One Star Wars actor is conflicted over his part in the iconic universe. In comments that will surely ruffle the fandom’s feathers, one of the stars of the divisive prequels has called out creator and director George Lucas for falsely hyping up his role in the franchise…and for paying “s***” money while doing so.
Joining the beloved series as the voice of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Peter Serafinowicz has now said that role was a huge disappointment. Serafinowicz recalled the first time he saw Darth Maul onscreen, and he has some very strong opinions, explaining that he had a “different” Darth Maul in mind while making the movie. He revealed during the recent Classic Clown podcast episode:
“It was weird. This character Darth Maul… I don’t know what I thought. The design of it… I wasn’t that into it. When I saw the film it was the biggest disappointment of my life at that point. It really was. I mean, have you seen it? It was so exciting that even being in it… doing this thing, what I thought would be this iconic thing. Just unimaginable. I guess it sort of is [iconic]. I suppose.”
Serafinowicz said George Lucas also teased how Darth Maul’s voice would be as iconic as Darth Vader’s, which he thought was an offhand comment. “James Earl Jones has got the best voice of any human ever, right?” he said. “Then, suddenly there I was with George Lucas, and he was like saying, ‘Well, Peter, you’re the new James Earl Jones,’ and I was like, ‘F***ing hell, am I? Then why are you paying me such s*** money, George?”
Designed by concept artist Iain McCaig, Darth Maul arguably has one of the most arresting looks in Star Wars. McCaig said he struggled with the character, especially because George Lucas did not give any design notes. “George just came up and said, ‘Darth Maul, he’s our new Sith Lord,’ and he walked away,” he told StarWars.com. “I didn’t know if Maul was male or female, an alien, anything.”
McCaig said he tried to model Darth Maul after Darth Vader, the only Sith Lord they knew at that point. They tried to “out-helmet” Darth Vader’s design, but that didn’t work. McCaig eventually tried a “circuit board” pattern, and later simplified that to tattoos, which are now Darth Maul’s defining features. It took Ray Park, who physically played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, three hours each day on the makeup chair to become the Sith Lord. Clearly, Serafinowicz was not impressed with these efforts.
Serafinowicz criticized Darth Maul’s design in retrospect, but he did acknowledge that the character is now iconic. Darth Maul has appeared in two Star Wars live-action films and three animated TV shows, becoming one of the franchise’s most rounded, most endearing villains. While Serafinowicz was initially brought back for 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, voice actor Sam Witwer took over the role after The Phantom Menace, and ultimately played the part in the Han Solo spin-off as well to maintain continuity.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
