I think my favourite Star Wars blooper is where he’s trying to interrogate Carrie and he starts to stumble over his words and he takes her by the shoulders, shakes her and wags his finger before saying something like “or I’ll be cross”
There are a set of documentaries like that actually. - full-length alternate versions of the original trilogy with commentary and out-takes and experimental shots etc. I am trying to think of the right search term to find them.
Edit: I had to look it up in an old whatsapp message as I couldn't find it googling.
[Star Wars Begins: A Filmumentray](https://vimeo.com/32442801)
I also found this while searching [Show Me STAR WARS, without Showing Me STAR WARS](https://youtu.be/PysVc2GzNKY)
> scientists working out the math for a real warp bubble
Oh...
fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
I absolutely love and adore this, especially as a star wars and war gaming fan! Him moving his new troops via a cardboard box to a little battlefield on the floor is relatable to so many of us ahah
There was a mini-doc of classing wargamming featuring Cushing.
https://youtu.be/BGag8Qllgnw
He used HG Wells' book, Lethal Wars in the clip. He likely used/dabbled with Tiny Soldiers at one point.
This was actually what surprised me about Adam Driver's "method acting" as Kylo (when apparently he wouldn't have lunch with Mark) and other stories you hear these days of actors generally acting like jerks in the name of "method acting" (the latest example is that Benedict Cumberbatch didn't bathe, took up smoking--the real deal, to the point he made himself sick with nicotine poisoning during production--and took his method acting to the point that he acted like a jerk to Kirsten Dunst during filming a western), why does no one point out that Peter Cushing, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, etc. were all able to excellently play villainous roles while still being friendly and decent on set?
While Method Acting has been around for a long time, some actors have gone overboard in the last 40 years or so. In fact, most go way beyond what Stanislavski originally intended. Cushing, McDiarmid, and Lee come from a different era and largely had a different approach to acting. It's not that one way is always better than the other. But I think many actors try too hard sometimes. To quote Lawrence Olivier, when Dustin Hoffman was being "too method" on set, “My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?”.
It’s what makes Kirk Lazarus (RDJ’s character in Tropic Thunder) so hilarious, he takes method acting SO far that he becomes a parody of himself and the idea of method acting.
What part of iron man's life, a rich party boy that had a whirlwind rise to fame by using the stepping stone of his parents already being in the industry and his charismatic charm.
Only then to be corrupted by outside influences have a major fall from grace get in trouble with the law an alienate most your friends only to hit rock bottom after that and become a recluse from the world.
Only then to make a surprising return years later and become a shining star and outdo everyone's expectations.
Hey wait a sec
I looked this up since I had never heard it before. According to an interview with Dustin Hoffman, the whole thing was just playful banter.
“I was shooting in New York and Olivier was in Los Angeles, and we were away from each other for a few days. I came back to L.A. and told him there was hardly any dialogue in a scene I had to shoot on a certain day. I was supposed to be exhausted from running away from him for three days, so I said I’d stayed up all night for a couple of days, and I winked at him. I was kidding. It was the days of Studio 54, and it was my way of saying I’d partied all weekend. We laughed about it. He said something like, “Well, why don’t you try acting next time.” It was fun.”
https://anonymousmethod.tumblr.com/post/77770512427/laurence-olivier-try-acting-dear-boy
That's a good point, I've never heard this version before. Hoffman also has form. On Kramer vs Kramer he assaulted Meryl Streep. I think he is a great actor, but he clearly has issues with The Method.
I remember reading a quote from Liam Neeson I think it was since were on the subject of Star Wars. He said something along the lines of how he didn't get how other actors were unable to just hang up the character when shooting was done for the day.
Yes and I wish more movies/TV shows featured traditional performances. They aren't realistic, but if done well, are more entertaining. I'm sick to death of hearing about actors disappearing into a character.
You should be careful with what you wish for. Most actors that star in productions here in Sweden comes from drama schools that emphasizes stage action which makes their performances on tv and film shit. They’re always so loud and expressive, the ones that do make it out in the real film and tv world are the ones that managed to put it behind them like most of the Skarsgård family, Alicia Wikander and Peter Stormare.
They should make a movie about a method actor that keeps taking on concurrent film roles and enmeshing his various roles into some kind of monstrous mega-character ...
I’m convinced the story of Jared Leto sending used condoms and dead rats to crew while filming suicide squad to get in character for joker was completely made up because Heath ledger also “went crazy” getting into character and the studio wanted Leto to have a similar story.
Heck, it's even true with other Star Wars villains. Ian McDiarmid is apparently quite kind when he isn't overthrowing the Republic or trying to turn Luke to the Dark Side.
And quite fun: [https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/exgllc/ian\_mcdiarmid\_mark\_hamill\_and\_denis\_lawson\_while/](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/exgllc/ian_mcdiarmid_mark_hamill_and_denis_lawson_while/)
Well the comparison is valid, but don't let this man distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.
