Movies - TV
Ian McDiarmid Was In ‘Total Shock’ Over This Revenge Of The Sith Scene
By MICHAEL BOYLE
In the "Star Wars" prequels, Emperor Palpatine was quite adept with his lightsaber. To younger viewers, it might have been expected that he would be a great swordsman.
However, for fans of the original trilogy, where older Siths barely bothered with lightsabers, this prowess was jarring. This was especially true for the actor, Ian McDiarmid.
"It was a total shock," he said in a 2005 interview with Empire Magazine. "I had imagined that all his power was in his brain and in his fingers."
Fans have criticized Palpatine's first lightsaber scene in "Revenge of the Sith" for being cartoonish, as though George Lucas had forgotten the character’s original mystique.
Questionable writing aside, McDiarmid was happy to go through fight training for "Revenge," though he admitted that a lot of Palpatine's fighting was done via a stunt double.