xVeteran Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid says that he has “no idea” if he will play the role of Emperor Palpatine ever again Star Wars. The 73-year-old told BBC that he did not want anyone to take the role that he has played in four movies. McDiarmid, from Carnoustie in Angus, has appeared in almost 50 films and starred in theatre for 50 years. He admits that his appearances as the villain are ones for which he is best known.
The actor got the part when he was 37 and says: “They wanted the oldest person in the world because in Return of the Jedi Palpatine is about 120 I think.
“They had cast someone who was nearer to that age than I was but for some reason he could not continue.
“I think the contact lens tests were rather unpleasant. They were hard glass.”
It was 16 years before McDiarmid had returned to the Star Wars prequels in 1999’s The Phantom Menace.
McDiarmid says: “I was alright for Return of the Jedi because I was under four hours of make-up so no-one really knew what I looked like or sounded like because I lower my voice very much for the film.
“So I could be anonymous.
“But when the prequels happened Palpatine was his younger self which was about my age then, in his 50s.
“Apart from a not-very-flattering hairpiece I looked like me, so privacy was over.”
McDiarmid has said that he is recognised for his role and fans are “very friendly”.
He says: “I don’t feel oppressed by it. I don’t feel every minute of every day someone is going to ask for an autograph.”
As the Star Wars universe is continuing to generate spin-offs, McDiarmid says that he has no idea if he will return to play the Emperor.
He says: “I suppose there must be a chance, but I think you’d find out about it more quickly than I would.
“As far as the new films are concerned, I’m dead. There is no question about that.
“But there is what they call the anthology series and actually the most recent one, Rogue One, was about the time when I was in charge.
“I was referred to a few times, Darth Vader popped up, but you did not see me.
“Maybe they are keeping me as a surprise for later, but I have no idea. Of course, I don’t want anyone else to play him.”
McDiarmid is appearing at Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh for the first time after 1972 when he played Hitler.
In What Shadows, he plays Tory Enoch Powell whose ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech was the most polarising political moments of the 1960s.