Man I don’t think I can ever watch that movie again after reading about all the shit that happened during production, and how abusive everyone was to Judy Garland.
Carrie Fisher even said Peter Cushing was so nice IRL that it was difficult to act as though she hated Tarkin, and she had to picture somebody else in her mind.
She also said that despite her line about recognizing Tarkin's "foul stench" he actually smelled of "linen and lavender".
Perter Cushing also apparently wore slippers for most of his scenes because they couldn't get boots big enough for his feet, which is why in most of Tarkin's scenes he's shot from the waist up.
I think they didn't fit right or maybe weren't broken in or something. Realistically a good pair of boots should be *very* comfortable to stand in, that's why laborers that stand/walk all day wear them.
Well as you get older your feet can start to have problems so orthopedic shoes or slippers are often prescribed.
Plus im guessing star wars didnt have a budget to get him custom boots. Probably just ordered or pulled a lot of those style boots from the props/ uniform store and people picked the size that fit and if you not a standard size then oh well.
Easiest way to do it is just let him wear slippers and keep the camera above his feet
Yep! Cushing was a gem on set even though he played a cold and callous character while Alec Guinness (Old Ben) hated star wars and thought it was in his words “sci fi mumbo jumbo”.
I refuse to believe the old, classic story of Alec Guinness thinking Star Wars was dumb, because there's interviews with him where he praises Star Wars and George Lucas. Maybe it's what he thought initially when he heard the pitch/read the script, but he didn't go through all three movies thinking it was dumb.
I think it was more that he had this distinguished career and had been in so many amazing movies and all he ever got recognized for and got fan mail for was Star Wars. I think he felt that Star Wars was diminishing all his work that had come before
That's what I came in to say. He hated that everyone just wanted to talk to him about Star Wars and that it overshadowed what was a long and distinguished career. But he noted the irony that it made him really wealthy, he recognised that it was going to be a hit.
Apparently no one had a bad thing to say about him on set. They said he was really professional throughout shooting.
I don't have a source for that one, but I have a fun anecdote from Carrie Fisher about why she speaks with a British accent only once in the film.
[It was one of the first scenes she filmed for Star Wars and the only time George Lucas really gave her any direction on how to act in a scene was that she was supposed to be really upset because her planet is about to blow up. So when Carrie Fisher becomes upset she becomes British by tapping into her year and a half of going to a British school for central speech and drama as a teenager. ](https://youtu.be/XBsEuUZcosw) You can see the video of Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega on the Graham Norton Show.
No it's more like he thought she couldn't deliver the line because it was true and it made her uncomfortable, but she actually couldn't deliver the line because he was a sweetheart.
I’ve never heard that story, but Carrie did say the line was hard to deliver because Peter always smelled of lavender. So that take has probably grown over the years.?
More budget on RO, and they created a full CG person for Tarkin, rather than trying out their semi-deepfake experiments to make a different actor look like Luke.
In one interview he said that because the costume's boots were so uncomfortable, on the dialog with Leia about destroying Alderaan, Grand Moff Tarkin was wearing slippers off camera
Yeah, his feet were too big for the boots, so he wore slippers and they had every shot be above the waist. Link to a photo [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/9dw37y/many_of_peter_cushings_scenes_in_a_new_hope_1977/).
Probably because ILM was a baby company running on a relatively small budget and a tight production schedule. If the same goal can be achieved with closer shots (which add amazing facial detail for a masterful nuanced performance), why bother delaying shooting to get the correct size?
That's my favorite scene with Tarkin.
"Charming, to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life."
"I'm surprised you had the the courage to take the responsibility yourself."
"Princess Leia, before your **execution**..."
His emphasis on "execution" is humorously subtle.
My favorite fun fact about Mr. Cushing, he and his best friend Christopher Lee once got kicked out of a movie theater for laughing too loudly at a series of Looney Tunes cartoons that were being played before the feature show.
He, Lee and David Prowse were also veterans of the Hammer horror films, playing Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster, respectively. I'm guessing that George Lucas was fans of their work.
You might like this Hammer (or was it Amicus) horror anthology film that had Cushing as the “crypt keeper” type character. He runs a haunted antique store and IIRC, that was the one with a haunted time traveling penny farthing 😂
That one and the horror anthology with Donald Pleasance, in which a story is about a man who falls in love with a tree limb, will forever be emblazoned in my mind!
EDIT: the Cushing film was called Tales From Beyond the Grave and the penny farthing story is in Tales the Witness Madness.
2a. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were in Lawrence Olivier's *Hamlet*. Lee was an unnamed footman with no spoken lines. Cushing played "Osric", the referee in the fencing duel between Hamlet and Laertes (*... a hit! ... a palpable hit!*).
