Marvel Actor Recalls Why He Failed Star Wars Audition Over 2 Decades Ago

A veteran English actor, whose career spans over four decades and includes Marvel projects as well as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg movies, recently revealed why he couldn’t portray the father of Natalie Portman‘s Padmé Amidala in Star Wars. Ray Winstone, 68, has played George “Mac” McHale in Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Arnold French in Scorsese’s The Departed, and Dreykov in the Marvel feature Black Widow. However, he failed the audition to be cast in Star Wars.

Ray Winstone on why he failed audition to play Padmé Amidala’s father in Star Wars

Winstone revealed during an interview with Far Out that he didn’t land the role of Padmé Amidala’s father because he was drunk. “I was pissed anyway,” he said. “I’d been out all night, and I turned up, and I knew I was wrong for the part as soon as I walked in, but instead of saying that, he [George Lucas] relayed the message to me through someone else, and I took umbrage at that.”

In a previous interview, Winstone mentioned meeting Lucas in a hotel in the West End. He concluded that Lucas must be jet-lagged because he was yawning during the interaction. Winstone also remembered that Lucas didn’t greet him when he walked in or make small talk. He recalled saying to the filmmaker, “Why don’t we both have a 15-minute sleep and then I’ll f— off,” before adding that films like that would have bored “a— off” due to the involvement of the blue screen in production. (via Star Wars Aficionado)

Interestingly, Winstone has since been part of several projects that have heavily used special effects and blue screen, including Black Widow.

Ultimately, Winstone and Lucas worked together on the above-mentioned Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. “I’ve worked for George since, and he was fine,” Winstone told Far Out. “He didn’t remember. Or if he did, he didn’t take it to heart.”

Actor Graeme Blundell ended up portraying Padmé’s father, Ruwee Naberrie, in 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net