This Hollywood star, an Oscar winner, was not fond of his most famous role, one that earned him $95 million for a few days’ work.
Imagine a $95-million paycheck for what amounts to just a few days of work in a film, translating to only 20 minutes of screen time. Most actors would give an arm and a leg for such a gig. But almost 50 years ago, when one man got this, he was so turned off by the film that he almost rejected the sequel and came back only for the director’s sake. This is the story of a thespian who became a reluctant pop culture icon.
The actor who earned $95 million for a 20-minute role
By the mid-1970s, British actor Alec Guinness was a respected name in Hollywood and the UK. He had made a name for himself with acclaimed films like Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, The Lavender Hill Mob, and Great Expectations. He won the Oscar for Best Actor for Bridge on the River Kwai and later appeared in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. Years after this, George Lucas contacted him to play a Merlin-like mentor character in a space opera he was making. He was offered $150,000 for the role but the actor demanded twice that, along with 2% of the backend grosses. Director George Lucas threw in another .25% as a goodwill gesture.
The film was Star Wars, and the role was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Even though the character appeared for only 20 minutes in the film, it became a pop culture phenomenon, eventually becoming the role the Oscar winner would be known for. The profit-sharing agreement turned out to be a game changer for Guinness, as the franchise earned several billion over the next five decades, earning Guinness a staggering $95 million by his death in 2000.
Why Alec Guinness didn’t like Star Wars initially
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alec Guinness was not sold on Star Wars when he first read the script and only agreed to do the film because of the money. Privately, he had dismissed the script to friends as “fairy tale rubbish”, and was convinced he did not want to return to the character again. Later, he wrote in his diary that working on the film was ‘dull rubbishy stuff’.
However, once the film succeeded, the actor felt that he owed it to George Lucas to return and let him complete his character’s arc. “I said yes to a day’s work on Star Wars II … It’s dull rubbishy stuff but, seeing what I owe to George Lucas, I finally hadn’t had the heart to refuse,” Guinness wrote a week after agreeing to act in The Empire Strikes Back in 1979. His character, Obi-Wan, was killed in the film. It was later revived in the prequel trilogy and played by Ewan McGregor. Obi-wan eventually starred in his own web series, titled Kenobi, which premiered on Disney+ this year with Ewan McGregor returning to the role. Funnily enough, Alec Guinness earned more for his 20-minute appearance over two movies than McGregor did over three films and a series.