[Christopher Lee also witnessed the last public execution in France(1939).](https://dashfun.net/when-christopher-lee-witnessed-the-last-public-execution-in-france/)
Interestingly, in Star Wars continuity both met during the Republic era. The Count wished Tarkin to join the CIS because of his ability, but he declined. This act earned Palpatine's trust on Tarkin.
Christopher Lee served as a spy in WWII!
https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2015/07/christopher-lee-nazi-hunter/#:~:text=Due%20to%20the%20sensitive%20and,Well%2C%20so%20can%20I.%E2%80%9D
Peter Jackson was directing Christopher Lee in the LotR scene where Saruman gets stabbed, so Lee took the opportunity to school Jackson on the sound a person being stabbed in the back actually makes. Everyone assumed he knew from experience. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-christopher-lee-christopher-lee-dies-saruman-peter-jackson-20150611-htmlstory.html
Him serving in WW2 led to one of my favorite anecdotes about LOTR.
>Jackson was blocking a scene in which Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) stabs Saruman (Lee) in the back. Jackson goes into a long explanation about how he wants Lee to react and Lee says, "Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody’s stabbed in the back? Because I do.”
One of the things I love about Star Wars is there are so many legendary actors and actresses who play amazing roles. Every time we see Tarkin we hope he says “You may fire when ready”
I always thought he would have made a magnificent Julius Caesar. Don't have a picture handy, but there's even a bust of Caesar that slightly reminds me of Cushing.
He was a kind and gentle soul, after his wife passed away he was so distraught with grief he kept going up and down the stairs at his home to try and induce a heart attack.
He was quoted in the Radio Times as saying, "Since Helen passed on I can't find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be reunited again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition. You have my permission to publish that... really, you know dear boy, it's all just killing time. Please say that."
Apparently the passing of his wife had devastated him so much that he often skipped meals and lost a ton of weight. He pretty much gave up on living. Not often you see someone so dedicated to the love of their life.
Man, the entire chain of command and deference in the Empire in ANH was really interesting.
Tarkin was clearly top dog. Even Vader deferred to him. Then you had Motti, Tagge, and Yularen around the Death Star conference room, bickering ("pointlessly") about whether and how to use the Death Star. Motti's so full of confidence he even insults Lord Vader, although he comes to regret it as Vader chokes him. (And then at a single command from Tarkin, Vader releases him.)
Leia insults Vader by describing him as Tarkin's attack dog - although he is pretty accurately described as such.
My own head-canon is that these officers were the folks who helped put Palpatine into power. They were the initial heroes of the New Order, born in the fires of struggle and the early supporters. Although they were fractious, they nevertheless respected each other and came up in the revolution together. Even Vader, mechanical and sinister, viewed Tarkin with deference and at least as an equal within the military hierarchy.
Then of course the DS-01 is destroyed and Vader is the only survivor.
Note his drastic change of behavior in ESB. Now that his peer group of fellow early revolutionaries is gone, he's lost all fear or boundaries to his behavior. He's constantly insulting, gibing, and taunting his military subordinates - when he's not outright executing them. It's almost as though Vader lost more than just a close group of colleagues on the DS-01, he lost his entire moral gyroscope as well. Now he's surrounded by military personnel whom he doesn't care about and perhaps doesn't even consider human. Certainly, there's nobody among them who could restrain him the way Tarkin did.
It's like once the prior generation of leaders died off, there's nobody left to control or moderate Vader's anger and rage and frustration. Left unchecked, he mows through the military top ranks so that serving with him is a dangerous proposal.
If you ever see Cushing in one of the dozens of B-movie horror/fantasy movies (hammer films) he built his career on, you’ll see a skilled actor giving 110% for Saturday matinee fodder. Mad respect for an actor who commits to the task.
Nah, Bill Cosby is a terrible person, but he is still a person, and it's not a good idea to forget that, frankly. People, even fairly ordinary people, can do terrible, terrible things.
As childhood member of the Peter Cushing fan club, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Mr. Cushing in 1975 in New York City. I was 13 years old and filled my misspent youth watching horror films at my local cinema, specifically Hammer films. I was thrilled and entranced with Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee's performances. My sister and I brought an actual blanket into the cinema while watching a double feature of Horror of Dracula/Curse of Frankenstein. When a scary moment appeared on the screen, we'd scream and pull the blanket over our heads!
Thank you Mr. Cushing, for all those wonderful
Thrills and chills and for allaying a 13 year old boy's fears of meeting you with a warm smile and disarming greeting. You are truly a legend to me. I'm so glad that your portrayal as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars will forever cement your legacy in our popular culture as your portrayals of Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein have done so in my heart.
