Toshiro Mifune turned down Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader roles (according to daughter, Mika Mifune)

In a recent interview with Mika Mifune (Toshiro Mifune’s daughter) she claimed that Lucas had approached her father to play Obi-Wan Kenobi.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/04/toshiro-mifune-star-wars-turned-down-obi-wan-kenobi-and-darth-vader-roles

“I heard from my father that he was offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he was concerned about how the film would look and that it would cheapen the image of samurai, on which George Lucas had based a lot of the character and fighting style,” said Mika.
“At the time, sci-fi movies still looked quite cheap as the effects were not advanced and he had a lot of samurai pride,” Mika said. “So then, there was talk about him taking the Darth Vader role as his face would be covered, but in the end he turned that down too.”

I guess this sort of makes sense since Mifune starred in The Hidden Fortress which inspired Lucas to make SW, as well as playing the character that eventually evolved into Obi-Wan.
However, in addition to no one having talked about this before, I find it kind of strange since Mifune didn’t really speak English, and Obi-Wan was after all a character with quite a lot of dialogue. Vader also seems kind of pointless to me, since he wears a mask and his voice would’ve been dubbed anyway.

Any thoughts on this?

I totally agree with you about playing Obi Wan; Ben had important information to relate and Mifune’s inability to speak english would likely mean he’d be dubbed. But Vader was dubbed anyway, and he certainly could’ve done the lightsaber battles well. Still, how tall was Mifune? David Prowse at least added a formidable presence to the role. If Vader was shorter and not very muscular (at least not bodybuilder class muscle), I think much of the menace of the character would be lost. Mifune likely would’ve brought more grace and snap to the character’s movements but I can’t imagine his Vader casting such an impressive silhouette, especially in ESB.

Good find! 😃

I wonder if he saw the movie, and regretted passing on the role?

I guess Lucas wrote Obi-wan especially for Mifune: Obi-wan is a Japanese-sounding name, after all.
So he turned down the offering because of the way samurai were depicted? That’s very interesting, especially coming from a leading actor in countless jedi jidaigeki movies.

John Doom said:

I guess Lucas wrote Obi-wan especially for Mifune: Obi-wan is a Japanese-sounding name, after all.
So he turned down the offering because of the way samurai were depicted? That’s very interesting, especially coming from a leading actor in countless jedi jidaigeki movies.

Well, like Mika Mifune said, sci-fi films didn’t have to great of a reputation back in the 70’s and he probably felt like it would end up being somewhat of a parody of real jidaigeki movies. It’s easy for use to talk about it now forty years later, but back then it would have been really hard to imahine what the heck Lucas was going for. I mean a Jidaigeki in space sounds really goofy, and Mifune probably feared that he wouldn’t take the source material serious enough.

DuracellEnergizer said:

ScruffyNerfHerder said:

Ben had important information to relate and Mifune’s inability to speak english would likely mean he’d be dubbed.

Or he would have memorized his lines phonetically. *shrug*

I think that would have greatly impeded his ability to act properly, as well as making the dialogue seem somewhat stiff. I don’t think he would have managed to have a proper chemistry with the other actors if he didn’t understand what they, or even himself, was saying at any time. This propblem could of course have been solved with a lot of time and hard work, but considering how much hard work Lucas had finishing the film even with English speaking actors, I think he may have dodged a bullet with Mifune’s rejection of the role.
It would have made more sense to dub him I think. At least it would have saved them time.

I completely agree, though it all comes down to whether Mifune was enough fluent in English: exceptions like Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (Mathis in Casino Royale) know and speak English as if it were their first language, even when acting.

I had never heard this story before but I do find it to be a very interesting bit SW trivia. I cannot though, personally, imagine anyone other than Sir Alec playing Ben Kenobi.

Omoshiroi ne.