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Ian McDiarmid Interview

We recently cornered The Emperor himself to find out what life was like as part of the Star Wars cast and whether he plays golf.

You’ve said that as an actor, you’ve found yourself in some unusual places. What kind of places have you found yourself in?

Sydney – that’s an unusual and highly attractive place where we did the last two movies. Before that I was at Leavesden, now the home of Harry Potter, filming the Phantom Menace and they seemed to be building the studio as we were doing the film. That was a very interesting and a very loud experience. At the same time I was at an unusual theatre in North London called the Almeida which I ran for thirteen years with Jonathan Kent.

What was your favourite aspect of the Emperor’s personality in Star Wars?

He’s only got one aspect to his personality, that he is wholly evil and only interested in power, which you think might involve some psychological depth. The point about the Emperor is that he has no psychological depth and that’s very interesting to play. You don’t have to worry about what he has for breakfast because you know he doesn’t eat. He’s only interested in power – he eats, sleeps, breathes power. That’s the most interesting aspect of the character and I’ve had the opportunity to explore that. I have a favourite scene where I suppose his personality was exercised at it’s most diabolically brilliant and that’s the opera scene in Revenge Of The Sith, where he persuades Anakin finally to turn to the dark side with a variety of subtle poisons. All the poisons are contained in the words. George wrote that scene and I thought “this is a very long dialogue for an action movie, will he keep it?” as he wrote it and, indeed, he did. That’s very satisfying as words are actions too and as a result of those words, Anakin decides to cave in.

Do you prefer to play the bad guy?

I don’t have a preference, like most actors my preferences are for good parts. If they’re good bad parts that’s fine, if they’re good good parts that’s ok too. But it’s true that the darker aspects of human nature fascinate us more than the lighter aspects. That’s presumably because we know less about them, so I suppose that’s why darker characters are more attractive to play.

Would you consider further work set in the Star Wars universe?

The saga is complete, to coin a phrase and I’m sure as far as I’m concerned, too. You know that George is planning an animated series and also a long television series, commissioning all sorts of writers and directors to do a series which will be set between the end of episode three and the beginning of episode four. My character is emperor then and I will be in the background, but I think that will be it and you probably remember I was in the background for the very first Star Wars film ever and I didn’t know it was me, so that was an interesting experience. But it is possible to tell the story without the actual presence or indeed voice of the Emperor. It is George’s plan to concentrate on some of the less well-known characters in the series.

How much of your time is taken up with Star Wars now, since finishing the saga?

All of today [smiles]. A few days previously and we’ve been on the big promotional circus, mainly for the movie but then for the DVD which of course followed hereupon. It’s been fantastic fun, I’ve never done anything like it before and I’d no idea what it would be like – to say “surreal” is obvious and a cliché, but obvious it has been. It’s sort of nuts, but really enjoyable and I’ve probably never seen so many red carpets in my life and I never want to see another one, but the really high points were standing at the backs of cinemas when people didn’t know we were there and watching the audience reaction. Standing there with George, Rick McCallum and Hayden on one occasion at the Empire, Leicester Square, watching the people who had sat through all of the movies that day, we introduced the final one to their surprise and then we didn’t leave immediately, we just watched their reaction and of course they screamed and they cheered the villains and hissed me and that’s the way it’s supposed to be: That’s how these films are supposed to work.

I’ve never seen George more delighted, because he’d never been part of that kind of atmosphere before, and he said “this is the way it’s supposed to work,” like those serials all those years ago on a Saturday morning. I remember going to Batman and Robin and Flash Gordon and hissing and shouting and everything else and that’s the spirit of those films. Many other things in them too, but by enlarge that’s it. And so dashing around, and we did dash – in and out of cars, people dragging one dirty shirt off your back putting a clean one on and saying “have you got a deodorant because I’ve got to speak to these people?” “No, no it’s time for the opening, just put it on!” It was just nuts. Wonderful nuts, I mean somebody should make that film, perhaps Christopher Guest [smiles]. It was just sublimely entertaining, also because I love that as an actor, as a theatre man I love the whole Barnum and Bailey aspect of it and so does George and so does Rick, so it was just, it was a riot really. And I’ll never do it again and that’s fine too.

Do you prefer the atmosphere of the theatre or of the cinema?

The Star Wars atmosphere is unlike any other atmosphere, it’s a rarefied atmosphere. I’ve enjoyed making the films because it was exciting too, originally doing Return Of The Jedi was a bit like being invited to come in and play with a rich guy’s train set. All of those fantasies were suddenly realities and apparently they were going to pay me. I try not to have favourites and preferences, but if you pushed me it would have to be the theatre, because it’s live and it changes all the time and it changes every night because, with any luck, you’re different and the audiences certainly are, so it’s that kind of interaction.

Do you feel that the moment you described at the Empire, Leicester Square, was similar to the atmosphere of the theatre?

Absolutely so. When we ran the Almeida, our great pleasure was to stand at the back, a bit like Bialystock and Bloom in The Producers, although we were a little less corrupt (I hope just as entertaining) and just see moment-to-moment whether it was working or not. Tearing our hair out, what left there was of it when it was going badly and feeling relief and occasionally joy when it was going really well. That’s why film and cinema were equally enjoyable, but in different ways.

Given your background and your education at St Andrews, are you subsequently an avid golfer?

Oh no, good luck to Scottish golfers and especially Scottish tennis players, but I’m not really that much interested in sport. Although of course, now I am a master swordsman you see [smiles].