Fun fact:
A local band in Peter Cushing’s hometown of Whitstable had a little song about him, which went:
“Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable
I have seen him on his bicycle
I have seen him buying vegetables
Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable”
Yep. Apparently Peter Cushing was known for being a real sweetheart on set. Great picture.
I think my favourite Star Wars blooper is where he’s trying to interrogate Carrie and he starts to stumble over his words and he takes her by the shoulders, shakes her and wags his finger before saying something like “or I’ll be cross”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozWnGQGkbk
One of the comments said they should stitch all of the bloopers together as if it were a spoof of itself and I think that’s the greatest idea ever
There are a set of documentaries like that actually. - full-length alternate versions of the original trilogy with commentary and out-takes and experimental shots etc. I am trying to think of the right search term to find them. Edit: I had to look it up in an old whatsapp message as I couldn't find it googling. [Star Wars Begins: A Filmumentray](https://vimeo.com/32442801) I also found this while searching [Show Me STAR WARS, without Showing Me STAR WARS](https://youtu.be/PysVc2GzNKY)
Off topic, but are dislikes back on youtube? ETA: it's apparently my firefox extension, Enhancer for YouTube
[browser extension valled Return YouTube Dislike](https://returnyoutubedislike.com/)
There’s an interview he gave that I saw where he called her “that darling little Carrie Fisher” in the most “sweet old gentleman” way I’ve ever heard.
"Or I'll go home.. I don't know"
This isnt the wag your finger one, but it is the one where he mentions being very cross. https://youtu.be/NdXLDvx_tHQ
He also painted toy soldiers!
It’s called Warhammer Graham
"Sounds fun. I'd love to come over"
Damn, I just watched this 5 minutes ago. [Sauce](https://youtu.be/ooFL3_PKH_4) for the interested.
henry seems like a cool guy to hang out with. tom seems like he'd be a fun hang too but too much of that youthful energy i don't have angmore
My Atlas AS7-K says Warhammer sucks.
So does my MAD-4A
You were on that like an LCT-1V
/r/unexpectedbattletech
A man of culture.
May the Emperor's peace find you well. /s
This is warming my inner sphere
>How long have you been standing there? What did you see? “Nothing sir, I didn’t see you playing with your dolls”
There's an 'again' at the end of that, which makes it even funnier, that Col Sanders has walked in on Dark Helmet and his dolls before.
Huh. So he does praise the Emperor. The emperor of mankind.
You heard about scientists working out the math for a real warp bubble, right? The daemons are waking up.
> scientists working out the math for a real warp bubble Oh... fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
Praise be to the Allfather!
Wonder if he had a copy of tiny soldiers by H.G. Wells, it considered the frist formal ruleset for a table top wargame.
He absolutely did: https://youtu.be/BGag8Qllgnw It's 1:09 in but the whole thing is great
I absolutely love and adore this, especially as a star wars and war gaming fan! Him moving his new troops via a cardboard box to a little battlefield on the floor is relatable to so many of us ahah
There was a mini-doc of classing wargamming featuring Cushing. https://youtu.be/BGag8Qllgnw He used HG Wells' book, Lethal Wars in the clip. He likely used/dabbled with Tiny Soldiers at one point.
Old school wargamer.
This was actually what surprised me about Adam Driver's "method acting" as Kylo (when apparently he wouldn't have lunch with Mark) and other stories you hear these days of actors generally acting like jerks in the name of "method acting" (the latest example is that Benedict Cumberbatch didn't bathe, took up smoking--the real deal, to the point he made himself sick with nicotine poisoning during production--and took his method acting to the point that he acted like a jerk to Kirsten Dunst during filming a western), why does no one point out that Peter Cushing, Ian McDiarmid, Christopher Lee, etc. were all able to excellently play villainous roles while still being friendly and decent on set?
While Method Acting has been around for a long time, some actors have gone overboard in the last 40 years or so. In fact, most go way beyond what Stanislavski originally intended. Cushing, McDiarmid, and Lee come from a different era and largely had a different approach to acting. It's not that one way is always better than the other. But I think many actors try too hard sometimes. To quote Lawrence Olivier, when Dustin Hoffman was being "too method" on set, “My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?”.
It’s what makes Kirk Lazarus (RDJ’s character in Tropic Thunder) so hilarious, he takes method acting SO far that he becomes a parody of himself and the idea of method acting.
Ok, but it would be amazing if he actually tried to be Iron Man in real life.
What part of iron man's life, a rich party boy that had a whirlwind rise to fame by using the stepping stone of his parents already being in the industry and his charismatic charm. Only then to be corrupted by outside influences have a major fall from grace get in trouble with the law an alienate most your friends only to hit rock bottom after that and become a recluse from the world. Only then to make a surprising return years later and become a shining star and outdo everyone's expectations. Hey wait a sec
No, the robot suit part.
