Alec Guinness, who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars Trilogy, is known for not liking Star Wars, as seen here
Here are some quotes from Guinness.
- I have been offered a movie (20th Cent. Fox) which I may accept, if they come up with proper money. London and N. Africa, starting in mid-March. Science fiction – which gives me pause – but is to be directed by Paul [sic] Lucas who did "American Graffiti, which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish but could be interesting perhaps.
- ... new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper – and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable. I just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which will help me keep going until next April ... I must off to studio and work with a dwarf.
So, this post actually has several questions:
What in Guinness’s education and/or life would have led him to dislike Star Wars, its dialogue, and Sci-Fi in general?
Did most people of his age back then look down on Sci-Fi and Star Wars’ dialogue?
Were feelings like this common amongst his acting contemporaries and others he worked with such as David Lean or Peter O’Toole? If not, who back then would have agreed with Guinness on Star Wars?
Thanks in advance!
Honestly, I never really found this surprising. Guinness began his career as an accomplished stage actor, especially at the famed Old Vic. He did quite a bit of Shakespeare. Classy, sophisticated, highbrow stuff. Or snobbish, depending on your point of view.
He then went into film. As you hint at, he worked a lot with Lean, who is a giant, influential, and well-respected director. Among the films Guinness did under Lean are some stone cold classics of cinema. Lawerence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai, in particular, are very historically and artistically important films. Both are also popular with the "Film as Art" crowd. For Bridge, he was given an Academy Award. Much like his career on stage, then, Guinness's pre Obi-wan film career was populated by respectable, artistic, classy stuff.
Then along comes Star Wars. Science fiction has not always been as popular or as "cool" as it is nowadays; there was once upon a time a real stigma attached to these sorts of things. At any rate, it certainly wasn't up to the high class standards of Guinness's stage work or Lean films. That an actor who did Shakespeare at the Old Vic and appeared in some of the artistic masterpieces of cinema did not relish the idea of appearing in a sci-fi fable isn't all that surprising. If anything, it is surprising that he took the gig.
Now think about after the film comes out and is an epoch defining success. You still have the same artistic credentials behind you. By all rights, you are artistic royalty in acting circles, closer to figures like O'Toole and Welles than to Errol Flynn or Adam West. But suddenly seemingly everyone on the planet is coming up to you on the street calling you Ben and asking for an autograph. Most of them aren't really familiar with your earlier work, but they've seen Star Wars three times. Somehow, someway, you've wound up best known as an elderly space wizard. I think we can forgive Guinness for being a tad bitter at winding up better known for reciting Lucas's dialogue about sand people rather than for his earlier work on stage and film, which he considered to be of far better quality.