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While he has been involved either as writer,
director or producer with some of the most popular
films on the planetm, he's also worked on Disneyland's
3-D musical space adventure Captain Eo, starring
Michael Jackson, Willow, TV's The Young Indiana
Jones Chronicles.
Fifty-two-year old Lucas works and lives outside
of San Francisco, on Skywalker Ranch.
The
Interview
Some people think of Star Wars as a religion.
What do you say to that? It is only a movie.
I'm happy that Star War stimulates young
people's imagination, and it's designed to make
people think about the larger entities and the
mysteries of life, and hopefully they will question
them. There definitely aren't enough answers in
'Star Wars' to constitute a religion, and I think
that the point is to go and look through the religions
and find something that has some answers.
Are you surprised at the backlash against
'Star Wars'? Most movies, most Star Wars movies
anyway have mostly been trashed one way or another.
I certainly expect not to do well critically.
I never have. When you get a situation like this
where you have so much high expectations, it can't
possibly live up to that. I wasn't even really
aware of it until after the special edition came
out. I was making other movies and trying to finish
the series. That part of it didn't affect me.
Star Wars fans have created a groundswell.
How do you feel about that? I'm a little surprised
at the amount of attention the film has got. We
have actually tried very hard to not let the film
be over-hyped, but it kind of got out of control
and over-hyped anyway, so there's not much you
can do about these things really. I think the
enthusiasm and people waiting in lines and all
this stuff is just a spontaneous thing on the
part of the people who have enjoyed the movies,
enjoyed the experience, wanted to repeat that
enjoyment. It's very clear, at least to me, that
most of the kids that are waiting on line and
having a good time are doing it because they enjoy
waiting in line and having a good time and seeing
friends and talking. The movie is basically an
excuse to do that.
Is that why you're suddenly doing interviews
again? I'm glad you asked that. You're referring
basically to what I would describe as a media
myth. I normally do, in non-movie years, when
I don't release a movie, about 15 or 20 interviews
every year. And I've done that ever since I did
THX, which was a long time ago. I know
on my last picture, Radioland Murders,
and the TV series, I did over a hundred interviews
for those. I have always been very out there.
It's just that in past years, nobody's ever paid
any attention. For some reason, because I live
in San Francisco, which most of the media seems
to think is the end of the earth. They think of
me as this kind of reclusive, Howard Hughes type
that doesn't do interviews, but I actually do
quite a bit of press. The problem is that it takes
a lot of time. I've been on the cover of "Time"
magazine several times. I've had reporters follow
me around. It's just that, for some reason, I
guess, '60 Minutes' is so high profile
that everybody said, 'Oh my god, suddenly he's
doing press.'
Is this film more kid friendly? Not really.
I don't think it's any more kid friendly than
the other films. When I did the other film, I
said, 'This is a film for 12-year-olds, and it's
a kids' movie.' At the time, everybody said, 'Fine,'
and that was, I think, one of the reasons we got
a lot of bad reviews was that they just thought
it was a Disney movie. But then somehow over the
years, people have sort of drifted away from that
and tried to make it into something other than
what it actually is. People forget what the movies
actually are.
Is there more at stake professionally with
this film? I made the film 'cause I like to
make movies. I wanted to finish this. I had been
very frustrated before when I made the first series
because I had an imagination that created a kind
of world that I could never get on film. It was
just technically impossible. I was stuck with
creatures in rubber masks that couldn't move very
far, and it was very hard to direct a movie and
tell the story that I wanted to tell. I was stuck
with environments that were extremely limited
in what I could do. Part of coming back, one was
to finish the story. I like working in the Star
Wars world because I put in so much time and energy
to create it. But, part of it was that it was
a chance to make it more the way it was in my
mind when I created it. [I wanted to] have alien
creatures that could give really good performances
and have really good personalities.
Has your attitude about violence in the film
changed because of fatherhood? I don't think
I've really changed my attitude too much. The
other films were pretty much the same in terms
of the amount of drama and action and violence,
I think. My feeling is the key issue about violence
in the media is the context in which it's portrayed
because we live in a violent world, and we always
will live in a violent world. Life is violent.
I think to deny that would be almost as dangerous
as glorifying it and making it an obsession. It
really has to do, I think, more in the context.
I definitely think that violence, hurting people
for fun and for enjoyment, is the central issue
here. You have to fight for freedom. You have
to sometimes fight for your rights. You fight
for self-defense. You have to stand up for yourself.