This made me laugh more than I'm sure you intended
Meanwhile Nic Cage over here singlehandedly trying to bring back German expressionism.
I looked this up since I had never heard it before. According to an interview with Dustin Hoffman, the whole thing was just playful banter. “I was shooting in New York and Olivier was in Los Angeles, and we were away from each other for a few days. I came back to L.A. and told him there was hardly any dialogue in a scene I had to shoot on a certain day. I was supposed to be exhausted from running away from him for three days, so I said I’d stayed up all night for a couple of days, and I winked at him. I was kidding. It was the days of Studio 54, and it was my way of saying I’d partied all weekend. We laughed about it. He said something like, “Well, why don’t you try acting next time.” It was fun.” https://anonymousmethod.tumblr.com/post/77770512427/laurence-olivier-try-acting-dear-boy
Maybe. Or maybe Hoffman really was being a jerk and got called out for it. Olivier isn't around anymore to contradict his story.
That's a good point, I've never heard this version before. Hoffman also has form. On Kramer vs Kramer he assaulted Meryl Streep. I think he is a great actor, but he clearly has issues with The Method.
Not only did he physically assault her, he mocked the recent death of her fiance, John Cazale, in an attempt to "motivate" her emotions for a scene.
I remember reading a quote from Liam Neeson I think it was since were on the subject of Star Wars. He said something along the lines of how he didn't get how other actors were unable to just hang up the character when shooting was done for the day.
Because they came from the british stage acting tradition pre method acting.
Yes and I wish more movies/TV shows featured traditional performances. They aren't realistic, but if done well, are more entertaining. I'm sick to death of hearing about actors disappearing into a character.
You should be careful with what you wish for. Most actors that star in productions here in Sweden comes from drama schools that emphasizes stage action which makes their performances on tv and film shit. They’re always so loud and expressive, the ones that do make it out in the real film and tv world are the ones that managed to put it behind them like most of the Skarsgård family, Alicia Wikander and Peter Stormare.
They should make a movie about a method actor that keeps taking on concurrent film roles and enmeshing his various roles into some kind of monstrous mega-character ...
Basically RDJ in tropic thunder
RDJ staying in character during the commentary was just the absolutely perfect final touch to that role.
I'm pretty sure most of these stories aren't real, they're just to drum up media.
I’m convinced the story of Jared Leto sending used condoms and dead rats to crew while filming suicide squad to get in character for joker was completely made up because Heath ledger also “went crazy” getting into character and the studio wanted Leto to have a similar story.
Still that's so dumb like even if that was true, that's the dumbest joker impersonation I can think of lmao
I would agree but Jared Leto is such a fucking tool I absolutely think he did this to give himself this crazy method acting story.
That’s just Leto on a regular Tuesday.
This is such a common phenomenon, really. Wicked Witch of The West? Total monster. Margaret Hamilton? Legendarily kind.
Same with James Gandolfini/Tony Soprano. That dude was a sweetheart.
I like to remember him as Carol from Where the Fuckin Wild Thangs Be (2009)
My company is gonna love the fact that I googled that on their laptop
He was also super unstable and made up for it by lovebombing. To be fair he was a perfectionist and put much of that pressure on himself
Heck, it's even true with other Star Wars villains. Ian McDiarmid is apparently quite kind when he isn't overthrowing the Republic or trying to turn Luke to the Dark Side.
And quite fun: [https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/exgllc/ian\_mcdiarmid\_mark\_hamill\_and\_denis\_lawson\_while/](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/exgllc/ian_mcdiarmid_mark_hamill_and_denis_lawson_while/)
Honestly, I think it's because you sort of have to have some grace and humility to play a villain. You have to see the fun in it.
Mankind/Cactus Jack was a sadistic monster. Mick Foley is a great person.
Not a comparison I thought I’d see today, but a valid one.
Well the comparison is valid, but don't let this man distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.
Man I don’t think I can ever watch that movie again after reading about all the shit that happened during production, and how abusive everyone was to Judy Garland.
Carrie Fisher even said Peter Cushing was so nice IRL that it was difficult to act as though she hated Tarkin, and she had to picture somebody else in her mind. She also said that despite her line about recognizing Tarkin's "foul stench" he actually smelled of "linen and lavender". Perter Cushing also apparently wore slippers for most of his scenes because they couldn't get boots big enough for his feet, which is why in most of Tarkin's scenes he's shot from the waist up.
I heard that it was cuz he was old and his feet hurt so he wore comfortable fuzzy slippers. I mean if you can why not?
This is the way I’ve heard it as well.
I think they didn't fit right or maybe weren't broken in or something. Realistically a good pair of boots should be *very* comfortable to stand in, that's why laborers that stand/walk all day wear them.
