Star Wars' Anthony Daniels Was 'Insulted' By The Offer To Audition For C-3PO
A world without "Star Wars" is an odd one to contemplate if it's been around for your entire life. It's easy to forget that before 1977's "A New Hope" (called simply "Star Wars" at the time), sci-fi wasn't looked at in quite the same way. If "Star Wars" didn't exist and someone pitched a story set in space where a princess is kidnapped, a man in sort of Samurai helm is blowing up planets, a farm boy saves the world, and two robots (yes, they're "droids," but before we knew that) team up and become besties, you'd think it was weird, too.
Anthony Daniels, who has played C-3P0 since the beginning, didn't quite get it at first either. In fact, according to the 1983 book "Star Wars — The Making of Return of the Jedi" by John Phillip Peecher, he was actually "insulted" when his agent told him about the audition. The call came a mere 18 months after Daniels began acting. His agent said, "A man called George Lucas is making this film and he'd like to see you." Daniels had watched "American Graffiti" and was interested, but hearing what the role was, he was confused.
'I was doing quite well as a human being'
According to Daniels, his agent said it was a sci-fi film so "there was no money, apart from the sets, special effects, and costumes. More damning than anything — this was in the tone of her voice — and she said quickly: 'He wants to see you for the part of a robot.'" It's hard to imagine what that meant before Star Wars introduced us to droids, and Daniels explained why. He said:
"I remember being a little insulted at the time. I was doing quite well as a human being. And science fiction was just above cowboy movies in my ratings. Fortunately, that was pure ignorance. I had nothing to lose, so I went."
It's a good thing he did, but even the meeting might not have been exactly what one would expect. Daniels explained that his agent warned him about Lucas being really shy. They shook hands, but it was pretty quiet in there. He said that he had to do something to break the ice because, "there was a strong possibility we were going to have a really great silence together, which would be a waste of my bus fare to Twentieth Century-Fox." He had an idea, however, that got Lucas talking.
'He was the sort of creature you could feel for'
Daniels saw Ralph McQuarrie's now-famous concept art for the film on the walls around him. "In a fit of abandon, as if we were taking tea on a sunny afternoon outside, I asked, 'What are these?' George casually began to explain how the film would look," Daniels recalled. He explained that he enjoyed Lucas's enthusiasm for the project. Then he saw the C-3PO concept art. He said:
"The eventual costume turned out to be similar to the one in the painting. Here was a tin figure, a sort of gaunt, metal man; the overwhelming quality of the picture was one of sadness. He was the sort of creature you could feel for. C-3PO was standing with this little box nearby and nothing but rocks and moons in the distance."
He may have been insulted by the initial request, but it grew on him. Daniels said he was "very confused" by an early draft because it was so different than the plays he'd done ("A New Hope" was Daniel's first feature film), so he ended up reading it five times. Threepio's character is what sold him. He said, " ... the reason I took the job was because Threepio, even in that early draft, was the most perfectly formed character." It's hard to imagine "Star Wars" without the worrying and complaining of our beloved droid, and as a Threepio apologist since I was little, I'm grateful to Daniels's agent for giving him that warning about Lucas being shy.
All the "Star Wars" films are currently streaming on Disney+.