James Fishlock

Alec Guinness on how he nearly turned down Star Wars: When asked how he came to be involved in a science fiction film, Guinness revealed his first reaction was far from enthusiastic. "A script arrived on my dressing table. And I heard that it had been delivered by George Lucas and I thought, well, that's rather impressive because he's an up-and-coming and very respected young director. So, and then when I opened it and found it was science fiction, I thought, 'Oh crumbs,' you know, 'this is simply not for me.'" But something kept him reading: "I started reading. And it seemed to me the dialogue was pretty ropey. Uh, but I had to go on turning the page and I mean that's an essential in any script. You've got to know what happens next or what's going to be said next." He eventually met Lucas, they got on well, and he signed on. Then came the contract negotiation that would become legendary. Guinness had never taken a percentage on a film before because, in his words, films "lose money like mad" when he takes a percentage. His agent suggested 2%. He agreed, expecting nothing. The day before Star Wars opened in San Francisco, Lucas called him personally: "He said, 'I think the movie is kind of going to be all right.' I said, 'I'm glad, George.' He said, 'Yeah, the press quite like it.' I said, 'Good.' He said, 'We're pleased with, you know, very grateful for little alterations you suggested, and so we'd like to offer you another half percent.'" Guinness thought he had 2.5%. But when he later asked the producer to put the offer in writing, he discovered the half-percent had quietly become a quarter-percent. He ended up with 2.25%. On why he thinks the film connected so deeply with audiences, Guinness offered a simple diagnosis: "A marvelous healthy innocence. Great pace, wonderful to look at, full of guts, nothing unpleasant. I mean, people go bang bang and people fall over and are dead. But, you know, no horrors, no sleazy sex… a sort of wonderful freshness about it, a kind of like a wonderful fresh air." He added that when he walked out of the cinema onto Tottenham Court Road, the real world suddenly felt "awfully sort of gritty and dirty and full of rubbish." It was, he said, "one of the few movies I've come out of recently where I really felt happy and uplifted." His warning to anyone looking for deeper meaning in it: "People are going to read too much into it. It's a simple, simple stuff for all ages." Though the letters he was already receiving suggested the reading-too-much-into-it had begun. One couple wrote asking if he'd come live with them for a few months to help fix their marriage.