Walt Disney Have A Kind Of Kremlin Attitude To The New ‘Star Wars’ Film, Snaps C-3PO Actor

Actor Anthony Daniels has played C-3PO in all seven Star Wars films, but the thespian behind the bright gold head of the most OCD robot in the galaxy has slammed Walt Disney for taking “a kind of Kremlin attitude” to The Force Awakens.

Speaking to the Guardian, the thespian famous for being a droid has complained about the level of paranoia that surrounds The Force Awakens, compared with the low-key and no thrill approach which heralded the arrival of the first Star Wars film in 1977.

“There was none of this paranoia because it was a daft little film and no one cared.”

Daniels, who made his motion picture debut in Star Wars as the shiny gold-plated droid who resembles a slightly annoying and fastidious fish wife, has been playing C-3PO since before many of Walt Disney’s executives were born. As such, the 69-year-old has no time for any Hollywood games and has slammed the secrecy surrounding The Force Awakens as rather silly.

“The secrecy has been beyond ludicrous. For heaven’s sake, it’s a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn’t photocopy it. I got a hangover just reading it.”

To his disgust, Daniels was also ticked off by the studio bosses for mentioning a fellow actor from The Force Awakens on Twitter.

“I said that I’d met so-and-so. An actor who plays a… thing in the film. A character. Immediately I received a message from Disney: ‘Remove the tweet! You’re not allowed to say that!’ Honestly. It’s a kind of Kremlin attitude. Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I’m giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise. And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day.”

In the same interview, Daniels recalls how but for a simple quirk of fate he wouldn’t have played C-3PO in Star Wars at all, admitting, “I was so negative about it. Why would I want to be involved with this rubbish?”

Yet, after meeting George Lucas in London’s 20th Century Fox offices, he soon changed his mind when he saw a painting of C-3PO by Ralph McQuarrie.

“The droid had a kind of bleak, forlorn emptiness. I felt as though he were asking me to come and help – to be his companion.”

As is often the way with actors, Daniels now considers himself C-3PO’s closest friend, and confessed that due to the studio sidelining him from promotional duties because they wanted Star Wars fans to believe C-3PO was an actual droid, the lines between robot and thespian have become a little bit blurred.

“I had sold my identity on the grounds that someone would be watching. Millions were. But they were never allowed to know they were in part watching me.”

[Image Credit: Alberto E Rodriguez/Adam Barry/Getty Images]