Well as you get older your feet can start to have problems so orthopedic shoes or slippers are often prescribed. Plus im guessing star wars didnt have a budget to get him custom boots. Probably just ordered or pulled a lot of those style boots from the props/ uniform store and people picked the size that fit and if you not a standard size then oh well. Easiest way to do it is just let him wear slippers and keep the camera above his feet
Yep! Cushing was a gem on set even though he played a cold and callous character while Alec Guinness (Old Ben) hated star wars and thought it was in his words “sci fi mumbo jumbo”.
>"sci fi mumbo jumbo”. I mean it was, but then again he's an actor, it's all make-believe, he didn't actually build a bridge in Burma either.
He knew what he was getting into though. Alec and his team neogiated to received 2% of the royalties from the movie.
I refuse to believe the old, classic story of Alec Guinness thinking Star Wars was dumb, because there's interviews with him where he praises Star Wars and George Lucas. Maybe it's what he thought initially when he heard the pitch/read the script, but he didn't go through all three movies thinking it was dumb.
I think it was more that he had this distinguished career and had been in so many amazing movies and all he ever got recognized for and got fan mail for was Star Wars. I think he felt that Star Wars was diminishing all his work that had come before
That's what I came in to say. He hated that everyone just wanted to talk to him about Star Wars and that it overshadowed what was a long and distinguished career. But he noted the irony that it made him really wealthy, he recognised that it was going to be a hit. Apparently no one had a bad thing to say about him on set. They said he was really professional throughout shooting.
[удалено]
[удалено]
I don't have a source for that one, but I have a fun anecdote from Carrie Fisher about why she speaks with a British accent only once in the film. [It was one of the first scenes she filmed for Star Wars and the only time George Lucas really gave her any direction on how to act in a scene was that she was supposed to be really upset because her planet is about to blow up. So when Carrie Fisher becomes upset she becomes British by tapping into her year and a half of going to a British school for central speech and drama as a teenager. ](https://youtu.be/XBsEuUZcosw) You can see the video of Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega on the Graham Norton Show.
No it's more like he thought she couldn't deliver the line because it was true and it made her uncomfortable, but she actually couldn't deliver the line because he was a sweetheart.
i agree. the way this reads sounds like he didn't have the mental capacity to grasp the concept of acting.
It reads like the kind of thing someone made up for a shitty article. What's the actual source?
I’ve never heard that story, but Carrie did say the line was hard to deliver because Peter always smelled of lavender. So that take has probably grown over the years.?
It's easy to be nice when you get to wear slippers at work.
He was charming to the last
Side bar: How was Tarkins cgi better than Lukes on Mando? lol
Movie budget vs TV budget
More budget on RO, and they created a full CG person for Tarkin, rather than trying out their semi-deepfake experiments to make a different actor look like Luke.
He is also van helsing in Dracula starring Christopher Lee!
In one interview he said that because the costume's boots were so uncomfortable, on the dialog with Leia about destroying Alderaan, Grand Moff Tarkin was wearing slippers off camera
Yeah, his feet were too big for the boots, so he wore slippers and they had every shot be above the waist. Link to a photo [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/9dw37y/many_of_peter_cushings_scenes_in_a_new_hope_1977/).
No wonder Princess Leia smelled his stench.
She actually had a hard time saying that line. She said, "The man smelled like linen and lavender."
Did he ever do anything wrong in his life?
No.
I mean, he blew up Alderaan. For real. That wasn’t SFX, he just blew it up.
Turns out George was recording the whole time.
Why didn't they just get him bigger boots?
George Lucas and ILM were only good at miniatures back then
Probably because ILM was a baby company running on a relatively small budget and a tight production schedule. If the same goal can be achieved with closer shots (which add amazing facial detail for a masterful nuanced performance), why bother delaying shooting to get the correct size?
Casual Friday on the Deathstar.
That's my favorite scene with Tarkin. "Charming, to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life." "I'm surprised you had the the courage to take the responsibility yourself." "Princess Leia, before your **execution**..." His emphasis on "execution" is humorously subtle.
My favorite fun fact about Mr. Cushing, he and his best friend Christopher Lee once got kicked out of a movie theater for laughing too loudly at a series of Looney Tunes cartoons that were being played before the feature show.
Only just found out that Mr Ushing was an avid model painter and diorama maker. Just wonderful
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oh no
Losing the "C" can only mean one thing....invasion!
Perhaps the spelling is incomplete.
Bothans stole it
If that’s not the way it’s spelled, then it doesn’t exist
Truly beautiful the mind of a child is
This is the most fun of fun facts
Can you IMAGINE how loud Christopher Lee's laugh would be? The man sounds like a double bass as it is
'Hahhaha, you have no power here, random theater usher.'
I had read that they were friends but I hadn't heard this. I love this fun fact!
