Harrison Ford held nothing back when it came to George Lucas' ropey dialogue.
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00:00The Star Wars franchise is such a colossal behemoth with so many moving parts that actors
00:05surely can't expect to have too much input on the creative side of things. Inspired by a recent
00:10Reddit thread on the subject, these Star Wars actors all decided to fix scenes they couldn't
00:14stand during shooting. Sometimes all it took was speaking to the director, while other times it
00:19required employing considerably great attack. With that in mind, I'm Adam from WhatCulture,
00:24and here are 10 ways Star Wars actors fixed scenes they hated.
00:2910. Mark Hamill wore the Vader mask because he hated the prop head, The Empire Strikes Back.
00:36In The Empire Strikes Back's iconic dark side cape scene, Luke Skywalker has a vision of
00:41being attacked by Darth Vader, but when Luke decapitates him with a lightsaber, he sees
00:45his own head staring back at him inside Vader's destroyed mask. It's a chilling, brilliantly
00:50executed scene, but one which wasn't quite coming together for Mark Hamill during shooting.
00:55Originally, a prosthetic of Luke's head was going to be placed within Vader's mask for
00:59the shot of Luke's face staring up, but Hamill was dissatisfied with the quality of
01:03the prop. And so, the scene was reshot with Hamill simply poking his head up from underneath
01:08the set stage and into the Vader mask, ensuring Luke's decapitated head looked considerably
01:13more realistic. Not being a prop and all. This scene proves yet again that the simplest solution
01:18is often the right one. No fancy effects needed, just a guy shoving his head through a hole in
01:24the set. On Twitter, however, Hamill added that shooting the scene this way did present
01:29an additional challenge, trying not to blink when smoke wafted across his face.
01:339. Tim Rose refused to have Admiral Ackbar celebrate the Empire's defeat, Return of the
01:39Jedi. Return of the Jedi, of course, ends with the destruction of the second Death Star, and
01:44all the rebels around the galaxy euphorically celebrating their victory over the Empire.
01:49But Tim Rose, the puppeteer who portrayed Admiral Ackbar on set, objected to a request
01:54from director Richard Marquand that he and the other Mon Calamari characters on board his
01:59ship dance around and celebrate following the victory. Rose strongly felt that Ackbar would
02:05react in a more solemn fashion to the Empire's defeat, and so refused to perform the scene as
02:10Marquand requested. In a 2019 interview, Rose said,
02:13I was at the stage where I came within 200 numbers of being drafted for Vietnam, so I had
02:18very strong views about the war at the time. While I think it's something to be proud of,
02:23but not something to celebrate, there's a big difference. So in Ackbar's last scene,
02:28they put the camera on him. I thought about our people who died, their people who died,
02:32and the weight of it sunk me down in the chair. And Marquand got really angry and said,
02:37right, we're going to do this again, and this time you get up and dance around.
02:41I said, if you want Ackbar to dance around, you can put someone else in the suit. You've got my
02:46performance. And they left it in. Rose was absolutely right here. Seeing Ackbar slumped
02:51down in his chair is infinitely more suitable and impactful than watching him do a jig around his
02:56ship. Number 8. Carrie Fisher spoke her least favourite line of dialogue in an English accent,
03:02A New Hope. Sometimes actors resort to desperate measures in an attempt to
03:07fix a scene they can't stand. And that was most certainly the case with Carrie Fisher when she
03:12filmed A New Hope's iconic holographic recording of Princess Leia. In a panel discussion shortly
03:17before her death, Fisher confirmed that she absolutely loathed one particular line from
03:22this sequence, when Leia says, I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion
03:27into the memory systems of this R2 unit. Fisher's frustration with the clunky, unnatural-sounding
03:33dialogue prompted her to perform it in an English accent, because she felt that it wouldn't
03:38sound right coming from an American tongue. Now, did Fisher really fix the dialogue, given
03:43that fans routinely point out how jarring Leia's English accent is in the film's establishing
03:48scenes? Probably not. But she at least tried to do something to make it fit better, even
03:52if it ultimately didn't work out. Hilariously, Fisher also admitted that this single scene is
03:58what prompted her to embark on a second career as a Hollywood script doctor after the end
04:02of the original trilogy, working for many years polishing scripts of some of the biggest
04:07movies of the 1990s.
