He is an efficient commander of an Imperial military force who leads a fleet of well-armed Star Destroyers and is single-minded in his task of finding and quelling a scrappy uprising of resourceful rebels. He also commands a brand new moon-sized superstructure called a Death Star, capable of exterminating an entire planet in a single shot. The most chilling thing about him is the way he goes about his job with mere determination. He is dispassionate about causing death, only knowing it needs to be done for the good of the Empire.
More memorable is his lieutenant, a mysterious masked wizard in a black cape named Darth Vader. In the original 1977 film, Darth Vader was a scary, magical figure who served the Empire for reasons unknown. It wouldn't be until the character became massively popular that Darth Vader's importance in the "Star Wars" sequels would be expanded.
During the filming of "Star Wars" in 1976, Darth Vader was played and voiced by British actor David Prowse. His voice was later dubbed over by James Earl Jones in post-production. Both actors are appropriately menacing, but audiences seem to prefer Jones' basso profundo pipes to Prowse's Bristol accent. This was somewhat galling to Prowse, as he didn't know his voice was going to be dubbed over. This, after he turned down another notable "Star Wars" role in order to play Darth Vader.
In a 2019 conversation with The Telegraph, Prowse revealed that he had been offered the role of Chewbacca, but wanted to play the villain instead. Villains are more fun. Little did he know that he would be wearing a full-face mask in both roles.
Darth Vader with no mask
Filmmaker Lucas likely always envisioned Darth Vader as wearing a full-face mask, but Prowse had never put that together. This immediately has one thinking of what a menacing Darth Vader would have looked like with his face visible. He also quite naturally assumed he would be able to keep his own speaking voice. When Prowse was offered the role of either Chewbacca or Darth Vader, he said:
"I turned down the role of Chewbacca at once. I know that people remember villains longer than heroes. At the time I didn't know I'd be wearing a mask, and throughout production I thought Vader's voice would be mine."
To experienced Starwoids, Prowse's actual voice sounds a little odd. So many grew up rewatching "Star Wars" and enjoying James Earl Jones' voice, to hear the snippy, more lean vocals of Prowse almost sounds incorrect. One can find footage of Prowse's on-set vocals online. It could have worked perfectly well.
Darth Vader would eventually remove his mask and reveal his face at the conclusion of the 1983 sequel "Return of the Jedi." Under the mask, Darth Vader was played by actor Sebastian Shaw. Why not Prowse? It's been posited that Prowse was forbidden from all "Star Wars" press tours and even from playing Darth Vader maskless because of a spoiler incident back in 1978. During the production of "The Empire Strikes Back," Prowse was interviewed by the San Francisco Examiner and he stated plainly — 22 months before the release of the film — that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker's father. As one might imagine, Lucas was likely miffed by the interview.
Prowse has posited that he and Lucas never recovered their relationship after that.