by Edward Gross
JONATHAN RINZLER
There was this big story conference—but it’s basically George saying, “I can’t do this big city planet, it’s going to be really expensive.” They only had the one soundstage at ILM, and the city planet was going to take up the whole soundstage for the whole shoot, which was going to be problematic. It was just logistically impossible. Lawrence Kasdan was actually arguing to keep it, and George was saying, “Even if we keep it, how can we explain that we can just destroy this whole planet? The Rebels can’t destroy a planet.” And Kasdan was saying, “Well, you don’t have to destroy a whole planet. You could just have a power station on the city planet, and have the Rebels pinpoint that, and all the power goes out, and the Rebels won.” But George nixed it. Somewhere in the story conference, they decide to put the Emperor on the Death Star, and that’s the thing that changes everything.
ERIC TOWNSEND
(author, The Making of Star Wars Timeline)
Kasdan was pushing for major characters to be killed, including, at one point, Luke Skywalker himself. The team also wrestled with the issue of Ben Kenobi’s declaration in the first film that Darth Vader had killed father Skywalker and how to explain the films’ new revelations.
RICHARD MARQUAND
I recall two items that I feel are indicative of the kind of input I was able to have at that point. First of all, I felt very strongly that the opening shot of the film should be modeled after the openings of the first two films, starting in outer space and revealing something that has to do with the Empire so that it would begin on a dark note of threat. Plus, I wanted to include Yoda. The story originally began after Luke had completed his training with Yoda and Yoda was no longer in the movie. I thought the audience would feel cheated if there was no scene with Yoda, because the importance of Luke’s return to Yoda to complete his training was set up so strongly in The Empire Strikes Back.
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As Kasdan began rewriting the script—and would do a number of drafts in a relatively brief time period—Marquand flew to England to oversee the design of the film’s sets. The need for flexibility became obvious in a scene involving the set for Darth Vader’s bridge on the Star Destroyer.
RICHARD MARQUAND
I thought going in that I could manage with a very, very reduced set because I wanted as much as possible to keep a tight control on the budget. I thought I could manage with a small section of that set; but as the day grew nearer and nearer to shoot the sequence, I began to realize more and more that actually, we’d have to build some more and paint some more. Ironically, Norman Reynolds, the production designer, had already thought to himself, “I don’t think he’s going to get away with this.” When it came down to my actually saying to Howard and Norman, “Look, I think we’re going to have to have a little bit more,” Norman said, “Oh, I’ve got some extra pieces. I had them made anyway. We’ll paint them overnight and you can shoot tomorrow.”
I would say my experience in television taught me a lot about preplanning. If you work on tape with four cameras, you have a shooting script with every single angle mapped out. You’ve rehearsed for three weeks with actors on a set with a little viewfinder against your eye so that you’ve actually got it all completely knocked out. You can’t do that in movies, but I don’t think it does any harm to make up your mind ahead of time, particularly if you’re able to change if you have to. I mean, you’ve got a situation there where you really are creating something. You are actually saying, I think this should look like this and I think that should happen. If you’re any good, that’s how it’s going to look and it can look terrific, because you’ve got a whole army of people all working toward that goal. Suppose you want an archway with a huge door and light that comes pouring in the moment the door opens. If you can say that three months ahead of the shoot, you’re going to get it. You ain’t gonna get it if you decide this afternoon that you’d like that tomorrow morning at eight thirty, because it’s just not going to be there. So what do you do then? You postpone everything or you put up with something that somebody else thought up. I’m astounded by the stories I hear of directors who actually walk on the set in the morning and work out roughly what they’re going to shoot and start shooting in the middle of the afternoon. I’m just amazed, I’m not bragging; I just don’t have the guts to pick up a fat fee without being prepared.
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The shooting schedule of Jedi lasted a total of eighteen weeks, six less than they had on Empire. Seventy-eight days were spent at Elstree, which was followed by a one-week break and then two weeks on location in Yuma, Arizona; two weeks in Crescent City, California; and a week and a half of blue-screen work at ILM in San Rafael. Additionally, a second unit was utilized to work behind the main unit, capturing pickup shots, and, finally, there was a day of photography in Death Valley.
HOWARD KAZANJIAN
We wanted to start photography in January of 1982 so we could maximize the time available for postproduction and special effects work, even though we were rushing into production before everyone was fully prepared.
RICHARD MARQUAND
I chose to start with one of the toughest sequences. I’ve always liked to plunge immediately into a very tough week’s shooting, because I’ve discovered that if you slide in the way a lot of directors like to do, you set up a very slow pace for the crew. If you’ve got an easy day’s shooting on the first day, then it’s hard to pull up the speed. And the bigger the crew, the harder it gets. So I was very anxious to find some really tough things to do first, which surprised everybody. They thought I was crazy, but since we were starting in January and the weather did not permit shooting in Crescent City and the set was not completed in Yuma, we went straight into an enormous shoot on what is probably one of the more complex and demanding sequences in the movie. I could see halfway through the week that either the crew and I would be destroyed or we would get through the week on schedule and feel so terrific that we’d be in good shape for the rest of the production. A professional crew is like a racehorse. You can’t take it easy coming out of the gate, because you’ll get brushed aside and that’ll be the end of it.