04:107. Mark Hamill had Luke wink at C-3PO, rather than ignore him, The Last Jedi
04:16Mark Hamill had made it incredibly clear that he didn't fully agree with the creative direction
04:21for Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, yet nevertheless gave himself over to Rian Johnson's expectation
04:27subverting vision. For the most part, anyway.
04:30Hamill did pipe up, however, while shooting his reunion with Leia, R2-D2 and C-3PO, because
04:36as written, Luke didn't acknowledge C-3PO at all. Hamill felt strongly that Luke wouldn't
04:41ignore him, and so insisted to Johnson that he get a brief moment with the droid. In his
04:46own words, initially, I didn't acknowledge 3PO. I walked right past him. I said, Ryan,
04:52look, after all those years of service, even though we haven't been in contact in recent
04:56years, 3PO was the closest to a sidekick I had. Harrison had Chewie, and I had R2 and
05:023PO. But he's so accommodating and so collaborative. He said, oh, absolutely, you should go over
05:08there. We didn't really have time to script anything just to acknowledge him, and that's
05:12what I did. And so, the scene ended with Luke giving 3PO a quick wink before moving on.
05:17It's a small addition, but one that ensured fans didn't cry foul that Luke straight up
05:22blanked his old buddy.
05:246. Donnie Yen Made Chirrut Less of a Stereotype, Rogue One
05:29Donnie Yen proved to be a scene stealer in Rogue One with his performance as blind Jedi Chirrut
05:34Imwi. Yet he initially had some serious misgivings with the character as written, and insisted that
05:39he make some major changes to Chirrut's characterisation. In an interview with GQ, Yen revealed that
05:45he told the filmmakers that Chirrut was written as a stereotype, a typical humourless martial
05:50arts master. Ultimately, he not only suggested that Chirrut be blind, but fought for him to
05:55get a sense of humour and even improvised jokes during shooting, such as the memorable line,
06:00Are you kidding me? I'm blind. Yen, an accomplished multi-hyphenate in his own right, insisted to
06:06director Gareth Edwards that he had far more to offer the film than merely acting, telling
06:10him, when you hire me, you're not just getting an actor, you're getting a choreographer,
06:15a director. And so, rather than simply grumble his way through an underwhelming part for the
06:20sake of a fat Disney paycheck, Yen spoke up and immeasurably improved the character, and
06:25in turn the film in the process.
06:285. Oscar Isaac Persuaded JJ Abrams to Scrap Poe's Death, The Force Awakens
06:34Originally, when Oscar Isaac signed up to play Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens, it
06:39was written to be a relatively small role, because Poe would be killed off at the end
06:43of the first act when he and Finn crash-landed on Jakku while fleeing the First Order.
06:48As excited as Isaac was to appear in a Star Wars movie, he wasn't terribly thrilled about
06:52being killed off so soon, especially after recently shooting four separate movies where
06:57he died early on. And so, Isaac made his reservations clear to Abrams, who around a week later told
07:03Isaac that they found a way to give Poe a stay of execution, ensuring he stuck around
07:08for the rest of the movie and ultimately the trilogy.
07:11If Poe felt like the lesser of the sequel trilogy's three heroic leads, it's probably
07:16because he wasn't originally supposed to be one at all.
