SilverWook said:
The Starlog interview I remember from the 80's seemed pretty positive about the movie. I think there was even a little regret Tarkin couldn't be in the sequels.
I really need to dig out my old magazines and reread them sometime. Although I wish whoever owns the rights to Starlog would issue the whole run on a DVD-ROM or something.
What I'd really like to know is, why the heck didn't Kenner make a Tarkin figure back in the day? My Death Star playset collapsed into chaos without him! ;)
I think the reason behind no Tarkin figure may have had something to do with the drive to market the 'sell-able and sustainable action figures' characters. Action being the word. You have Vader, Luke, Han etc... because back then, they were the characters that they hoped would appeal to the 'young' audience and who would buy the merchandise. It's an odd way of thinking, especially when you look at the marketing behind the cinema posters, publicity campaign and the actual casting. Peter is fourth in the billing....and above AG!
As for Peter's thoughts on Star Wars, he always said that he enjoyed the experience. Through out his career he always expressed a desire to 'appear in films, that my audience would like to see me appear in'. He said that this had always been his rule of thumb. 'No one wants to see me in Shakespeare, but many want to see me as Baron Frankenstein...So that is the film I make!'
For Peter, Star Wars was exposure to a new audience of young people and children, who parents and grandparents also knew him from the BBC 50's television work (He won several major awards for his work during the mid 1950's) and 60's Hammer Films. Around this time he also appeared in other movies aimed at family entertainment audience: Arabian Adventure, At The Earth's Core.
Unfortunately, publicity in the press around the time of Star Wars, centered on the tragic story of Peter losing his wife, Helen. It was a trend that would seep into any interview from 1974 on wards. The 1978 WEEKEND UK magazine has a great full colour cover with Peter as Tarkin, with the headline 'I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY WIFE': The Life-Force Id Draining Out Of Me!' in bright yellow. I think he was very proud of his work in Star Wars and very happy to reach a new audience.. 'When having seen some of my earlier work from the 1950's...then having seen Star Wars...youngsters come up to me now and ask 'Are you Peter Cushing's Father?', I tell them 'No, I am his Grandfather!'
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