Liam Neeson talks about the Star Wars fandom: “It is a cult”
By Dan Selcke
Liam Neeson famously played Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the first film in George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. He was only in one movie, but when the movie is that big, people are going to associate you with it for the rest of your life.
As Liam Neeson revealed on a new episode of Conan O’Brien’s podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Neeson is still very much approached at airports and the like and asked for autographs. Often there’s a child involved, but it’s clear that the dad or the grandfather is the one who really wants the autograph. “They become 11 year olds,” Neeson said.
That’s not surprising, I guess. What kid wants an autograph? It’s all about selfies now.
Neeson Liam thinks that Disney is “diluting” the Star Wars franchise
Talking about the fandom, Neeson put it bluntly: “It is a cult.” Welcome to the wide world of media franchises. With Star Wars in particular, Neeson thinks it’s doing too much too quickly. “There’s so many movies and spin-offs, and I think, you’re diluting the whole thing. I think. That’s my personal thing.” I mean, between The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor and now Ahsoka, he may have a point.
That said, Star Wars was a major franchise long before this new crop of shows came around, although there was definitely more buzz around The Phantom Menance than there is for, say, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, an upcoming Disney+ show you may have never heard of.
Speaking of The Phantom Menace, Neeson told a pretty funny story about how when he Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) first had to use lightsabers, they started making the whoosh-swoosh noises with their mouths. “George said, ‘Let’s cut there; boys, we can add that in later.'”
In general, Neeson doesn’t seem too enthused about the brave new world of filmmaking where everyone is acting opposite CGI creatures who are added in later. He also told a story about playing a scene opposite Watto, the flying insectoid junk dealer from the prequel trilogy. As one crew member told him, by the time the scene was done, “You could be a monkey smoking a pipe, no one is going to be looking at you.”
On the prequel films, Lucas infamously went full green screen for pretty much everything. Ironically, sets may have become a little more immersive since then, with technologies like the Volume making it easier for actors to put themselves into a scene. But with technology advancing all the time, who knows where it will be tomorrow?
Next. Star Wars: Ahsoka speeds through Episode 3 (at least the ships were cool). dark
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h/t Gamespot