07:204. Samuel L. Jackson Requested a Purple Lightsaber to Stand Out on Geonosis Attack of the Clones
07:27Samuel L. Jackson's time on the Star Wars prequels reached a fever pitch of frustration
07:31while shooting Attack of the Clones Battle of Geonosis, when Jackson realized that his
07:36character, Mace Windu, wouldn't stand out amid the chaos of the battle. And so, Jackson went
07:41directly to George Lucas and asked him if, to help him pop among the literally hundreds
07:46of characters in the scene, Windu could have a purple lightsaber. Though Lucas reminded him
07:50that Jedi lightsabers are typically only blue and green, Jackson retorted that he was playing
07:56the second baddest Jedi in the universe next to Yoda. Ultimately, that was that.
08:00But when Jackson was summoned back for reshoots, Lucas called him over and showed him footage of
08:05the battle where Windu was indeed rocking a purple lightsaber, much to his delight.
08:10Few actors would have had the confidence to make such a bold request of Lucas,
08:14let alone the clout to actually persuade him. Bravo, Jackson!
08:183. Mark Hamill Convinced George Lucas to Scrap an Awful Line of Dialogue, A New Hope
08:25It's no secret that A New Hope in particular has its fair share of ropey dialogue, but in one scene
08:30it eventually became too much for Mark Hamill, who convinced George Lucas to scrap the offending
08:35verbiage entirely. Shortly after the destruction of Alderaan, Luke and Han Solo were meant to have
08:41an exchange on the Millennium Falcon, where Han mentions that he's going to drop Luke and company
08:45off at the nearest asteroid, and Luke replies with the following word salad.
08:49But we can't turn back. Fear is their greatest defense.
08:52I doubt if the actual security there is is any greater than it was on Aguilay or Sullust,
08:57and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault.
09:00Hilariously, Hamill bluntly told Lucas what he thought of the dialogue. He said,
09:05Who talks like this, George? This is really not fair, because you know we're the ones who's
09:09going to get vegetables thrown at us, not you. And his appeal ultimately won out,
09:14as Lucas binned the cumbersome dialogue in favour of more plainly spoken chatter between the two.
09:19Praise be. 2. Harrison Ford Changed I Love You To
09:24I Know The Empire Strikes Back
09:26Now for what's by far the most famous of all on-the-fly changes made by frustrated Star Wars
09:32actors. At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, when Han is about to be frozen in carbonite,
09:37Leia tells him, I love you. And Han was richly scripted to say, I love you too. But Harrison
09:42Ford felt that it wasn't consistent with Han's established character for him to say this to Leia,
09:47and so improvised a more on-brand retort, with Han instead telling her, I know.
09:52This more aloof, distant response was absolutely better suited to Han's character,
09:57and remains both one of the character's defining moments,
10:00and one of the most memorable beats in the entire Star Wars franchise.
10:04Though Ford did shoot a version of the scene as scripted for safety's sake,
10:08when both versions were tested in front of an audience,
10:10it was clear that his improvised revision was the one to go with.
10:14And like that, cinematic history was made.
10:171. Ray Park Refused To Blink As Darth Maul, The Phantom Menace
10:22Sometimes actors just need to figure things out themselves when a scene isn't working for them.
10:27But in the case of Darth Maul actor Ray Park, it was pretty much the entire Phantom Menace shoot
10:32which caused him issues. The problem? The coloured red-yellow contact lenses he had to wear to portray the
10:38Sith Lord were extremely irritating, enough that they caused discomfort whenever he blinked.
10:43You know, the thing we do every couple of seconds.
10:46As a result, Park decided to blink as little as humanly possible while playing Maul,
10:51a flourish which was primarily for his own comfort on set,
10:54and yet ended up only enhancing the character's unnerving quality.
10:58As it turns out, Maul only blinks three times on screen during The Phantom Menace,
11:03which while underlining his overall creepiness, was largely Park trying to spare himself some
11:08ocular agony. For all of George Lucas' love of groundbreaking CGI in the prequels,
11:13could he really not spare Park the hassle and just colour his eyes in post?
11:18And there we have it folks, our list of Star Wars actors who fixed scenes they really hated.
11:23And please do let us know in the comments which scene you think they fixed for the better.
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11:37Thank you for watching everyone, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day,
11:40and until next time, may the force be with you.