Casting Christopher Lee

[Jurious]

I recently dug out an ol' Star Wars magazine dating from Feb/March 2001 and it featured an interview with Robin Gurland, the casting director on the SW prequels, concerning the casting of Attack of the Clones, in which she made some interesting and wonderful comments about Mr. Lee. This article is from 2 years back, so many people may or may not have read it before, so I thought I'd share the parts concerning Mr. Lee with everyone. :) Enjoy!

[quote][i]Star Wars Magazine Feb/Mar 2001:

How did you come up with Christopher Lee?
That was in talking with George. A lot of this process happened in developing the script, and he would talk out roles, and some would wax and wane, and some became more important and others we thought were going to be important disappeared. The role of Christopher's was one of those that we started talking out and it went a couple of ways before George decided he wanted it to be 100 percent human: "You know what I think we'll do? I'll have him as the Peter Cushing of this film." And that was great, because the minute he said that it's like: Christopher Lee! Then we contacted Christopher and he was so excited, he was really looking forward to this. Again it just worked out perfectly.

When you talked to Christopher Lee about taking on the part, presumably he was aware that the role entailed a lot of action?
Sure. Actors are very used to either working with a traditional stunt double, or having us employ computer generated imagery if it makes sense. It doesn't matter how young or old they are, or how fit or not. So there really weren't any surprises. Christopher is in great form. I went over to London and had lunch with him. He's of the old school. And three hours later these great tales were still coming out. He's worked on over 140 films. You just sit there and go "Oh tell me more, please." So lovely.

How often does George say to you "I really like this particular actor for a role"?
He's very visual, so he'll do that. Case in point was the role that we cast with Christopher Lee. George has a very visual sense of who this actor is. But the beauty of casting a Star Wars movie is that you don't have the concerns you have with many films in that you don't need this name actor or that name; it just doesn't come into the conversation. You can go in with complete knowns or unknowns. It's equal.
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The interview was actually done in August 2000 at the Fox Studios, in Australia. Just to let you know. :)

[LCD]

That was super, Jurious. Behind-the-scenes is always interesting to find out about. Have you by chance come across anything for the next sequel regarding Mr. Lee? And yes, those stories he could tell!

[Jurious]

As far as Ep.III goes, I think we can safely say that Mr. Lee - or anyone, for that matter, from the cast or crew - won't be saying anything about it soon. We'll have to wait at least a year before anything half-interesting begins to emerge from official sources, so, no, I haven't come across anything yet.

And I loved the comment about the stories, too! Who wouldn't want to sit having lunch with Mr. Lee and listen to all the tales he can tell! :) As Robin said, 'so lovely'.

[lisaleslie76]

Excellent article, Jurious.