I know the question you all want to know, and I'll answer it this way: when I asked ANTHONY DANIELS about his love life back in 1999, he referred to his "partner." That enough info for you? Nonetheless, it was fun talking to the hammy actor, already quite trained in his convention rhetoric. What follows is a slightly updated version of my original interview - a Lucasian Special Edition, as it were! How cosmically perfect ...

I am C-3P0

A conversation with Anthony Daniels ... it ain't easy being gold

On a fair world, an actor is treated with dignity and respect - not, say, directed to wander for days through sweltering 40 C desert heat in a pinchy, sweltering robot costume. Well, nobody said it was a fair world. Especially when George Lucas is doing the directing. "I was pretty miserable at that point. Nothing was going through my head. It was like war," says Anthony Daniels of his 1976 introduction to filming the first Star Wars trilogy, where he sometimes sweated off four pounds daily in the deadly Tunisian heat.

Those days are long gone now, at least for Daniels, known for better or for worse by most of the planet as C-3P0 (See-Threepio, to some). I talked to him at the dawn of reprising his role in the new Star Wars films, starting with The Phantom Menace (in theatres May 19, 1999). The British actor is excited, to say the least, that he gets to play the golden droid once again.

"Thrilled, actually," he says from London in his familiar accent, the long-distance line adding the same tinny resonance he has in the films. Shit, this really was C-3P0! "I found out (I was in) some time around when the re-release came out."

Ironically, he's mainly just doing the voice this time around. Threepio, an incomplete robot built by a young Anakin Skywalker in the first prequel, is either digitally drawn or an elaborate, wiry puppet. It's ironic because Lucas was originally going to dub over Daniels' dialogue with an American actor's voice before Star Wars came out in 1977, the G-man preferring a used-car salesman's personality. Daniels' voice is now the only survivor where once it had almost been thrown into the slag by Ugnaughts.

Saner minds prevailed, fortunately. And despite it all, Daniels, 53 [in '99], has some fairly glowing things to say about the Star Wars creator, directing his first movie since the original. "A remarkable thing has happened in the last 20 years. The first time around, he didn't talk to anybody much," Daniels says of Lucas. "Now, you can't stop him from talking. He even accepts ideas from the actors."

I ask him if the director-producer has gone soft. "He's mellowed out with age, certainly.

"I think he's realized he's got something really good here. I think he feels appreciated, finally."

It's very odd, all this sudden talk of George Lucas's humanity. The notoriously robotic director has feelings? What's all this about? It makes a kind of sense, though - Threepio is a robot with human emotions, after all. He must mirror the Maker on some level ...

A recent 60 Minutes episode concentrated on Lucas's divorce and family as much as the special effects of Menace, though Ewan McGregor has been quoted on the Web as saying the man wasn't so wonderful in the day-to-day grind in front of the blue screens. Most of the new film's sets and half the characters don't even exist, except in a computer, and acting in front of them was probably a little unnerving. [You could see it in Liam Neeson's eyes in the final version of Phantom.]

Daniels has no such complaints. Though he was hesitant to reveal much about Episode I, he points out that he, as an actor, didn't have to head back to the desert, even though the trailers show the robot and R2-D2 there. "I'm not going to tell you that," he chuckles when asked if he had to don the suit at all.

"But I will tell you this: In the first act, I come on the scene with a machine-gun and start killing everybody. It's a very short film."

Very funny. [Ironically, this scene showed up in Attack of the Clones in 2002.] But you can understand Daniels' hesitation. There are some serious crazies out there, dying for the slightest hint of the upcoming plot. This writer is not entirely exempt from that camp. "To be fair, the plot doesn't matter, from what I have seen. It's really amazing, Fish. I am so impressed by the look of it; it's like a giant painting - amazing stuff. And the music is absolutely overwhelming."

Wow. You'd almost think he was working for Lucasfilm. Oh, wait a minute ...

But his enthusiasm feels genuine, and he doesn't seem as paranoid about lifting his skirt a little as most people in the industry. Local threatre managers, as one example, have been too nervous to tell us if they're playing the new movie when it comes out. Video game promoters, film reps, even your friendly neighbourhood media are all afraid of Lucas's wrath on some level, whether it's real or not. "It's pathetic, really," says Goldenrod. "Anybody in film knows that you don't go around telling all the secrets of the movie you're in. I don't know why everyone wants to know everything before they go in, anyway," Daniels adds.

It's not a matter of that so much as when. People just want to know now. The Great Hype Machine, including this feature, riles up the masses. But (note to freaks) Daniels is right. There is something to be said for seeing a film with an open mind. Sort of like the first time around, in 1977.

"I get a little concerned when people know nothing but Star Wars. There's a whole world out there. I still think Star Wars fans are normal people. You don't have a Klingon Dictionary or anything like that, people coming up to you going 'Yar garrok blarrr' or some nonsense." [Once, maybe ...]

Even Daniels, a hilarious, stream-of-consciousness blog writer actually involved with movie production, doesn't even take himself that seriously, and - again - he's in the movies. "I worry about being someone who only appears at conventions, if you know what I mean. I didn't intend for this to become my life and it hasn't, luckily.

"C-3P0 is a separate career."

'SHUT HIM UP OR SHUT HIM DOWN!'

Poor C-3P0! He's got a tougher ride through life than most garbage cans. Here are just a few samples of his antagonists, assembled down at the local cantina over a space beer:

R2-D2: From ditching him in the desert on, Artoo always keeps Threepio in the dark and constantly bleeps back to him. To be fair, the golden robot deserves their lovers' quarrels. Relationships are hard, after all. [Again, this went further in Attack of the Clones, when Artoo actually pushed Threepio off a platform to his eventual beheading.]

HAN SOLO: Solo is consistently abusive to the droid, threatening to have his metal arms ripped out by the Wookie, calling him a flower in Empire and making him the brunt of lame jokes in Jedi. Actually, everyone suffered in that movie thanks to the Emperor's plans and, more importantly, the stiff script.

THE FAT BARTENDER IN THE CANTINA: "We don't serve their kind in here," yells the robot racist. The Million-Droid March on Washington was yet to come.

DARTH VADER: Vader was mean to everyone, really, especially people who worked for him. He's kind of like a newspaper editor that way.

THE STORMTROOPER WHO SHOT HIM IN CLOUD CITY: Put it together, man.

JAR-JAR BINKS: Well, we don't know that yet, but I hope C-3P0 punches the new CGI character in the mug. Like, someone has to! [Unfortunately, the only one who didn't seem to like Jar Jar within the films was Qui-Gon, who was soon enough murdered at the end of Menace.]

GEORGE LUCAS: By making Anthony Daniels trudge across the broiling Tunisian desert in 1976, Lucas by far tortured the android worse than anyone. Bad man! [And that fucking dialogue in Clones - don't even get me started, bitch ...]

- 1999.04.09 [2004.10.20]

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