Remember how you felt as a kid the first time you saw Darth Vader walk onto that Rebel spaceship in Star Wars? Ewan McGregor does. And when he actually had to act opposite Vader in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi television show, all those memories of childhood terror came flooding back.
In an interview with Total Film, McGregor revealed that he never worked with Vader — or at least Vader in his full costume — on the Star Wars prequels. “I’d never acted into Vader’s helmet,” McGregor explained. “I’d never looked him in the eye.”
“When we came to do the scene, when they shouted ‘action’, he had to come from behind me,” McGregor continued. “I turned around, and f—ing Darth Vader was coming at me. It was like I was six again.”
And how did he feel, reverting back to childhood only to be confronted by this menacing figure? “It scared the s— out of me,” McGregor laughed, before adding:
I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not acting. That’s real. I’m really, truly frightened right now.’ And the same thing would happen with the Stormtroopers. I’d worked with Clone troopers before, but so many of them were CGI. I never worked with Stormtroopers, and, again, I was like seven years old again. Because when you’re actually faced with a Stormtrooper, with a blaster, it’s like: ‘F—ing hell.’
It’ll be fun to watch this scene in the context of the Obi-Wan Kenobi show next month and see just how scared McGregor really looks. Do you think we’ll be able to recognize the moment when the true horror really hits him? Will it look any different to any other reaction to Vader on the show? We’ll see.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on May 27 on Disney+.
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