Vader voice talks ‘Star Wars’
Actor James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, answered some questions about “Star Wars” during a recent guest lecture to honour Martin Luther King Jr., in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
In an audio clip of the lecture’s question and answer period, posted on TheForce.net, Jones is asked why he devoted only one paragraph of his autobiography to “Star Wars.” Jones responds: “There is not much to say. I was just a special effect.”
Jones also explained that he was ultimately chosen for the famous part because David Prowse, the actor behind Vader’s mask, had a tenor voice, but George Lucas wanted the character to be a baritone.
“He [Lucas] thought of using Orsen Welles but then had second thoughts that Orsen Welles might be too recognizable. So, he picks a guy who stutters and was born in Mississippi,” Jones joked.
Jones’s booming voice will grace theatres once again during “Star Wars: Episode III.” “I talked to George [Lucas] not too long ago and he only asked me to do the voicing for about five minutes, after Anakin Skywalker falls into a volcano and becomes bionic,” Jones said, leaking a potentially important bit of the plot.
“Star Wars: Episode III” will begin filming this summer in Sydney, Australia, and is expected to be released in 2005.
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