Fandom rambles + Days 8 & 9
Oh look, I missed another day. Gasp, shock.
I recently amused myself by watching some of the interviews with the original Power Trio. You know, there a lot of reasons to love the original trilogy, but one that occurred to me as I watched these was that you could be a fan on ... both sides of the Fourth Wall, as it were. I mean, on the one hand, there's Vader and Leia and Luke and Han, who are all these amazing epic characters, but also it kind of makes me fangirl the production itself, from the actors to the directors to the special effects people to young!George Lucas and his editors. (Those last two are totally my SW OTP.)
Anyway, I loved the interviews, and particularly the ones with the original Power Trio. One of my favourites was from right after Star Wars itself came out and became this mega-blockbuster. As far as I remember, it went something like this:
INTERVIEWER: *after like five minutes of talking about nothing in particular, 'cause it's the 70s and you can do that* Aaaaaaand we've got the stars of the brand new blockbuster, Star Wars!
*enter MARK HAMILL, CARRIE FISHER, and HARRISON FORD, all under the age of thirty-five*
AUDIENCE: *explodes*
*MARK is somehow at the height of his bishonen phase, despite wearing plaid, CARRIE is to all appearances five years younger than she was in the film itself, and HARRISON FORD is Harrison Ford, only younger.*
INTERVIEWER: blah blah blah *turns to MH* Wow, I feel like I should be writing you an absent note to give you to your teacher.
(Okay, it's not just me. Phew.)
MH, dutifully: Ha.
INTERVIEWER: blah blah blah So, did any of you realise what you were getting into when you signed on? Did you know that Star Wars was going to be this kind of hit?
HF: Ah...
MH: Um...
CF: LOL NO
INTERVIEWER: So, will you get better pay for the sequels?
HF: No, we signed on for all of them. We get the same for each film.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I hope it's a lot!
HF: Ah ... we've been treated very well. We're quite happy.
INTERVIEWER: You must have been thrilled to get the parts.
CF: Um...
HF: Sure. I mean...
MH: Well, yes. I was tired of constantly being typecast as a villain.
(... AHAHAHAHAHA.)
(On second thought, it's actually ... okay, he managed to avoid getting typecast as a villain by getting typecast as Luke Skywalker, and only got out of that by getting typecast as the Joker. So, basically, he ended up exactly where he started, only with voice work. This would be incredibly depressing, except that a world without Mark Hamill's Joker would be even more depressing.)
INTERVIEWER: You do usually play villains, don't you? That's -- *looks at him* strange.
MH: Not really. I mostly do television work, and most of the time they want someone who looks like ...
*awkward pause*
... not a villain.
The other one was some time after ESB -- I think the actors were starting to film ROTJ. It was long and slow and Carrie Fisher was high as a kite, but there was one hilarious-in-retrospect bit, which went something like this:
INTERVIEWER: So, can anyone tell me which of you Princess Leia ends up with?
CF: Uhhhh...
HF: No.
INTERVIEWER: *disappointed face*
MH: Well, no, that would be like ... telling my sister what I'm getting her from Christmas. It'd ruin the surprise, see?
INTERVIEWER: I guess so.
CF: *giggles maniacally*
HF: Heh.
<3
So, Day 8: Which is your favourite movie?
Empire Strikes Back. Duh.
Okay, apparently there are actually people who like Jedi better, but ... well, I guess I can get subjectively enjoying it more. It's more upbeat, and it's about our heroes triumphing as opposed to getting their asses kicked, and even I have to admit that all four main character get what are arguably their best moments -- Anakin is redeemed, Luke and Leia have too many to count, and Han is no longer vaguely predatory. Yay!
However, I don't really get how anyone can consider it a better film. I gather that these people exist, but I don't get it. It's like people who argue that Sense and Sensibility is better than Mansfield Field or Pride and Prejudice. I just don't understand.
However, my best friend and I indulged our geeky sides (as if we have another side) and argued the relative merits of the films -- our voices each went up an octave when (1) he argued that ROTJ, Ewoks and all, is as good as ESB, and (2) I argued that ANH is as good as ROTJ and that TPM is not the worst SW film ever created, as-always-not-counting-the-holiday-special.
It's good to be a geek.
Day 9: Who is your favourite movie character?
