David Prowse banned from conventions by Lucas

[Spoonist]

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainmen ... om_al.html

The actor - known among Star Wars fans as the man who portrayed Darth Vader in the original trilogy - has been banned from attending official fan conventions and cast reunions after reportedly "annoying" director George Lucas.

[Darth Yoshi]

This seems like it belongs in PSW... *shrugs*

But wow, I wasn't aware that Prowse and Lucas didn't get along.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I believe it. I'd heard about the unmasking controversy, nobody ever really had a good reason for WHY they switched out Prowse.

[Vympel]

Off to PSW.

[FSTargetDrone]

If the thing about Prowse leaking the storyline of Vader being Luke's father long ago is right, or maybe Prowse "annoying" Lucas is something else, well, we are just hearing one side here. I wouldn't be too quick to judge unless more detail comes out. Lucas evidently gets along just fine with all of the other major and minor cast members, so either this is just a sad personality conflict, or something else is up.

[Havok]

Maybe Prowse is just a big egotistical dickhead? Fits the personality of body builders I have known.

[Elfdart]

I don't know how credible this source is, but they have a quote from someone who claims they are a regular at the conventions:

Wow. Curious to know just what Darth Vader did to "burn bridges" with LucasFilm? Speculation runs rampant, and LucasFilm's not talking. But this comment over at Blastr.com was provocative:

Scopi on Jul 10, 2010 03:05 PM When it comes to burning bridges, I assume that Lucas Film wouldn't be very happy with story I've heard Prowse tell a couple times, along the lines that he thought he was doing the voice of Darth Vader and that James Earl Jones was only hired to appeal to the "black audience." I think Prowse walked back from that a bit later on, but maybe he's been telling accusatory versions of it again.

I can't see George Lucas making that stupid an assumption about the "black audience" and that take on Prowse part is rather racist. My insider information is that George thought he needed a more menancing voice that this one:



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abr ... z0uODFtdxM

If that's true, no wonder Lucasfilm bounced him.

[Stofsk]

I don't buy the argument that Lucas put in James Earl Jones to appeal to a black audience. I remember reading a book where the issue of putting in a black actor or even an extra simply didn't come up, and it was one of the criticisms Star Wars received that there were no black actors in the entire film which surprised Lucas and Kurtz IIRC because it was an accidental omission. So in Empire Lucas created Lando's character and you also see a black security guard in Cloud City.

[Spoonist]

The "black" thingie is BS from 10 years ago. No way that would come into effect now. Instead it looks like it is a (delayed) response to Proswe's Equity intervue asking where his money is.
You see all the actors wrote contracts for ROTJ (and for some also EST) where they would get a cut of the net income. However Lucas film to this day claims ROTJ never made a net profit. (Legalesewise they are correct since the studios at the time used their own definition of net to screw the actors).
Now most of the other actors shut up about this since its so long ago but Prowse having lillte else of a career is the only one still complaining, hence Lucas dicking him in the ass.

[Temujin]

In "Empire of Dreams" James Earl Jones states Lucas said he wanted a darker voice for Vader, but then clarifies it by saying darker in tone (or whatever they would call it), not ethnicity. Maybe Prose heard that and misunderstood.

[Havok]

Dude. Prowse sounds like Dark Helmet. There was no way that Lucas was going to use his voice. So yeah, Prowse just sounds like an egotistical dickhead.

[Havok]

Now most of the other actors shut up about this since its so long ago but Prowse having lillte else of a career is the only one still complaining, hence Lucas dicking him in the ass.

How is Lucas 'dicking him in the ass'? He owns Star Wars and everything about it. If Prowse doesn't recognize that and wants to keep running his mouth about whatever... he can do it outside.

[TC Pilot]

Prowse has always been shooting his mouth, like how he considers himself to be the one, true man behind Darth Vader (ignoring James Earl Jones, Shaw, and the stuntman Bob Anderson). It's really not surprising to me that Lucas finally got sick of it all. I mean, you don't hear Peter Mayhew or Kenny Baker complain about their lines being dubbed over, or things like that.

[Temujin]

How the fuck could Prowse not realize upfront that his lines were going to be dubbed over; and how the fuck could anyone think Angus McVader actually sounded good!

[TC Pilot]

Lack of experience with the film industry? The guy's a body builder, so maybe he just figured "Hey, I'm the one on camera saying those lines."

[Temujin]

I don't think so. According to his IMDB page, he had quite a bit of movie and TV experience before Star Wars.

[Tsyroc]

I thought I remembered reading that Prowse was offered a choice between the parts of Vader or Chewbacca and decided on Vader because, at the time, it was expected that his face would be visible at least part of the time. IIRC, Vader's helmet was originally supposed to be part of his uniform only when he was boarding ships and there was a risk that atmospheric containment would be lost.

I don't think Prowse sounded that bad. Clearly not as good as James Earl Jones but his voice would have probably been okay if we weren't all so used to JEJ's voice. I doubt the character would have seemed as menacing nor would he have been as popular as he turned out to be with JEJ's voice.

[Temujin]

Your right. Listening to it again, its not a bad voice, it just lacks that iconic sound we've come to know and love. For a moment I thought with a Scottish accent he might have been able to do Destro, but even Destro's voice was darker and deeper in the cartoons (Haven't seen the movie so I don't know how well Eccleston sounded).

This video has the whole seen Elfdart posted where JEJ talks about doing Vader. JEJ's part starts 5:47.

[TC Pilot]

I agree Prowse would have been an acceptable choice. I'd say those clips are misleading, since those are just unedited stage clips. Put JEJ's muffled voice without the breathing and mechanical tinge, with annoying background noises and whatnot and I bet he'd sound pretty crappy too. Case in pont, just listen to Anthony Daniels a minute later.

[Havok]

Sorry, but the voice of all encompassing dark hatred and evil was never gonna be Scottish.

[2000AD]

Sorry, but the voice of all encompassing dark hatred and evil was never gonna be Scottish.

It never was, that's a west country accent not Scottish. Darth Vader has been at the cider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUBMBi_lp4

[Elfdart]

Sorry, but the voice of all encompassing dark hatred and evil was never gonna be Scottish.

Why not? Ian McDiarmid did it.

[Elfdart]

It never was, that's a west country accent not Scottish. Darth Vader has been at the cider.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUBMBi_lp4

Prowse is overdubbed in that ad, too.

[Havok]

Sorry, but the voice of all encompassing dark hatred and evil was never gonna be Scottish.

Why not? Ian McDiarmid did it.

Ian McDiarmid doesn't sound like Dark Helmet. Prowe's tone is too high. He doesn't sound the least bit intimidating.

[Kurgan]

So they banned him from ALL conventions and cast reunions for some comment he made 30 years ago?

Considering most of the cast members are known primarily for their attachment to Star Wars (and thus those events are pretty important to them today), that seems a little extreme to me, like it's a personal feud (see Shatner and Takei).