As the director, you’re the focus of everybody’s attention. It’s important that they feel that you know where the scene is going. The moment it’s over and you’re happy and you say “Print,” if the very next thing you say is, “Now we’re over here on the 35 and I want to be on a low angle,” if you immediately know where the next scene is going, everybody can feel this horse racing under him and they know it’s carrying them to the finish line. It’s a nice feeling, but it can easily be broken by an actor having a temperament or by a first assistant who thinks that everything should be done through a bullhorn. We need to concentrate, but I like the set to be infused with a sense of humor and fun. I don’t mean outrageous fun and swinging from the chandeliers, but fun where you can crack a joke or talk about a given character in endearing but amusing terms—rather than feeling that you’re in a temple of art. Because you’re not in a temple of art. This is show business. You’re hoodwinking an audience. You’ve got this cheap three-ply door which is supposed to look like a monstrous golden metal thing and you’re using gauzes and smoke and God knows what to make them think that they’re in some magical fairy-tale place. It’s all hoodwinking the audience, so I think you can enjoy the fact that you’re doing that and I think you can take pride in it if you’re doing it well. I think it’s good to have a sense of humor about it.
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To some, the screenplay for Return of the Jedi “hoodwinked” the audience in certain ways as well, particularly in terms of elements of narrative irrelevancy. This was obvious in the way it was decided that the film should open.
RAY MORTON
In Jedi’s early planning stages, Harrison Ford agreed to play a major role in the film after all. Therefore, Lucas opted to begin the screenplay with an elaborate sequence in which Luke, Leia, Lando, Chewie, and the droids rescue Han from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, th
e galactic gangster on whose behalf Boba Fett pursued and captured Han in Empire. This was a perfectly fine and necessary idea, but as executed, the segment is very awkwardly constructed. The notion of all of the main characters assembling to rescue Han is terrific, but rather than have the group travel to Jabba’s palace on Tatooine en masse and get on with it, the script instead has the principals arrive at Jabba’s one at a time: Lando infiltrates Jabba’s lair in disguise before the movie starts; the droids arrive next, followed by Chewie and Leia; Leia then defrosts Han from the carbonite; and then—twenty-two minutes into the movie—Luke finally arrives. With this one-by-one approach, it takes what feels like forever to get the gang assembled and we grow restless waiting for them to do so.
By the time the old friends are all together, we are more than ready for the rescue to finally begin. Unfortunately, we have to wait even longer while Luke takes time out to battle Jabba’s pet monster, the Rancor. While this is an exciting bit on its own, in the context of the overall sequence, it just delays the heart of the scene—the rescue—even further. Finally, thirty-two minutes into the movie, the rescue finally begins as the gang battles Jabba’s forces over the deadly Sarlacc pit. Although it’s not completely clear what Luke’s rescue scheme is (was his plan really to get captured and sentenced to walk the plank over a giant yonic symbol?!), it is at this point that the movie finally comes alive with an exciting sequence full of fights, stunts, and explosions, climaxing with the gang’s exhilarating escape and Jabba and his minions going down in flames. It would have been a terrific way to kick off the movie had it actually kicked off the movie.
There are some great bits in this first act: Jabba is a terrific character both in concept and in execution, the Rancor is scary, nobody minds Carrie in her slave-girl costume, and, as just mentioned, the Sarlacc battle is just thrilling. However, this entire section of the script and the film has the same basic problem as the Endor sequence does: it contains only one element that is relevant to the trilogy’s overall narrative—the defrosting of Han Solo and his return to the fold. As on Endor, everything else is filler, which is why—as exciting as the act eventually becomes—in aggregate it’s pretty boring. As a result of all of these decisions, the screenplay as finally assembled begins with a long, awkwardly structured sequence that is fundamentally irrelevant to the plot, which is then followed by another long, better-structured segment that is also irrelevant to the plot. The material that is relevant to the plot doesn’t come into play until the third act and then is given extremely short shrift. This poor construction is the main reason why the script for Jedi is such a disappointment, especially in light of how well structured the scripts for the first two movies in the trilogy are.
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Once again the main cast was back including Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and, of course, Harrison Ford, albeit begrudgingly. Also back was Billy Dee Williams as Lando and Frank Oz performing Yoda.
RICHARD MARQUAND
Carrie Fisher gives a tremendous performance in this film, and I, as an actor’s director, really pride myself on being able to help actors over what are problematic areas. I actually feel that she and I together brought out depths in Princess Leia’s character hitherto unseen. She became very well founded metaphorically and physically as a character in this movie. At last, you got to see what a good actress she is. In the past, by necessity, there often wasn’t very much room for depth of character. She really has some emotionally deep scenes which she handles wonderfully well.
I call myself an actor’s director, because many directors direct cameras. I think the actors felt very lost and almost neglected on Empire. The special effects sort of rode through that movie in terms of the actors being left alone. I was lucky in this film. The major actors who carried the story and dialogue were by now very experienced at this nightmarish way of working. They were used to it and knew how to deal with it. I tend to shoot rehearsals. The reason I do that is because it makes the crew suddenly realize we are actually shooting film. There’s a different quality to the way people act when they know film is going through the gate than if it’s just a rehearsal and we’re moving the camera around. Very often you find that the first take has a quality to it; it’s a sort of angst, that the adrenaline is really pumping and often you get some wonderful stuff. It’s money well invested to get as much on the negative as you can in one day.