Um, I'm a purist. See Day 1.
I recently amused myself by watching some of the interviews with the original Power Trio. You know, there a lot of reasons to love the original trilogy, but one that occurred to me as I watched these was that you could be a fan on ... both sides of the Fourth Wall, as it were. I mean, on the one hand, there's Vader and Leia and Luke and Han, who are all these amazing epic characters, but also it kind of makes me fangirl the production itself, from the actors to the directors to the special effects people to young!George Lucas and his editors. (Those last two are totally my SW OTP.)
Anyway, I loved the interviews, and particularly the ones with the original Power Trio. One of my favourites was from right after Star Wars itself came out and became this mega-blockbuster. As far as I remember, it went something like this:
INTERVIEWER: *after like five minutes of talking about nothing in particular, 'cause it's the 70s and you can do that* Aaaaaaand we've got the stars of the brand new blockbuster, Star Wars!
*enter MARK HAMILL, CARRIE FISHER, and HARRISON FORD, all under the age of thirty-five*
AUDIENCE: *explodes*
*MARK is somehow at the height of his bishonen phase, despite wearing plaid, CARRIE is to all appearances five years younger than she was in the film itself, and HARRISON FORD is Harrison Ford, only younger.*
INTERVIEWER: blah blah blah *turns to MH* Wow, I feel like I should be writing you an absent note to give you to your teacher.
(Okay, it's not just me. Phew.)
MH, dutifully: Ha.
INTERVIEWER: blah blah blah So, did any of you realise what you were getting into when you signed on? Did you know that Star Wars was going to be this kind of hit?
HF: Ah...
MH: Um...
CF: LOL NO
INTERVIEWER: So, will you get better pay for the sequels?
HF: No, we signed on for all of them. We get the same for each film.
INTERVIEWER: Well, I hope it's a lot!
HF: Ah ... we've been treated very well. We're quite happy.
INTERVIEWER: You must have been thrilled to get the parts.
CF: Um...
HF: Sure. I mean...
MH: Well, yes. I was tired of constantly being typecast as a villain.
(... AHAHAHAHAHA.)
(On second thought, it's actually ... okay, he managed to avoid getting typecast as a villain by getting typecast as Luke Skywalker, and only got out of that by getting typecast as the Joker. So, basically, he ended up exactly where he started, only with voice work. This would be incredibly depressing, except that a world without Mark Hamill's Joker would be even more depressing.)
INTERVIEWER: You do usually play villains, don't you? That's -- *looks at him* strange.
MH: Not really. I mostly do television work, and most of the time they want someone who looks like ...
*awkward pause*
... not a villain.
The other one was some time after ESB -- I think the actors were starting to film ROTJ. It was long and slow and Carrie Fisher was high as a kite, but there was one hilarious-in-retrospect bit, which went something like this:
INTERVIEWER: So, can anyone tell me which of you Princess Leia ends up with?
CF: Uhhhh...
HF: No.
INTERVIEWER: *disappointed face*
MH: Well, no, that would be like ... telling my sister what I'm getting her from Christmas. It'd ruin the surprise, see?
INTERVIEWER: I guess so.
CF: *giggles maniacally*
HF: Heh.
<3
So, Day 8: Which is your favourite movie?
Empire Strikes Back. Duh.
Okay, apparently there are actually people who like Jedi better, but ... well, I guess I can get subjectively enjoying it more. It's more upbeat, and it's about our heroes triumphing as opposed to getting their asses kicked, and even I have to admit that all four main character get what are arguably their best moments -- Anakin is redeemed, Luke and Leia have too many to count, and Han is no longer vaguely predatory. Yay!
However, I don't really get how anyone can consider it a better film. I gather that these people exist, but I don't get it. It's like people who argue that Sense and Sensibility is better than Mansfield Field or Pride and Prejudice. I just don't understand.
However, my best friend and I indulged our geeky sides (as if we have another side) and argued the relative merits of the films -- our voices each went up an octave when (1) he argued that ROTJ, Ewoks and all, is as good as ESB, and (2) I argued that ANH is as good as ROTJ and that TPM is not the worst SW film ever created, as-always-not-counting-the-holiday-special.
It's good to be a geek.
Day 9: Who is your favourite movie character?
Um, I'm a purist. See Day 1.