But, at the same time, to torture other people,
to make them feel bad, to belittle them, whether
you're simply being impolite or having bad manners
or making fun of somebody just because it's a
fun thing to do or whether you're getting guns
out and bombing and trying to kill people, ultimately
it's the same kind of mean-spiritedness. It's,
I think, born out of a lot of cynicism. I think,
while the creative, artistic part of the media
seems to get focused, personally I think there's
a lot more of that going on in the news media
than there is in my end of it. You exploit the
tragedy, and you glorify the perpetrators, and
then at the same time there is this kind of cynical
attitude of tearing people down no matter who
they are. There's a mean-spiritedness and a cynicism
that exists, especially in the news media, that
I think sets up a kind of a milieu in which it's
OK to make fun of people.
Why did you decide to return to directing?
I guess I'm back as a director now. I will be
directing 'II' and 'III.' I found going back to
directing was like I hadn't stopped. And in some
ways, I hadn't stopped because I'd been directing
second unit. I'd been very involved in the creative
process in everything I'd done since I stopped
directing. When I stopped directing, part of it
was the explosion of Star Wars. It meant I had
to put some focus into my company on how I'd maintain
this franchise that sort of grew up in my back
yard. And directing it, I wasn't going to be able
to oversee everything. The films are very big
and hard to do, and I felt that I could serve
them better as executive producer overseeing an
entire production than I could trying to run right
back in and be a director.
What qualities were you looking for during
casting of the film? I'm always looking, first
and foremost, for very accomplished actors, people
who are extremely talented and know their craft
very well. So I'm looking for the best possible
talent that I can find, and I've done that in
all my movies. Then next I'm looking for people
who have the stature and, more importantly, the
demeanor of the character, whether it's Liam [Neeson]
who seems, from my point of view, was born to
play that role. He's very quiet. He's very big.
He's very powerful. But he's very contemplative.
Ewan [McGregor] is very witty and enthusiastic
and young and impatient, and those things come
through. Natalie [Portman] was very intelligent
and has a lot of presence and is a very strong
person, and at the same time she's very young.
I needed somebody to play a 14-year-old girl who
could basically be elected to rule a planet and
make that believable. With Jake [Lloyd], he was
this wild little Tom Sawyer kid who was exactly
the kind of thing I was looking for in Anakin.
Did you accomplish what you set out to do?
I like the whole movie. I have taken some chances
in story telling and the way I put it together.
It's always a little nerve-wracking when you've
taken risks, and nobody has seen the movie, and
you don't know if its going to work or not. This
is the one time I was able to sit down and let
my imagination run wild and not be hampered by,
`I can't do this or I can't do the buildings or
a pod race.' I was able to dream up what I wanted
and, for the most part, pull it off.
Why was there no romance is this film?
The romance comes in the next film. The problem
with this film is that the two romantic characters
are too young. It's more about parental love than
it is about romance.
Could you address the issue of digital characters,
like Jar Jar? When you're doing a digital
character, you end up having the actor on the
set. I do anyway. I cast Ahmed Best primarily
because he was a talented actor and also because
he was focused a lot on movement and dance. He
knew how to move his body and create a character
with his body. I wasn't sure if I would revoice
him or not. That wasn't a concern. I just wanted
to make sure he was up to acting with the other
actors in the movie. Could he create a character?
As it turns out, Ahmed was terrific. I used his
voice. He turned in a great performance in the
set. However, with digital characters, you have
to hire a second actor. And that actor has to
have the same talents plus some. That actor is
called an animator. He works in collaboration
with the original actor. The animator takes the
performance and turns it into minute facial expressions.
He really creates the character on the next level.
How did you come up with the idea for 'Star
Wars'? I conceived of it around the time
I finished my first film, THX. I was feeling
pressure from my peers to do something besides
these offbeat artsy, non-story, non-character
pictures. They thought I should move into a more
socially acceptable medium. A few friends challenged
me. I was thinking of something that I could get
excited about that would be less esoteric. I came
up with the idea of American Graffiti and
at the same time, I came up with the idea of doing
a modern mythology and a Saturday afternoon serial
for kids. One was Star Wars and the other
was Indiana Jones. I did American Graffiti
and put those other two on the shelf. But that
was pretty early in my career.
Is there a common theme in your films?
Part of life is risk-taking. That's a central
theme in all my movies. In THX, it's about someone
trapped in an emotionless world that takes the
risk of trying to find some emotion and leave
that world. It's a small gesture but a difficult
one to make. American Graffiti is about
the challenges and risks of leaving home and leaving
your hometown and doing off to the world. That's
been important in my life. I've taken great risks
in my films and I don't think I'd be where I am
today if I hadn't done that.
Where are you going to be when the film opens?
I am going to be off on a beach somewhere in the
South Pacific with no phones.
edited by Veronica Mixon
copyright © 1999, VM Media Sevices. All rights
reserved.
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