Caesar CerveraSEGUIR Updated: Save Send news by mail electrónicoTu name *
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Has a face of good-natured, you have not broken a dish in his life, but when the fire intensifies, George Lucas is the first to throw sparks. There is the principal of Modesto somewhat murky, a dark side that reminds one of a tyrant. Or at least what there was in his despotic behavior with David Prowse, the actor who suffered under the scythe of the filmmaker repeated humiliations while gave life to Darth Vader.
Under the mask and most famous in the history of cinema —halfway between a samurai and a diving gothic— was David Prowse , a former weightlifting champion who used his physique to get several roles in the 70’s. Among them was the thug in “a clockwork orange” , Stanley Kubrick’s, several performances as the Frankenstein monster and the villain in black armour in Star Wars. George Lucas decided to choose to Prowse by his physical constitution (2 meters in height and 118 kg of weight) and for being british, since the first movies were filmed in a Uk study, but decided to dispense with his voice in the final assembly.
As stated later Prowse, did not know that his voice had been replaced by that of James Earl Jones to the same session as the release of the film. Apparently, the director, california was looking for a serious voice, “dark”, and never had any intention of using the English actor in the filming was nicknamed as “Darth Farmer” (“the farmer’s dark”) due to his accent of the west of England. Lucas only wanted him for his body.
The humiliation of finding out in the premiere broke forever the relationship between the actor and the director , who some years later would accuse the british of “loudmouth” by telling the press details about the plot of the movies. But the californian still had reserved a tort end to Darth Vader. In the sixth episode, “Return of The Jedi”, Luke showed the face of the villain as redeemed of their sins. And under the mask not appeared “Darth Farmer”, but the actor also English Sebastian Lewis Shaw . The brief appearance of the actor and playwright, with more than 65 years of experience, was kept secret and few members of the cast knew the identity of Vader until the premiere. In addition, although the scene where he removed the mask to Shaw lasts only two minutes and seven seconds and includes less than 24 words of dialogue, the actor benefited from the fame of the character and more emails from fans than for any other role of his career. In a second scene without dialogue, Shaw is shown in the background as a ghost beside Yoda and Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness).
Paradoxically, as if the role of sith redeemed will lead to more miseries and joys, Sebastian Shaw was replaced in the final scene of the remake of 2004 by the actor Hayden Christensen , the version of Anakin before he became Darth Vader. With this change, Lucas tried to tie the prequel and the original trilogy together in one of the decisions criticized by the fans of Star Wars.
Without charging the benefits of the sixth episode
While Lucas edited and reeditaba to your whim, David Prowse agreed to appear in a documentary titled “The People Vs. George Lucas”, directed by Alexandre O. Philippe in the year 2010. Your participation, where you had felt pushed around long and humiliated during the shoot , cost him his face, and suffered even the veto in the convention’s official “star wars”.
Among his statements, Prowse reported that almost four decades after the premiere of “return of The Jedi” still collect part of the money agreed with LucasFilm . In particular, this is the percentage of box office takings, according to George Lucas, could not be charged since there was no benefits, despite the fact that the film, with a budget of 32 million euros, got to about 475 million dollars in 1983. If Prowse and the rest of actors did not receive their part was, by the creative accounting of the producers that made the balance was officially negative.
From his involvement in the saga, David Prowse departed from the world of cinema , and are dedicated to making road safety campaigns (embodied in the popular English character “Green Cross Code Man”) and charities, which earned him the recognition of the Order of the British Empire in the year 2000. However, their economic situation has never been good and his health has gone through serious difficulties. The greater part of his life Prowse has suffered from arthritis. The first symptoms were manifested when he was thirteen years old, but seemed to disappear while he devoted himself to weightlifting professional. In 2001, his left arm became paralyzed and shortly after so did his right arm.
To these problems is to add a prostate cancer that exceeded in 2009 and, recently, a process of dementia. “I didn’t care what it was, I would have loved to do something in the last saga, even if it was only a cameo. But now I would probably forget my dialogues,” admitted the interpreter 79-year-old during an interview with “The Mirror” a few years ago. In any case, English is one of the few actors of the original trilogy alive that did not receive any offer to participate in the last trilogy.