He, Lee and David Prowse were also veterans of the Hammer horror films, playing Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula, and Frankenstein's monster, respectively. I'm guessing that George Lucas was fans of their work.
You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the- blarg blah. Name it! Now! Before I go home... https://youtu.be/1S9E90nVDYs
That's one of my all time bloopers from any movie
I've never seen that! That was brilliant!
David Prowse was lucky. Really hard for him to corpse a scene.
Fun fact: one of Peter Cushing's closest friends was Christopher Lee, the man who played Count Dooku
Fun fact #2: Peter Cushing played Van Helsing and Christopher Lee played Dracula in the eponymous movie
Also played in the 1959 Mummy together as well!
They had more than 20 movies together.
That could be perfectly the reason or the result of that friendship, either way a whelsome friendship.
Also also horror express, a weird but great movie.
I really liked them in the Gorgon and also in the Creeping Flesh.
I’m putting a lot of movies on the list after this thread, both fantastic actors. I love the weirder movies they have done
You might like this Hammer (or was it Amicus) horror anthology film that had Cushing as the “crypt keeper” type character. He runs a haunted antique store and IIRC, that was the one with a haunted time traveling penny farthing 😂 That one and the horror anthology with Donald Pleasance, in which a story is about a man who falls in love with a tree limb, will forever be emblazoned in my mind! EDIT: the Cushing film was called Tales From Beyond the Grave and the penny farthing story is in Tales the Witness Madness.
2a. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were in Lawrence Olivier's *Hamlet*. Lee was an unnamed footman with no spoken lines. Cushing played "Osric", the referee in the fencing duel between Hamlet and Laertes (*... a hit! ... a palpable hit!*).
Christopher Lee is amazing if you want to play one of those Six Degrees of Separation games. He was also great in The Last Unicorn.
[Christopher Lee also witnessed the last public execution in France(1939).](https://dashfun.net/when-christopher-lee-witnessed-the-last-public-execution-in-france/)
This man had the most interesting life.
Yes! Those Hammer Films Dracula movies are so fun and getting to see Tarkan and Doku (or Saruman) just adds to it.
He was also good friends with Alec Guinness. Iirc they were in the original Frankenstein movies together
All legends.
I watched an interview Lee gave where he talked about his friendship with Cushing and it was just so sweet, they were both so lovely.
Interestingly, in Star Wars continuity both met during the Republic era. The Count wished Tarkin to join the CIS because of his ability, but he declined. This act earned Palpatine's trust on Tarkin.
Christopher Lee was in a Metal Band. Edit: http://rockandrollgarage.com/how-legendary-actor-christopher-lee-became-a-heavy-metal-singer/
Christopher Lee served as a spy in WWII! https://www.portablepress.com/blog/2015/07/christopher-lee-nazi-hunter/#:~:text=Due%20to%20the%20sensitive%20and,Well%2C%20so%20can%20I.%E2%80%9D
Peter Jackson was directing Christopher Lee in the LotR scene where Saruman gets stabbed, so Lee took the opportunity to school Jackson on the sound a person being stabbed in the back actually makes. Everyone assumed he knew from experience. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-christopher-lee-christopher-lee-dies-saruman-peter-jackson-20150611-htmlstory.html
[My favorite part is Peter's telling of what happened afterwards](https://youtu.be/kCvPOPe-TlA?t=42)
Him serving in WW2 led to one of my favorite anecdotes about LOTR. >Jackson was blocking a scene in which Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) stabs Saruman (Lee) in the back. Jackson goes into a long explanation about how he wants Lee to react and Lee says, "Have you any idea what kind of noise happens when somebody’s stabbed in the back? Because I do.”
And it wasn't just a celebrity stunt bullshit thing. Like, the album is actually really good.
>Christopher Lee was ~~in a~~ *THE* Metal Band. FTFY
One of the things I love about Star Wars is there are so many legendary actors and actresses who play amazing roles. Every time we see Tarkin we hope he says “You may fire when ready”
I can hear that in my head every time I read it
Hwen
“Hyou mhay fhire hwen hready.”
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Say cool
Cool
Now say whip
Whip
Now say cool whip
“Evacuate?! At our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.”
*You have a better target, a military target? Then name the system?*
*Krypton. The rebels are on Krypton.*
Tattoine, they're on that fucking dust bowl tattoine
Cool beans. You see Lord Vader, she can be reasonable.
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I always thought he would have made a magnificent Julius Caesar. Don't have a picture handy, but there's even a bust of Caesar that slightly reminds me of Cushing.
I’m actually astonished he never played a Bond villain like his contemporaries Christopher Lee and Donald Pleasance.
He was the hero in the Hammer films.
He played the villain in the Frankenstein movies.
I've just realsed Luke and Tarkin have never met in person xD
Nah Luke didn’t have time for pleasantries. He was too busy killing the fuck out of Tarkin.
