Star Wars Star Ian McDiarmid Details Being Cast As Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious

Star Wars has one undisputed Emperor of Evil, and while the character was played perfectly in every single iteration, the iconic actor behind the role almost didn’t get the chance to show George Lucas what he could do.

Star Wars has produced a ton of memorable characters, but the franchise’s real greatest presences come from its villains. With antagonists as wildly different in scale and scope as Darth Vader and Cad Bane, the franchise’s undisputed best of the worst is Sheev Palpatine, a character that is still spoken of as equal to the best Star Wars heroes to this day. The character was first seen in the original film series as a hooded figure, who would finally make his horrifying visage known at the climax of the trilogy. The role would be taken on by the immensely talented Ian McDiarmid, who brought the character to life perfectly.

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Thanks to that first stellar performance and the convenient time gap between them and the originals, McDiarmid would then reprise the role (sans the macabre makeup) in the prequel trilogy. Palpatine would even return in The Rise Of Skywalker, giving McDiarmid the honor of appearing in all three mainline Star Wars trilogies in the flesh. Despite this iconic run as the franchise’s biggest bad, the role almost didn’t go to McDiarmid, and the actor has recounted the hilarious reason he was given a chance. In a recent piece by Collider, fans get to see how the iconic actor, who thought the idea of him being the Emperor was surreal, snagged the already-cast role thanks to someone else’s misfortune and the production’s limited budget. McDiarmid, then in his 30s, revealed that the role had already been cast with a much older actor getting the nod, but that hit a snag when it came time for the other actor to don the Emperor’s iconic Sith eyes via contact lenses.

Thanks to this unfortunate issue, McDiarmid was given the chance to audition, and his success was followed by another hilarious happening. “As I was leaving and just going out the door, George said, ‘Oh, by the way, great nose.’ I thought that was an unusual thing to say, but then I thought maybe that’s a good sign. Maybe they need a great nose,” McDiarmid recalled. “That was about the only part of my face that was actually left. And, of course, it peeked out rather nicely from below that black hood. Presumably, they were going to give you a prosthetic one if it hadn’t, but they got it for free.” Lucas and company were likely happy to get the right sort of nose for free, but fans have been the biggest benefactors of McDiarmid getting that opportunity. In addition to being a perfect Palpatine across the films, he’s also been a great asset to the franchise, with the Star Wars legend even weighing in on the Palpatine vs Mace Windu debate and coming in to reprise his role as a voice actor for animated projects.

McDiarmid is irreplaceable as Palpatine, and while everything from his casting as the Emperor to his most iconic combat feat in the Star Wars prequels started out as happy accidents, there’s no doubt that they were for the greater good. With the franchise moving on to new things, fans likely won’t be seeing him in future projects, but he’s left an indelible mark on everyone that’s ever seen these films, and he’ll keep on having that effect on viewers so long as interest in the franchise is still alive and kicking.

The Star Wars franchise is available to stream on Disney+.

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Source: Collider