Did Sir Alec Guinness really hate Star Wars? 'Oh crumbs, this is simply not for me'

Sir Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas's original trilogy, hated Star Wars — didn't he?

Well, I've always thought he did, and the movie legend was famously horrified when a 12-year-old boy told him he’d watched him in Star Wars over 100 times. Guinness asked the boy to promise him that he would never watch it again. The boy burst into tears!

However, looking back at an interview from 1977, the year Star Wars was released, the actor gave to British interviewer Michael Parkinson, Guinness actually speaks of how he couldn't stop reading the script despite the "ropey dialogue". And also how much he respected the film's young director, George Lucas.

Asked by Parkinson how ended he up in a sci-fi movie, Guinness recalled: "Well it had arrived as a script, I was just finishing a picture in Hollywood, another day to go and the 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 respect worthy young director.

“And then when I opened it and found it was science fiction, I thought, 'Oh crumbs, this is simply not for me'. And then I started reading it, and it seemed to be the dialogue was pretty ropey, but I had to go on turning the page. 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. And I went on reading and I thought, ’No, I like this, if only we can get some of the dialogue altered'.

"And then I met him [Lucas]. We got on very well and I found myself doing it, that’s all."

How much cut of the profits of Star Wars did Guinness get?

Interestingly, in the same interview, Guinness also spoke about the legendary cut he got of the movie's vast profits.

“My agent said 'I've asked for two per cent' [of the profits], because we never thought it would make any [money]. I've had a percentage on a film before, and they lose money like mad if I have a percentage.

"And I said, ‘Fine, all right, two per cent'. And the day before the film opened in San Francisco, George Lucas phoned me and said — again, he's like [the English playwright] Alan Bennett, he's very diffident and very shy and quiet. He's got a funny little voice.

"And he said, 'I think the movie is kind of going to be all right'. I said, ‘I'm glad George’. He said 'the press quite like it'. I said: ‘Good’. He said, 'We’re very grateful for the little alterations you suggested, so we’d like to offer you another half per cent by making it two and a half'. I said, ’That’s marvellous, thank you very much.’

But Guinness went on to explain that shortly after watching the finished movie for the once and possibly only time, he spoke to a producer about his bonus half a per cent, and the producer replied it was a quarter per cent! So he ended up getting two and a quarter per cent, still not bad!

Did Guinness grow to hate Star Wars?

So, we’ve established that in 1977, Guinness certainly didn’t hate Star Wars. It appears that what actually happened is that Guinness grew to believe it had simply become too successful and had too much influence.

He wrote in his book "A Positively Final Appearance": "A refurbished Star Wars is on somewhere or everywhere. I have no intention of revisiting any galaxy. I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned. Twenty years ago, when the film was first shown, it had a freshness, also a sense of moral good and fun. Then I began to be uneasy at the influence it might be having.”

He then went on to tell the story of how he reduced the boy to tears when he made him promise not to watch Star Wars again.

It must have been galling for Guinness, one of the greatest actors Britain has ever produced, to have so many people know him mainly just for playing Obi-Wan.

But, no, it’s clear he didn’t hate the 1977 movie itself.