Under C-3PO’s armou r
How Anthony Daniels spent four decades dressing as a droid
You don’t spend half your life playing C- 3P0 without learning a little etiquette and protocol. Meeting Anthony Daniels a week before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I am struck by the actor’s gentle humility. He listens as much as he speaks, and he can flatter even as he provides an answer.
Is it easy to don the golden armour of the famous droid yet again, at age 69? “Physically I —” he pauses, looks me up and down. “Well, you look after yourself. I have to look after myself because I know I’m getting back in there. It’s part of the job.”
Daniels, whose lithe body and erect posture suggest both a dancer and a retired military officer, was not quite 30 when he auditioned for the role of the humanoid robot in the original Star Wars.
An offhand remark about 2001: A Space Odyssey — he’d walked out of a screening, finding it boring — almost convinced writer/director George Lucas this wasn’t the droid he was looking for.
He has since seen and enjoyed 2001 in its entirety, particularly the performance of his cinematic cousin, HAL 9000, whom Daniels can mimic eerily well.
“A red light and a voice — magic!” he says of HAL. “Never had to raise his voice, because he knew what was happening. 3P0 is constantly trying to tell people: ‘But this is wrong, this is dangerous!’ He cares. He’s very self-protective, but before that he’s protective of others. And he’s so open in his emotions that we want to look after him a bit.”
Daniels is also a fan of the recent science-fiction movie Ex Machina, in which Alicia Vikander plays a self-aware robot; the film also stars Oscar Isaac; Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens. “The script is very intelligent. The effects are great, but it’s quite a worrying script. There are conversations there about our relationships with machines; highly intelligent film.”
Daniels has lived both sides of the man/machine divide, which gives him a unique perspective. He holds the position of “visiting scholar” at the Entertainment Technology Centre of Carnegie Mellon University, where he sometimes lectures.
“I think I have a better relationship with machines,” he says when asked if C3P0 has taught him anything. “I kind of recognize what they do for me. I’m not somebody who uses technology hugely. I like things not to break down. But I recognize the help that machines give us, and 3P0’s an embodiment of that — long in the future, I understand from various scientists I’ve talked to.”
For many of the returning Star Wars cast, The Force Awakens marks their first real connection with the franchise since Return of the Jedi was released in 1983. But Daniels has long been an ambassador and a performer — that’s his voice in the Star Wars ride at Disney theme parks, and as C-3P0 in The Lego Movie and video games.
“I am very rarely away from C- 3P0,” he says. “I do a lot of recordings,” most recently for an in-car GPS navigation system. “I had a wry complaint from someone saying, ‘ When I arrived home your voice said: What a desolate place this is!’”
And while many actors are bemused at fans’ abilities to recall the minutiae of their performances, Daniels seems to carry an eidetic memory of his time spent in the skin of a droid.
Asked if there are moments of which he is particularly proud, he recalls the scene from the first Star Wars movie in which Obi-Wan has just been killed. “And there’s 3P0 on the Falcon, and just with a little tilt of the head you know he’s incredibly sad; he’s very moved by his demise. Little things like that that work very well, and sometimes it’s easy to forget to be subtle.”
And in the new film? Daniels is pleased with the new costume, which fits better than ever, and includes highly articulated fingers. “For the first time I pick up something very tiny,” he says. “That has never happened before.”
The Force Awakens, directed by J. J. Abrams, has been created under such a strict veil of secrecy that he can say little more. “But there was a moment, because of J. J.’s direction and editing, that I made me laugh. And that’s quite good, if you can make yourself laugh.” And how will we know that moment when we see it? “Well, hopefully you’ll laugh.”
I try to get under his armour, telling him my kids would love to know why 3P0’s arm is red in the new film. He deflects the question with the polish and grace of a practised diplomat.
“Do they know what they’re getting for Christmas? Exactly! Well, 3P0’s red arm along with all the other stuff that J. J. and the whole crew have wrapped up will be unwrapped, not on Christmas Day, but next week.”
He leans into my voice recorder, his clipped, 3P0-esque tones going from one machine to another as it were. “So guys, hang on in there; enjoy the surprise!”
I think I have a better relationship with machines