KENNY BAKER
(actor, “R2-D2”)
George knew exactly what he wanted. He told me where to look, what to do. Richard Marquand hardly ever used me, he said he was going to, but he didn’t. George said to him that when I was in R2, R2 came to life. Still, Richard never used me a lot. Irvin Kershner was good; he was easy to work with.
BILLY DEE WILLIAMS
(actor, “Lando Calrissian”)
When we shot Return of the Jedi I remember doing the scene where Harrison was saving me from the Sarlacc pit. He was so wrapped up in his acting that he didn’t realize right away that I was actually hurt. A squib went off in my foot and we had to cut the scene. Harrison was so into his part. We of course did get the scene done.
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One of the surprise returnees in terms of cast was Alec Guinness as Luke’s mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, though it was once again in the form of a Force ghost.
RAY MORTON
Jedi presents the formerly wise, dignified, and immensely capable Obi-Wan Kenobi as a screw-up and a liar who not only doesn’t apologize to Luke for not telling him the truth about his father, but also offers a lame justification for why it’s okay that he did. Alec Guinness didn’t like playing ghosts and had originally agreed to reprise Ben after Lucas promised to return Kenobi to life and have him play a substantial role in the narrative. Early drafts had Obi-Wan reemerging and aiding Luke during the boy’s climactic fight with the Emperor and Vader. However, as script development proceeded, Ben’s part was whittled down more and more until all that was left was one scene in which he delivered a bunch of exposition and showed himself to be a failure. Churlish comments that appeared in Guinness’s posthumously published diaries revealed he was not at all happy about how things turned out.
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Although the Emperor had previously been a character in The Empire Strikes Back (Clive Revill had provided his voice with mask-wearing actress Marjorie Eaton physically playing him along with a superimposed pair of monkey eyes), in Return of the Jedi he was played by Ian McDiarmid. The thirty-seven-year-old, Scottish-born McDiarmid could hardly have imagined the small role of an aged, hooded, pure personification of evil, Emperor Palpatine, would end up becoming his crowning achievement in cinema and one of Star Wars’ most iconic characters—or that he would return decades later in the culmination of the Skywalker Saga, 2019’s Rise of Skywalker, reprising his role as Emperor Palpatine. McDiarmid’s early life found him as a great theater aficionado at local theaters in the east coast of Scotland. McDiarmid’s early work as an actor began in British theater. He starred in several Shakespeare plays, including Hamlet in 1972, The Tempest in 1974, Much Ado About Nothing in 1976, Trevor Nunn’s 1976 Macbeth (and in the television version in 1978), and The Merchant of Venice. But the role that won the attention of George Lucas was a small one as a sacrificial priest in the 1981 fantasy film (for which Lucas’s company, ILM, did the special effects sequences) Dragonslayer.
IAN MCDIARMID
(actor, “Emperor Sheev Palpatine”)
One day, I got a phone call. Someone said they were looking for an actor to play the Emperor of the Universe. That’s how I ended up in Star Wars. They thought of me because the film’s casting director had seen me as Howard Hughes in Seduced, a play by Sam Shepard. In it, I played an older part under a lot of makeup. At that time, they were looking for somebody who was a bit younger to play older, because the special effects and makeup were rather strenuous. In fact, someone who looked exactly like the Emperor of the Universe walked into the office after I did. He was the right age and everything, although I’m not sure if he had
the yellow eyes, or indeed, teeth. It looked for a while as if he would play the part, but in the end, it was decided that he was too frail, so I got it.
Once I was cast, I only received my section of the film, which is unusual. Normally, you get a full script, but it was George’s intention that no one should know what happened. For example, he very much wanted to protect Vader’s story. If those secrets had gotten out, the surprise would have faded.
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The makeup required for the character was explained to him in detail, beginning with a look at images of the Emperor as he appeared in Empire. On top of that, he was shown drawings as well, and assured by Lucas that he would be able to “keep” his mouth and possibly his nose.
IAN MCDIARMID
They’re fairly distinguishing features, which quite pleased me. He also said my eyes would be mine, but they would change the color. All these things helped me suggest a person other than someone who just ran things. They gave the character an added dimension, which is what I was really looking for in playing the part. They added things, like echo and reverb and on top of that, of course, it’s in multitrack stereo. But they didn’t do anything with its natural timbre. It was I who dropped my voice down to what comes out on-screen. I spent a great deal of time working on that. Because I knew it would have to be done again in the dubbing, I practiced. I also listened to Clive Revill’s voice from the previous movie. While I was allowed my own interpretation, if I had chosen a pitch different from his, people would have felt cheated and thought that something was wrong. They might have required an explanation, like did the Emperor have a throat operation? So, I had to get the rough area of his voice. I listened to a tape of Clive, got my voice in the same vicinity, and added my own stuff.