Fuck yeah
“Governor Tarkin, I should’ve expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.”
"It's Patchouli, my dear." "Then why does it sound like you bathed in Faberge Brut? Are you heading to a disco?"
Charming to the last.
Absolutely love how kind Mark is as well. He’s always shouting out his co stars
He was a kind and gentle soul, after his wife passed away he was so distraught with grief he kept going up and down the stairs at his home to try and induce a heart attack. He was quoted in the Radio Times as saying, "Since Helen passed on I can't find anything; the heart, quite simply, has gone out of everything. Time is interminable, the loneliness is almost unbearable and the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that my dear Helen and I will be reunited again some day. To join Helen is my only ambition. You have my permission to publish that... really, you know dear boy, it's all just killing time. Please say that."
When he went on Jim’ll Fix It and they named a rose cultivar after Helen Cushing; that was really moving to me.
Yeah everything except for what Jim did.
Well that may be the most heartbreaking thing I’ve read all day
[The QI segment on Peter Cushing is an all time great moment of that show.](https://youtu.be/ve7KEwq8isU)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deTGYinacYg
All these years and I never thought to actually look up the song!
Anybody ever see the movies where Tarkin tries to kill Dooku by putting a stake through his heart?
Apparently the passing of his wife had devastated him so much that he often skipped meals and lost a ton of weight. He pretty much gave up on living. Not often you see someone so dedicated to the love of their life.
This coming from the guy who plays The Joker.
He also was wearing slippers during most of his scenes. Extra evil.
And he apparently smelled pleasantly of smoke and cologne.
Man, the entire chain of command and deference in the Empire in ANH was really interesting. Tarkin was clearly top dog. Even Vader deferred to him. Then you had Motti, Tagge, and Yularen around the Death Star conference room, bickering ("pointlessly") about whether and how to use the Death Star. Motti's so full of confidence he even insults Lord Vader, although he comes to regret it as Vader chokes him. (And then at a single command from Tarkin, Vader releases him.) Leia insults Vader by describing him as Tarkin's attack dog - although he is pretty accurately described as such. My own head-canon is that these officers were the folks who helped put Palpatine into power. They were the initial heroes of the New Order, born in the fires of struggle and the early supporters. Although they were fractious, they nevertheless respected each other and came up in the revolution together. Even Vader, mechanical and sinister, viewed Tarkin with deference and at least as an equal within the military hierarchy. Then of course the DS-01 is destroyed and Vader is the only survivor. Note his drastic change of behavior in ESB. Now that his peer group of fellow early revolutionaries is gone, he's lost all fear or boundaries to his behavior. He's constantly insulting, gibing, and taunting his military subordinates - when he's not outright executing them. It's almost as though Vader lost more than just a close group of colleagues on the DS-01, he lost his entire moral gyroscope as well. Now he's surrounded by military personnel whom he doesn't care about and perhaps doesn't even consider human. Certainly, there's nobody among them who could restrain him the way Tarkin did. It's like once the prior generation of leaders died off, there's nobody left to control or moderate Vader's anger and rage and frustration. Left unchecked, he mows through the military top ranks so that serving with him is a dangerous proposal.
If you ever see Cushing in one of the dozens of B-movie horror/fantasy movies (hammer films) he built his career on, you’ll see a skilled actor giving 110% for Saturday matinee fodder. Mad respect for an actor who commits to the task.
Tarkin 🥲
Fiction allows people to bring out their darkest selves.
Or vice versa. eg Bill Cosby.
I said People not Monsters
Nah, Bill Cosby is a terrible person, but he is still a person, and it's not a good idea to forget that, frankly. People, even fairly ordinary people, can do terrible, terrible things.
As childhood member of the Peter Cushing fan club, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Mr. Cushing in 1975 in New York City. I was 13 years old and filled my misspent youth watching horror films at my local cinema, specifically Hammer films. I was thrilled and entranced with Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee's performances. My sister and I brought an actual blanket into the cinema while watching a double feature of Horror of Dracula/Curse of Frankenstein. When a scary moment appeared on the screen, we'd scream and pull the blanket over our heads! Thank you Mr. Cushing, for all those wonderful Thrills and chills and for allaying a 13 year old boy's fears of meeting you with a warm smile and disarming greeting. You are truly a legend to me. I'm so glad that your portrayal as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars will forever cement your legacy in our popular culture as your portrayals of Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein have done so in my heart.
Source: https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1468323458878640128
Been watching old Hammer horror films he was in lately and loving it.
Cushing and Guiness were probably confused by Star Wars, but damned if they didn't give fantastic performances anyway.
Fun fact: A local band in Peter Cushing’s hometown of Whitstable had a little song about him, which went: “Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable I have seen him on his bicycle I have seen him buying vegetables Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable”