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Anthony Daniels: Star Wars Secrecy Is 'Ludicrous' And Plot Made Me ‘Glaze Over’

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Anthony Daniels has spoken out about the ‘ludicrous’ secrecy surrounding 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, and also how he 'glazed over’ when hearing the new movie’s plot.

In an interview with The Guardian, the outspoken C-3PO actor took the producers of the movie to task.

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“The secrecy has been beyond ludicrous,” he said.

“For heaven’s sake, it’s a movie. When I got the script, it was typed in black on paper of the deepest red so you couldn’t photocopy it.

“I got a hangover just reading it.”

The 69-year-old star added that he was also lambasted by Disney for mentioning that he had met a certain actor, who still remains nameless, while on set.

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“I said that I’d met so-and-so. An actor who plays a … thing in the film. A character,” he said.

“Immediately I received a message from Disney: ‘Remove the tweet! You’re not allowed to say that!’ Honestly. It’s a kind of Kremlin attitude.

“Look, I know perfectly well not to tell you now what I’m giving you for a Christmas present because it would spoil the surprise. And these films are all about opening the box on Christmas Day.”

“There was none of this paranoia [with the original movie] because it was a daft little film and no one cared,” he added.

Daniels also had some rather frank comments to make about the new movie too.

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On being told the plot, he said: “The screenplay was very good as far as C-3PO was concerned, but I had no idea what was going on in the rest of it. Still don’t.

“When JJ told me the story of the new one, my eyes sort of glazed over.”

However, he does seem pleased – to a point – with director’s decision to use practical effects over previous helmsman George Lucas’s latter reliance on digital.

“It became clear early on that with JJ we were getting back to the old-fashioned kind of film-making. We have walls. Actual sets! All right, so you might not have a view out of the window, but you have a window,” he said.

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Daniels was conducting the interview to help promote a new Star Wars encyclopaedia to which he’s written the foreword.

And while he was warned not to venture too much into The Force Awakens territory during the interview, he still had something to say about the prequels.

“Ah, the prequels,” said Daniels. “Hmm. I turned one on the other night. Sky seems to have devoted a whole channel to them.

“The effects are clever but pointless. The skill is there, but so what? Coldness, that’s the word. Bleakness, even.”

Ouch.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens lands on December 18.

Image credits: AP/Getty/Reuters